FKA twigs wears celebrities’ rubbish on her face in latest issue of AvantGarden

Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Courtney Love donated their unwanted items to the facial sculptures by Lyle XOX, for the latest issue of the musician’s digital zine project.

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A Natural History Compendium Catalogs Albertus Seba’s Exotic Specimens through Exacting Illustrations

All images © Taschen, shared with permission

Packed with careful illustrations of striped snakes, preserved creatures, and now-extinct animals, Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is one of the most impressive natural history compendiums of the 18th Century. Spanning nearly 600 pages, the new edition from Taschen features the work of Amsterdam-based pharmacist and zoologist Albertus Seba, who was a renowned collector of natural life. He commissioned the meticulous illustrations in 1731 that he then published into four, hand-colored volumes. The new Cabinet of Natural Curiosities catalogs these original drawings of exotic specimens in a single text and features writing by Irmgard Müsch, Jes Rust, and Rainer Willmann. Grab your copy from Taschen’s site.

 

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Studio Saxe adds plant-covered athletic centre to Costa Rican hotel

Architecture firm Studio Saxe has designed this athletic complex for a Costa Rica hotel to be like "a small village amongst the trees".

The Athletic Center is an addition to The Gilded Iguana hotel in Nosara, Costa Rica, a residence that Studio Saxe renovated in 2018. It is conceived as a modular construction built around the existing vegetation on the site.

Measuring 615 square metres, it houses a surf-shop, bike-shop, gym, exercise studios and massage rooms that can be used by resort guests and locals.

"The Athletic Center was designed as a small village amongst the trees that creates a public space which integrates locals with visitors with similar interests of pursuing an active lifestyle and wellbeing," Studio Saxe said.

To preserve the landscaping already on the site, Studio Saxe designed the health facility to comprise separate structures. These are built around the trees and other vegetation that connect to one another by a series of raised footbridges.

"It was designed to preserve and protect the existing vegetation and natural habitat of its surroundings through intelligent engineering by disintegrating the mass of the building into many components to distribute the project around trees and vegetation," the studio added.

Each of the buildings is constructed with a prefabricated steel frame clad in reforested teak wood. Long roof overhangs span across the top of the structures to shade and protect the interiors from sun and rain. They also collect water used to power the building's mechanical and irrigation systems.

It was prefabricated in parts off-site and assembled quickly to not impact the land and businesses already located on the property.

The design is also intended to consider bioclimatic factors such as solar orientation, wind pattern and noise. Its large windows and expansive rooflines permit the building to consume minimal energy.

Rectangular plant boxes with spilling greenery and large windows front every face of the structures. Raised wooden walkways with metal railings join the upper levels of the separated buildings, while similar stone paths traverse the grounds.

Inside, the exercise room floors are covered with blue vinyl mats. Spotlights and sporting equipment including ropes and punching bags hang from tracks attached to the wood beams that span across the ceilings.

Four sink basins and several plant boxes are carved into a monolithic stone piece to form a counter in the complex's bathroom. Shades constructed using slats of wood control the amount of light that enters the space.

Studio Saxe was founded by architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe in San Jose in 2004 and now also has offices in London and Los Angeles.

Its other hotel projects in Costa Rica include a boutique hotel and yoga studio surrounded by jungle plants and a series of guest rooms that stagger down a sloping beach site.

Photography is by Andres Garcia Lachner.

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Project credits:

Design Director: Benjamin G. Saxe
Builder: LHC Constructores
Structural Engineer: Sotela Alfaro Ltda.
Electromechanical Engineer: Dynamo Studio

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“Solid typography can elevate the worst imagery”: Nick Losacco on his type-focussed, minimal designs

Born and raised in Montreal, typography is what drew Nick to graphic design in the first place, and what keeps him so interested in it today.

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Live video interview with SO-IL and Beatrice Leanza as part of Virtual Design Festival

Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of architecture practice SO-IL and MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza will speak to Dezeen live at 2:00pm UK time as part of Virtual Design Festival's collaboration with MAAT.

An exhibition and installation by SO-IL were set to open on 27 March as the first phase of Italian curator and critic Leanza's new programme for Lisbon's Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology.

However, the projects have been postponed until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic, so VDF is collaborating with MAAT today for a virtual launch.

Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu are the founders of SO-IL, a New York-based architecture studio

This morning, we premiered a video about SO-IL's planned Beeline installation, which would have created a temporary public route through the centre of the Amanda Levete-designed museum.

We also published a documentary about SO-IL's temporary architecture projects, and will be giving an exclusive video sneak peek of the Currents exhibition later today.

New York-based SO-IL is known for both its temporary and permanent architecture projects including a three-storey, net-covered dwelling tower built in Milan in 2017 and an installation that wove a giant hammock between 130 trees.

Leanza has worked as a curator at alternative art space China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW) and was creative director for Beijing Design Week from 2013 to 2016. She founded research studio Bao Atelier and urban and social impact organisation B/Side Design, and helped set up The Global School, a design and creative research institute.

Italian curator and critic Beatrice Leanza is executive director of MAAT

The interview is the third live conversation in our VDF Screentime series, which launched last week with an interview with trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and a conversation with Tokyo-based studio Klein Dytham Architecture.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at virtualdesignfestival@dezeen.com.

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