“Representation matters!”: Adam Perez on the empowering feeling of seeing yourself in an image

Adam Perez has been contributing to Adobe Stock for a while now. Here, he tells us how doing so has helped further his mission of increasing inclusion and diversity in the visual landscape.

from It's Nice That https://ift.tt/2XVHvkc

Headline sponsor Grohe takes over Virtual Design Festival

Bathroom and kitchen brand Grohe takes over Virtual Design Festival today, with a talk about the latest trends in bathroom design at 11:00am and video about the brand's hands-free and 3D-printed products at 3:00pm UK time.

At 11:00am, Paul Flowers, chief design officer of Lixil, the parent company of Grohe, speaks to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about the major trends shaping the sanitaryware industry.

The talk explores how the coronavirus pandemic is creating a new demand for bathroom fittings that use sensors so that users don't have to touch surfaces.

Last week, ahead of the recording of the talk, Flowers told Dezeen that buildings where you don't need to touch anything are "entirely feasible".

At 3:00pm Patrick Speck, Lixil's vice president of design and consumer experience in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, discusses Grohe's products that incorporate hands-free technology, as well as the brand's latest material and water-saving innovations to make its products more sustainable.

You can watch all the content as we publish it at dezeen.com/vdf/grohe.

Virtual Design Festival

Grohe is the headline sponsor of Virtual Design Festival, which runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It brings 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.

To find out what's coming up at VDF, check out the schedule. For more information or to join the mailing list, email vdf@dezeen.com.

The post Headline sponsor Grohe takes over Virtual Design Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2U1C6qE

Freyja Sewell's Key Workers masks take design cues from science fiction and Buddhism

London-based designer Freyja Sewell has created eight decorative face masks, made from commonplace objects including felt, yoghurt pots and pool table triangles, in honour of coronavirus key workers.

Sewell begun her Key Workers art project in a bid to "say a visual thank you" to those who have remained working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Each of the eight main groups of key workers outlined by the government, including health and social care, education and childcare, key public services and local and national government, has been given its own vibrant, symbolic mask design.

Other groups include workers in the food and other necessary goods industries, public safety and national security staff, utilities, communication and financial services personnel, and transport workers.

Sewell's mask for public safety and national security workers features a headpiece made from a pool table triangle

Each ornamental mask has been made using only the materials Sewell happened to have in her home during lockdown. These materials are also exclusively recycled, reclaimed, or biodegradable.

The designer drew on fashions and styles found in science fiction films and television series such as Star Trek when creating the pieces, which place heavy emphasis on symmetry.

The mask for people working in food and other necessary goods is made from green felt

She also took cues from religious motifs in an attempt to form "high status images" that would serve as a celebration of the individuals for whom they're made.

This includes Buddhism in particular, as the designer was directly inspired by Thangka paintings, which are typically used as aids in meditational practices.

A bright yellow paper mask was used to pay tribute to those working in education and childcare

In addition to expressing her thanks to those who have remained working throughout the pandemic, Sewell also wanted to bring attention to some of the key jobs that often go unrecognised.

"The face mask is 2020's most iconic and important visual motif," said Sewell. "It has moved from being a simple piece of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to a badge of honour, worn by the heroes who have kept our society functioning during the most disruptive collective experience since World War II."

"Artists and designers are using this motif within their work to help reframe our perception, its inclusion in stunning images and positive narratives encourages the daily use of them by the public, a critical step in shaping our choices moving forward," she added.

Sewell's mask for the health and social care sector is designed to look like a superhero mask

For the health and social care workers' mask, Sewell wanted to bring the classic "superhero" look of an eye-mask and a cape to life.

"The first thing I think when I see images of the exhausted and battered nurses and doctors is that they are real life superheroes, putting their lives at risk and battling the 'forces of evil' corona virus on the front line," Sewell told Dezeen.

Based on standard PPE masks used by frontline healthcare workers, she pleated and stitched a piece of sky blue-hued cotton linen from a used theatre costume to create a dramatic mask that covers the wearer's face and neck like a "suit of armour".

This is worn over an eye piece that has been repurposed from an old halloween mask.

Sewell's mask for those in utilities, communication and financial services celebrates technology

When designing the silver mask symbolising the utilities, communication and financial services sector, Sewell wanted to celebrate the connection brought into our lives by technology.

"Much of my work focuses on finding this connection through meditation and other Buddhist practises, so there's really a few things coming together into what I hope is a synergetic balance," she explained.

She made the chain mail-like face mask from one of her tops, while the circular headpiece was fashioned from various metal wires found around her house.

The chest piece was made from old heat sinks that were left over from the designer's previous lighting project.

A headpiece topped with microphones makes up the mask created in honour of key public service workers like journalists

In honour of key public service workers, which include those working in prisons and courts, religious staff, charities and more, Sewell wanted to focus on one group in particular: journalists and broadcasters.

