A Perplexing Sculpture Constructed with LEGO Appears to Defy Gravity

An astonishing new sculpture by JK Brickworks (previously), a design team of Jason and Kristal Allemann, appears to defy gravity as it hovers in mid-air without assistance. Made of just a base, two rounded posts, and three small chains, the simple piece relies on tensegrity or tensional integrity. The design principle is based on the idea that a structure under compression within a system of constant tension will create a stable shape.

In this model, the LEGO pieces are compressed, while the chains are the prestressed tension members that provide the sculpture’s shape. When the top portion is lifted, the metal links are in pure tension, which makes it resemble a floating object. If they caved in, the whole piece would topple.

To make your own tensegrity sculpture, get the full parts list from the duo’s site. Head to Instagram and YouTube to see more of their inventive models.

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Live interview with Ron Arad as part of Virtual Design Festival

Ron Arad speaks to Dezeen in this live discussion as part of Virtual Design Festival's collaboration with the British-Israeli designer and architect. Watch the conversation live from 2pm UK time.

Today, Virtual Design Festival is teaming up with Arad to host a digital launch of his Don't F**k With The Mouse collection of chairs, which were meant to be exhibited at the OTI gallery in Los Angeles. The show was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The collection features variations of the Big Easy chair he designed for Moroso, nicknamed Mickey Mouse for its resemblance to the iconic silhouette of the Disney character's head and ears.

Arad attended the Jerusalem Academy of Art before moving to London to study at the Architectural Association. He co-founded design and production studio One Off with Caroline Thorman in 1981, and went on to establish Ron Arad Associates in 1989 and Ron Arad Architects in 2008.

Ron Arad speaks to Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs

Arad's international architecture projects include the Design Museum Holon and the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. He has designed products for brands including Samsung, Alessi, Swarovski, Fiat and Bombay Sapphire.

His designs have been featured in museums and galleries worldwide, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Powerhouse in Sydney. The 2010 exhibition Ron Arad: Restless at the Barbican in London explored three decades of his designs.

The interview is part of our VDF Screentime series, a series of live interviews which has so far featured trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, Tokyo-based studio Klein Dytham Architecture, New York architecture practice SO-IL, and The World Around curator Beatrice Galilee.

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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BCHO Architects shades open-air top floor of house with mesh gables

Raised mesh gables top Shaded Rooftop House in Seoul by BCHO Architects, so the occupants can enjoy a sheltered outdoor living space.

The three-storey house is topped with gables made of white perforated metal and topped by clear PVC panels. The transparent plastic lets in the sunlight, which is filtered through the mesh of metal.

This space gives the family who live there a place to relax outdoors and hold informal business meetings.

Shaded Rooftop House sits on a site overlooked on three sides, with a hillside at the back that makes the ground floor dark. To make the most of the available natural light, BCHO Architects made the focus the top floor.

Without a perimeter wall, this third storey benefits from natural ventilation and light.

The reinforced concrete structure of the house protrudes up to form a half wall that acts as a safety rail. Metal beams bolted to the side and through the floor support the roof.

A wide gap between the wall and the roof allows for unobstructed views of the city and the landscape beyond. Plants grow in beds around the edges.

Most of the top floor is a decked semi-outdoor space with a sunken area in the middle.

A single walled room on the rooftop has raised platforms with day beds and features floor-to-ceiling glass and a sliding door.

The ground floor contains a garage and a separate pedestrian entrance set in an angled concrete portal.

Up some stairs, the first floor has a large open plan living area that opens on to an outdoor deck. There's a kitchen area with cupboards, a cooker and sink, and a second smaller kitchen tucked in a side room behind a bathroom.

On the second floor are three bedrooms, side by side and all facing south towards the mountain views.

The walls of the two bedrooms for the family's children are non load-bearing, so when they grow up their parents have the option to remodel the space.

Reinforced concrete walls have been left bare on the interiors as an aesthetic choice that helped to keep the budget down. Pale wood has been used for some of the floors and built-in furniture.

The house is insulated externally via a metal screen facade that projects from the walls and matches the mesh gables.

BCHO Architects recently used concrete for a guesthouse on the coast of South Korea, with roofs that doubled as terraces,

Photography by Sergio Pirrone.

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Project credits:

Architect: BCHO Architects
Construction: C&O Engineering & Construction
Electrical design: Cho Eun Technology Group

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Daily coronavirus architecture and design briefing: 23 April

Daily coronavirus briefing: today's architecture and design coronavirus briefing includes a design for safe flying, an opinion piece from Reinier de Graaf and the Coughvid app.

"A non-healthcare building converted to a patient care space is not quite a hospital"

While converting existing buildings into fully functioning hospitals is unfeasible, high schools and large hotels can be used as care space for coronavirus patients, says Jason Schroer, who is director of health at HKS's firm in Dallas. Here he explains how (via Dezeen).

Aviointeriors proposes plastic hood to allow safe flying

Italian design firm Aviointeriors has design a seating system called Glassafe (pictured above) that would separate airplane passengers with glass divides to allow for safe flying when airlines fully open up following the pandemic (via SimpleFlying).

"The current crisis has exposed the structural shortcomings of our healthcare systems"

The coronavirus has exposed fundamental problems with our healthcare systems that we should not forget once the pandemic passes, warns Reinier de Graaf in a letter to the present from the future (via Dezeen).

Imperial College London develop low-cost ventilator

A team of bioengineers and medics at Imperial College London have developed a low-cost ventilator called JamVen that doesn't rely on specialist parts. The team have made the design available for free (via Imperial College London).

Coronavirus could reverse trend for open plan offices

The World Economic Forum has published an article highlighting 10 ways that office design could be impacted by coronavirus, and the rise of  closed plan is one of them (via World Economic Forum).

Coughvid app could detect coronavirus by listening to coughs

Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne are developing an app called Coughvid that would use artificial intelligence to determine if someone has Covid-19 by listening to them cough (via Business Insider).

Ben Derbyshire share's his lessons from lockdown

Former RIBA president Ben Derbyshire has highlighted lessons that should be learned from the current pandemic in a piece titled Learning from lockdown: Why placemaking should be at the centre of the recovery (via Building Design – paywall).

Major architecture firms furlough staff

The Architect's Newspaper has rounded up news of major architecture practices, including Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and SOM, based in the UK and the USA that have either furloughed staff or enacted pay cuts (via Architects' Newspaper).

Keep up with developments by following Dezeen's coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. For news of impacted events, check Dezeen Events Guide's dedicated coronavirus page.

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Pentagram’s Yuri Suzuki creates a crowdsourced sound archive of the pandemic era

The Dallas Museum of Art invites people worldwide to submit their own sounds to the artwork which will then be mapped onto a rendering of the globe.

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