Orange performance room stands out at Yale University's radio station

New York architecture studio Forma has created contrasting orange and grey-coloured rooms for Yale University's student-run radio station.

Forma, led by Miroslava Brooks and Daniel Markiewicz, designed the interiors with a simple but striking colour palette that covers the floors, ceilings and walls.

A recording studio is painted top-to-bottom in pale grey and is joined by an orange-painted performance space. Forma designed the radio station on the top floor of a four-storey, 1930s building in New Haven, Connecticut.

"An immersive colour space delineates the performance zone at the rear of the building for live band and show recordings," said Forma.

The studio demolished existing interior walls to create the two areas, and added new carpeting and vinyl floors. The performance area is complete with a new reinforced dropped ceiling.

In the recording area, which hosts Yale's online radio station WYBCx, the walls are painted pale grey and the room is topped with a skylight.

"The intensely saturated space is juxtaposed with the calming grey of the adjacent recording studio, where similarly the ceiling and walls match the carpeted floor for an all-encompassing visual experience," added the studio.

Forma added a fire-resistant guardrail around the staircase to comply with the adaptive reuse project's commercial building code.

Made of plywood and painted black, it offers a striking accent alongside the orange and grey. The existing stairs were stained black to match.

"It acts as a connecting and unifying element between the floors, framing the changing views as one moves through the narrow stairwell," said the studio.

The two floors below the recording space remain relatively unchanged but are also for Yale's radio station, including an existing restaurant on the ground floor.

Forma also updated all of the rear windows near to the outdoor fire-escape. The windows have minimal, custom-made boxes with black-stained wood.

"The windows appear as objects inserted in the wall, in dialogue with the existing cast-iron radiators also painted black," said Forma.

Other projects at Yale University are Louis Kahn's Yale Center for British Art that was restored in 2016 and a house designed by graduate students for people experiencing homelessness.

Photography is by Devon Banks.

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Project credits:

Client: Yale Broadcasting Company Inc
Partners in charge: Miroslava Brooks, Daniel Markiewicz
Collaborator: Parsa Khalili
Construction: Babbidge Construction Company Inc

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Kyoto Station designed as "geographical valley" says video blogger Martin van der Linden

Hiroshi Hara's monumental Kyoto Station features in the latest short movie by architecture video blogger Martin van der Linden, as part of his contribution to Virtual Design Festival.

Dutch architect Van der Linden came to Japan from Europe to work on the huge complex, which was completed in 1997 and is the second-largest station in Japan.

"In 1992 it was the second time that I came to Japan," says Van der Linden as he revisits the building. "And it was the time I started working for Japanese architect Hiroshi Hara."

Cardboard model took three weeks to make

The glass-and-steel building was commissioned to celebrate the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto and replaced the former station that had burned down.

"And what I was doing was working on this building here: the Kyoto Station," Van der Linden adds. "We started off making a model out of the whole structure. I made the model out of cardboard. It took me almost three weeks to complete it."

The 15-storey station contains a hotel, a shopping mall and a cinema as well as platforms for multiple rail lines, including Shinkansen ("bullet train") services to Tokyo.

"Every detail was designed by Hara"

"Everything that you see, every detail, was designed by Hara," Van der Linden recalls. "I think this attention to detail, and this enormous complexity within a very simple design principle, works very well in this station."

Hara's deconstructivism-inspired design proved controversial, with some feeling it was out of context with the ancient city.

"The design concept behind the building is a geographical valley," says Van der Linden as he walks through the cavernous concourse, which is fed at each end by mountainous stairs.

"So people travel from north to south through the building. They also travel up and down the building, going to the department stores and to the hotel on the other side."

The building is "all about circulation"

"I think the flow of people works very well," Van der Linden concludes. "It's so easy to orientate yourself throughout the building. So you can see the building is all about circulation."

Other buildings by Hara include the Sapporo Dome in Hokkaidō and the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka.

Van der Linden, founder of Tokyo-based Van Der Architects, originally produced the movie for his One Minute Architecture channel on YouTube. He has chosen eight of his videos for a special series on Virtual Design Festival.

Virtual Design Festival has teamed up with Van der Linden to present a selection of his best short architecture movies.

"Even after 28 years, I found Tokyo endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy making videos of its architecture, and its rather mysterious urbanity," he said in a specially created video introducing the collaboration.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

Find out more here or email vdf@dezeen.com for details or to join our mailing list.

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10 remote homes to offer a little escapism during the pandemic

As self-isolation continues across the globe to help slow the spread of coronavirus, we've rounded up 10 remote cabins, treehouses and retreats that would be ideal to escape to.