She chose the vibrant red hue in reference to the BBC, and created a headpiece featuring three objects made to look like microphones.

The mesh-like mask itself is made from a piece of paper art by Torafu Architects called Air Vase, which the designer brought back from Japan after a past trip.

A broken plastic crate was used to make the mask that represents the local and national government

Sewell used the remnants of a broken plastic crate to make her mask representing the local and national government, which is informed by the ubiquitous navy blue suit and the government seal used on all official documents.

The mask that symbols those working in food and other necessary goods, on the other hand, was formed from green felt made of recycled content.

The design, which draws on the fashion and images found in science fiction, features an undulating headpiece reminiscent of a flower or insect as a nod to the produce and crops grown on farms.

Different shades of orange felt and paper were used to create the transport workers' mask

More commonplace materials were used to make the neon green public safety and national security mask, which is built from a yoghurt pot, two beer cans and scraps of fabric and paper. The headpiece, however, is made from a painted pool table triangle.

The mask designed in homage of transport workers is based on London's famous roundel, while the headpiece was informed by car grills and trains.

Yellow paper was used to make the round shield-like mask characterising education and childcare workers, which is complemented by a yellow teddy bear.

Sewell is not the only designer to put a creative spin on face masks. Berlin-based art collective Plastique Fantastique made an open-source, retro-futuristic face shield shaped like a fish bowl, while Metaform Architects created customisable face shields for children.

Photography is by Sara Marinangeli.

The post Freyja Sewell's Key Workers masks take design cues from science fiction and Buddhism appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2ZYjwnh

10 projects from IE University's design and architecture graduates

In this Virtual Design Festival school show, architecture and design graduates from Spain's IE University share projects ranging from a delivery robot to the branding for a fictitious dictatorship.

Fourteen students from the university's BArch and BDes courses worked independently or collaboratively to create the 10 projects shared below.

---

IE University

University: IE University
Courses: Bachelor in Architectural Studies and Bachelor in Design

Bachelor in Architectural Studies course statement:

"At IE University, we empower our students to help them understand every aspect of our built environment. Our programs engage with the world around us to provide students with the tools to change it.

"The Bachelor in Architectural Studies prepares students to impact change through the creation of meaningful environments, driven by a forward-looking spirit of entrepreneurship. With a project-based learning approach and a diverse body of faculty and students, the program synthesizes creative, technical, environmental and social considerations to maximize results."

Bachelor in Design course statement:

"The Bachelor in Design is a comprehensive degree that seeks to challenge today's physical, experiential, functional and emotional reality. It is aimed at audacious and highly adaptable individuals who can seek creative solutions for a more sustainable tomorrow—even when faced with limited resources."

---

New Luxury Business Models and Chinese Tax Fraud in Madrid by Miguel Gutiérrez Ambrossi Larios and Alejandra Diaz Zuleta, BDes

"This project deals with the dichotomous relationship between money laundering and tourism. We focused on activities related to the Chinese mafia in Madrid and proposed potential solutions with the help of existing technologies and legal frameworks, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and free ports.

"Our proposed solutions include using existing infrastructure such as airplanes and airports in combination with free port areas to reinvent the luxury shopping experience, as well as implementing RFID technologies within airport security systems."

Students: Miguel Gutiérrez Ambrossi Larios and Alejandra Diaz Zuleta
Emails: mgutierreza.ieu2017@student.ie.edu and adiaz.ieu2017@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio III (Spatial Design)
Professor: Igor Bragado

---

HOOLY by Yoko Hwang Kaetsu and Nicole Andreina Beltran Carballo, BDes

"The prompt for HOOLY was to design a delivery robot within a specific context, taking into consideration its system, safety and interaction with humans.

"HOOLY is an autonomous service robot within the Holiday Inn Express brand, designed to ensure that guests are taken care of at any time.

"It features a table system for each room, as well as various compartments for room service delivery and tray disposal, a charging port and most importantly a touchscreen with a well-designed, user-friendly interface."

Students: Yoko Hwang Kaetsu and Nicole Andreina Beltran Carballo
Emails: yhwang.ieu2017@student.ie.edu and nbeltran.ieu2017@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio II (Product Design)
Professor: Hector Serrano

---

Minzovsk by Mónica María Pastor and Naqiya Mustafa Kantawala, BDes

"Countries are some of the most distinct 'brands'. Like any brand, they have recognizable traits, rules, values, references and colours, which people associate with them.

"We created the branding for a fictitious, dictatorial country named Minzovsk, located in the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska. Our beloved country was formed by our incredible ruler Vlademir Minzovski I in 1945 by capturing the land from the native Inuits and beating the Soviet Army.

"By order of our absolute, irrefutable ruler, we obey the strict social order. Every citizen must follow orthodox Christianity only. Through this exercise, we were able to put into practice the technical and strategic skills required to create a brand from the ground up."

Students: Mónica María Pastor and Naqiya Mustafa Kantawala
Emails: mpastor.ieu2018@student.ie.edu and nkantawala.ieu2018@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio I (Visual Design)
Professor: Ricardo Oztaris

---

Dusk Till Dawn by Carla Rotenburg and Lucia de la Torre, BDes

"Dusk till Dawn enables a night owl and an early riser to adapt to each other's natural rhythm. While one is in their natural productive mode, the other wears the headpiece to stay awake. The cast forehead headpiece balances the unbearable and the comfortable, triggering the senses and increasing focus.

"It achieves this through pressing on three main pressure points and is secured by two wire structures that cause some discomfort underneath the jaw. Curtains of metallic beads and bells cover the ears, triggering sound at the slightest movement.

"Inspired by the work of Maiko Takeda, the structure consists of iridescent plastic pieces  which reflect light and create a flickering movement that disturbs but does not inhibit sight."

Students: Carla Rotenburg and Lucia de la Torre
Emails: crotenberg.ieu2019@student.ie.edu and ldelatorre.ieu2019@student.ie.edu
Studio: Introduction to Design Studio II
Professors: Arantxa Ozaeta and Alvaro Martin

---

Distance to Breathe by John Petrus, BDes

"Distance to Breathe is a critical design piece with the intention of provoking discussion about relationships in a dystopian future plagued by pollution and disease. Two interconnected individuals find themselves stuck in a system based on tension and collaboration, confined by the necessary conditions for survival.

"Two ergonomic masks are held in place as long as the two individuals stand apart, allowing them to breathe while the required distance is maintained. The exoskeleton was designed to resemble the human spine while technology has become an extension of the self. Have we lost our distance to breathe?"

Student: John Petrus
Email: jhuth.ieu2018@student.ie.edu
Studio: Introduction to Design Studio II
Professors: Arantxa Ozaeta and Alvaro Martin

---

R+D Cuatro Caminos by Haitam Daoudi, BArch

"This project aims to promote critical thinking through facilitating the practice of research and development within urban life. Water is a continuous element across the site and the main object of study, which introduces a natural system of water purification large enough to service the population of the site.

"This process happens in three steps, divided into different ponds with particular characteristics— depth, sunlight and species. The intervention partially reuses existing industrial structures in the north, while incorporating a new construction towards the south that acts as a buffer to the surroundings.

"The water system connects four main plazas through a river promenade to create a pedagogical green corridor where life and exploration merge. R&D is integrated throughout as well as public spaces, providing an opportunity to mix these two uses with the daily life of the residents."

Student: Haitam Daoudi
Email: hdaoudi.ieu2016@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio V
Professors: Cem Kayatekin and Fernando Pino

---

El Faro de La Trinidad by Miriam Otto Hernández Palacios, BArch

"El Faro proposes an intervention at the cultural heritage site and former convent La Trinidad in Málaga. It establishes an architecture of belonging and guidance, encouraging social and cultural exchange and providing women with a space to reconstruct their self-confidence and independence.

"The safe house functions as a temporary and permanent refuge for women who have suffered from domestic violence, offering a space for healing and reconstruction, as well as a market for social and professional encounters with the outside world.

"El Faro is based on the idea of communal living and Málaga's existing architectural typologies. Within the scale of the monastery, it explores how the domestic sphere can be translated into the monumental, breaking the order of the existing."

Student: Miriam Otto Hernández Palacios
Email: motto.ieu2017@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio IV
Professors: Romina Canna and Marcela Aragüez

---

Carbanchel Library by June Aoun, BArch

"A contemporary library set in suburban Madrid serves as a cultural hub for all residents of the neighbourhood.

"A careful massing strategy provides demographic separation, dividing residents by age group but keeping them in sight of each other with interposed terraces. The masses interconnect and merge in certain areas, forming common spaces for cross circulation.

"A play of heights and scales creates an experience of pleasant intrigue and surprise while moving through spaces. The contrast lies in the various interstitial spaces created by the interlocking masses."

Student: June Aoun
Email: jaoun.ieu2018@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio III
Professors: Matan Mayer and Sandra Herrera

---

Body Narratives on Architecture and the Senses by Daniela Figueroa, BArch

"The purpose of this project was to design an intervention at the Mercado De los Mostenses in Madrid. While studying proprioception in the human body and how architecture can affect our sense of space, I developed the concept of superhumans – people who have different capabilities from what we consider 'normal'.

"Monotonous activities such as walking, shopping or taking public transportation can become a challenge for many people. This idea inspired SENUD – a shopping area that manipulates space to create different sensations that disrupt normality."