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Aculco House, Mexico, by PPAA Arquitectos

PPAA Arquitectos built Aculco house in a remote location for two brothers who discovered the site while rock climbing north of Mexico City.

Made of stone mined from a nearby quarry, the isolated house has rough walls and minimal interiors to keep the focus on the views of nature that surround it.

Find out more about Aculco House ›

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Granholmen, Sweden, by Bornstein Lyckefors

This little green cabin sits on the Swedish island of Kallaxön, which has no roads or running water.

Architecture studio Bornstein Lyckefors completed the cabin, featuring pine walls and an oxidised copper roof, with facilities installed so it can be used to get closer to nature all year round.

Find out more about Granholmen ›

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Birdhut, Canada, by Studio North

Studio North built this cabin almost three metres off the ground, perching it on stilts so human and avian occupants alike can enjoy its treetop position.

Covered in shingles of red cedar, it has room for two humans and 12 species of birds that can nest in custom spaces carved into the walls. A bridge leads down to a campfire and a natural spring.

Find out more about Birdhut ›

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Costa Rica Treehouse, Costa Rica, by Olsun Kundig

Columns made out of tree trunks support this three-storey nature retreat in the dense jungle near a beach in Costa Rica. Olsun Kundig added a concrete swimming pool to the house, which was built for a pair of keen surfers and environmentalists.

Find out more about Costa Rica Treehouse ›

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Trailer, UK, Invisible Studio

Trailer is a micro home built from salvaged materials and timber in a forest in the south of England. Light spills in through corrugated plastic walls, and the space is heated by a gas stove that sits in the middle.

A ladder leads up to a mezzanine area with slim criss-crossed ropes instead of walls. The gabled ends extend to create a sheltered porch area with views of the trees.

Find out more about Trailer ›

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Project Ö, Sweden, by Aleksi Hautamaki and Milla Selkimaki

Project Ö sits on a five-acre private island in Sweden and is entirely self sustaining. The two cabins are heated by a sauna stove and energy is provided by roof-mounted solar panels. Filtered seawater is used for the sinks.

Along with room for 10 people, Project Ö has a workshop, sauna, and a covered dining terrace with views of the sea.

Find out more about Project Ö ›

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Pinecone, Italy, Claudio Beltrame

Visitors to this pinecone-shaped treehouse in the Dolomites can gaze at the stars from the bed through a clerestory window at the top.

Hidden amongst the trees and accessible via a bridge, architect Claudio Beltrame has disguised the egg-shaped building with shingles of larch. On the bottom level, windows have 360-degree views of the mountains and meadows.

Find out more about Pinecone ›

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Woodhouse Farm, India, by Matra Architects

High in the Himalayas, this holiday home by Matra Architects offers panoramic views of surrounding mountains through large windows and skylights.

Inside, the rustic open-plan space is set over multiple levels to create different views and places to sit and relax.

Find out more about Woodhouse Farm ›

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Manshausen 2.0 , Norway, by Stinessen Arkitektu

Stinessen Arkitektu built cabins on stilts over the sea on the Steigen Archipelago in Norway as part of an eco-retreat founded by a polar explorer. There's also a sauna with its own saltwater plunge pool, and rare sea eagles live on the island.

Covered in aluminium, the elevated structures have glazed ends that offer views out to the sea.

Find out more about Manshausen 2.0 ›

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Yoki Treehouse, USA, by Will Beilharz

Yoki Treehouse in Texas sits seven metres above ground on a platform suspended between two cypress trees over a creek.

Designer Will Beilharz clad the treehouse's interiors with birch, and a suspension bridge leads to a bathhouse with a concrete onsen-style pool.

Find out more about Yoki Treehouse ›

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This week's VDF highlights include a live interview with Li Edelkoort and messages from 35 designers

Virtual Design Festival launched this week! Here's a roundup of everything that happened in week one including live interviews, collaborations with cultural organisations and video messages from designers around the world.

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Pre-launch

Video messages: we built up towards the launch day by releasing a few of the many video messages we've received from creatives around the world. On Monday, Aric Chen sent a message of hope from Shanghai while Liam Young described the apocalyptic scenes in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Hella Jongerius provided an animation (above) explaining her hope that designers will not return to making "more meaningless stuff" after the pandemic, while Maarten Baas sent a funny video of himself trying to figure out what to do with his time during lockdown.

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Wednesday 15 April

Launch movie: we kicked things off with an emotional video (top image) featuring self-recorded messages from 35 architects and designers around the world. Introduced by Maurizio Stochetto of legendary Milanese designer watering hole Bar Basso, the movie features Michel Rojkind, Es Devlin, Kelly Hoppen, Studio Drift and many more.