Student: Daniela Figueroa
Email: dfigueroa.ieu2019@student.ie.edu
Studio: Design Studio II
Professors: José Vela Castillo and Laura Martínez de Guereñu

---

Crossing the Stream by José María Casado Gómez, BArch

"Crossing the Stream anticipates the future of urban planning and redefines the space between the two metropolises of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena. The aim of the project is to create a natural conurbation of the two towns by implementing various infrastructures within a metropolitan park.

"This will allow for pedestrian communication while transforming the stream from a dividing line into the key feature of the conurbation. The linear park will create public and leisure spaces to increase the quality of life around the area. The project will consolidate the conurbation between the two towns and transform them into the third most populous city in Extremadura."

Student: José María Casado Gómez
Email: ppcg96@gmail.com
Studio: Design Studio VII/PFG
Professors: Fernando Rodríguez and Matan Mayer

---

Virtual Design Festival's student and schools initiative offers a simple and affordable platform for student and graduate groups to present their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Click here for more details.

The post 10 projects from IE University's design and architecture graduates appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2yXPrsU

Studio Wet creates 40-metre-long linear house in Spanish village of Alosno

Spanish architecture practice Studio Wet has built a linear house behind a ceramic brick facade and under a single mono-pitched roof in the village of Alosno.

Named Casa Borrero, the house occupies the entirety of its 40-metre-long – but only seven-metre-wide – plot. The home's singular form was a direct response to this site.

"Straightforward decisions were the first steps towards this uniqueness," said Studio Wet co-founder Jose Gómez Mora.

"The commission was to design a 'traditional' house with tiles on the roof, an initial statement that we understood as a contemporary home through traditional techniques," he told Dezeen.

"Nevertheless this intentional 'misunderstanding' took in account our client's wish to develop all spaces in a one floor."

Studio Wet reorientated the home to make the long facade the home's front, while the short facade, where the front door of the house that was formerly on the plot was located, is now a garage.

"Traditional plots in Alosno are like this, a short main facade but a deep plot," explained Gómez Mora.

"In this case the house lies on a corner, which is an advantage, and allows us to turn the tide, transferring the main facade from the short length to the long side of 40 metres," continued Gómez Mora.

"We are always willing to be involved in such projects, where the site is not a tabula rasa, and have some sort of singularity. Even though we are far from having a moralistic approach to the genius loci, it definitely makes our job much easier."

Within the house all of the home's rooms are arranged linearly. The front door opens onto a large patio, which divides the garage from the house's living spaces.

Alongside this patio is the kitchen and dining and seating area, with four bedrooms aligned along the house's main facade.

"Control of the direct sun light, crossed ventilation through wisely located patios and well dimensioned windows are the most important points to have a good shelter in Andalucía," said Gómez Mora.

"We have placed the rooms along the facade, but still kept the day spaces into the intimacy of the big central patio, which works also as a buffer space for the garage."

The house is clad with ceramic bricks, with a combination of flat and curved bricks used across the main facade to create a series of bays and improve the flow of this 40 metre-long stretch of brickwork.

Studio Wet chose bricks as an alternative to the village's standard white-washed facades, but one that also ties into the area's history.

"There is an obvious cliche on Andalusian villages to be whitewashed-walled towns. And it is a partially true story," explained Gómez Mora.

"But it is not less true, that there have been houses with exposed bricks, influence of the Victorian architecture brought by the Rio Tinto Mining Company to the area, or houses with just tiles facades in close relation only 50 kilometres away in Portugal," he continued.

"The ceramic bricks link the building with that history, but they also give us a chance to be more consistent on our own approach to architecture and construction."

The home is topped with a single mono-pitched roof, broken only by the curved patios. Studio Wet hope this form will demonstrate that the project is complete and unite it as a whole.

"We are often involved on a discussion on how a building reach its summit," said Gómez Mora.

"Somehow the building must show up that it is completed, that it can not stand any additional stacking of floors, and the pitched roof is an univocal answer to this."

"In fact the building holds very different programmes – house, garage, patios – under one single roof," he continued.

"The intended unity of the whole building works smoothly, as a big part of the programme could have been arranged in a fragmented way without compromising the functionality of the home."

Throughout the project Studio Wet aimed to create a clearly arranged house that had an unified design vision.

"One of our design goals was to promote a unified perception for the bulk of the house," explained Gómez Mora.

"The same unifying intention moved us to rhythmically shape the outer face with curves, in a way to hold better, aesthetically and statically, the big pitched roof," he continued.

"We would also say that its clearness lays on a strong coherence between the building technics, urban response, client's wishes and our own creative agenda as architects. All those elements were taken equally and unavoidably."

Studio Wet is an architecture and landscape architecture studio run by Gómez Mora and Daniel Montes, which is based in Seville, Spain.

The studio previously added a curved extension with ribbed details to 1950s house in Seville.

Photography is by Fernando Alda.

The post Studio Wet creates 40-metre-long linear house in Spanish village of Alosno appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2Aye1kE