Li Edelkoort manifesto launch: we then exclusively published trend forecaster Li Edelkoort's new "hope" manifesto, which looks to a new future for society after coronavirus.

Li Edelkoort interview: this was followed by a live interview with Edelkoort (above), who spoke to Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs from Cape Town in South Africa in the first of our regular series of Screentime interviews during VDF.

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Thursday 16 April

PechaKucha live stream: early risers were treated to a live stream of a series of PechaKucha talks featuring creatives around the world including designer Yves Behar, visual artist Shantell Martin and architect Peter Exley.

Klein Dytham Architecture interview: Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (above), who founded PechaKucha and run Tokyo studio Klein Dytham Architecture, spoke live with Marcus about their work and what's happening in Japan in this Screentime session.

One Minute Architecture: we've big fans of Tokyo YouTuber Martin van der Linden's One Minute Architecture movies, so we asked him to curate a series for us. In this specially filmed introduction, van der Linden explains who he is and why he took to video blogging. We then published his short film about Kengo Kuma's SunnyHills cake shop in Tokyo.

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Friday 17 April

Forward Festival: today we teamed up with Vienna conference Forward Festival. Since this week's real-world event has been cancelled, they've put together a virtual conference for VDF featuring five of their most popular lectures from the past.

The lectures feature MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli (above), Erik Spiekermann, Freitag creative director Pascal Dulex, artist Sarah Illenberger and graphic designers and rock 'n' rollers Snask.

One Minute Architecture: today's mini-documentary sees YouTuber Martin van der Linden visiting Kengo Kuma's Kuwait Embassy.

Video message: today it was the turn of Milanese architect and designer Fabio Novembre, who called for "a new world order".

Schools: with student and graduate shows cancelled this year, we've created a simple platform to allow shows to take place virtually. Our first show features the work of Master of Architecture students at the University of Brighton.

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Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 April

We're mostly going to be taking it easy over the weekends! But we'll be running a couple more One Minute Architecture movies.

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Next week

To find out what's happening in week two, check out the VDF schedule. Enjoy the weekend!

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Pearson Lloyd creates tubular steel flat-pack chair for Takt

London studio Pearson Lloyd has designed a steel flat-pack chair, called Cross Chair Tube, for Danish furniture brand Takt.

Cross Chair Tube is an update on the original Cross Chair, which Pearson Lloyd created as Copenhagen start-up Takt' first product. Along with the steel chair the studio has designed a flat-pack wooden table for the Cross Collection.

The original Cross Chair and the Cross Chair Tube

Cross Chair takes its name from the cross structure, which was made of solid oak, that forms its four legs. For the updated Cross Chair Tube Pearson Lloyd replaced these oak elements with recycled tubular steel for the frame.

"We developed the Cross Chair Tube to share a visual language and assembly method with its predecessor, but incorporated recycled tubular steel – a less-expensive material than oak, allowing the chair to be sold at a lower price point," Pearson Lloyd co-founder Tom Lloyd told Dezeen.

 

The chair is available in three plywood finishes

The black powder-coated steel creates a material contrast against the plywood seat and backrest, and the design allows the chairs to be stacked as well as taken apart and flat-packed.

The Cross Chair Tube comes in three ply finishes and can be customised with Kvadrat wool fabrics and aniline leathers.

The Cross Table seats four people

Another addition to the Cross collection is the Cross Table, a version of the classic Danish dining table made using the same design concept as for the chair.

It is made from a solid-oak frame with an oak-veneer plywood surface and available in one size, a square version that is 75 centimetres wide.

"The Cross Table began by determining the smallest square table that could comfortably seat four people, and fine-tuned the frame and legs so that the same parts could be used in larger versions," said Lloyd.

The Cross Chair Tube can be customised with Kvadrat fabrics and aniline leathers

Like the rest of the Cross collection, the designs are easy to assemble straight out of the box, and made so that any part of the chair or table can be replaced and recycled. All wood comes from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

"Although our Takt furniture is designed for a long life, and includes a five year warranty, we considered afterlife too," Pearson Lloyd co-founder Luke Pearson told Dezeen.

"All the pieces have been awarded the EU Ecolabel, which vouches not only for the sustainability of the materials used, but also the lifetime environmental impact of the products."

All wood used comes from forests certified by the FSC.

All components have also been designed to pack into the smallest space possible to minimise CO2 emissions when shipping.

"We hope in the future this type of product, which does not ask users to compromise either aesthetics or ethics, will be both increasingly popular and readily available," said Pearson.

Other companies producing flat-pack furniture include London start-up Swyft, which launched a flat-pack sofa that can be assembled without tools, and Danish start-up Stylla, which introduced a cardboard desk for people working from home during self-isolation.

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