Friday 31 July 2020

Exquisite Digital Illustrations by Maxim Shkret Render Tousled Manes and Ruffled Feathers of Fantastical Creatures

All images © Maxim Shkret, shared with permission

Based in Moscow, artist Maxim Shkret (previously) renders animals’ coats with refined details, presenting a horse’s mane or crow’s feathers through distinct, sinuous pieces. Appearing three-dimensional, Shkret’s elegant renderings capture the flowing qualities of fur and feathers. Each digital illustration has a strict color palette, and although some creatures maintain realistic shades of browns and black, others take on a whimsical quality with blush and magenta features. To explore more of the illustrator’s digital projects, head to Behance and Instagram.

 

 

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New Affiliates' Testbeds project to build community buildings from discarded architecture models

Testbeds by New Affiliates

New York City architecture studio New Affiliates has launched an initiative to reuse large-scale models for garden sheds and community spaces in the borough of Queens.

New Affiliates and architect and historian Samuel Stewart-Halevy created the Testbeds project to repurpose architecture models from luxury real estate projects in the city, which are often built of durable and high-end materials but soon discarded, and turn them into community projects like garden sheds and classrooms.

Testbeds by New Affiliates
An architectural model envisioned for a narrow community garden in Manhattan  

The concept was developed after they realised the similar sizes between such mockup structures and existing sheds around New York. They wanted to reuse the designs that typically go to waste for projects in underserved communities.

"While mockups often consist of high-end and resilient materials, they are usually discarded after undergoing a series of reviews," the team said. "A significant amount of waste results."

Testbeds by New Affiliates
Testbeds has launched a pilot programme with a gabled community centre in Queens

The programme is a way to funnel "architectural resources from New York's luxury real estate market to neighbourhoods in the outer boroughs that have been historically disinvested," it added.

A pilot programme is currently underway in Queens at Edgemere Coalition Community Garden with New York City Parks' GreenThumb division that supports over 550 gardens in the city.

The mockup model sourced from condominium building 30 Warren in Tribeca will be used to create a multipurpose building for the Queens centre.

Renderings of the design show a gabled building with corrugated concrete panel walls and covered outdoor walkways that link a greenhouse, community room and tool shed. A covered patio overlooks the garden, and a chain-link fence encloses the property.

Testbeds by New Affiliates
One part of the building is clad in wood inside

"The idea that you could take a fragment from 100 feet up in the air in Tribeca and put it on the ground in the Far Rockaways and someone can actually walk up to it and access it and inhabit it is exciting to us," said New Affiliates.

The team is currently raising funds for construction for later this fall and is also seeking help to discover more models and build the projects. Another site is proposed for a garden in the East Village neighbourhood of Manhattan with a proposal to create a small white volume in a garden between two apartment buildings.

Testbeds by New Affiliates
A portion of the model will be a new greenhouse

The Testbeds project provides an example of how to save waste from architectural and design construction. In a similar project in Senegal, a school was built using test facades originally created for a hospital.

Based in Brooklyn, New Affiliates is led by Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb and in 2020, the studio was awarded the American Institute of Architects' New York New Practices Award. In addition to this project, the studio has also renovated Brooklyn loft with a plywood mezzanine and built an asymmetric cabin in Vermont.

Images are courtersy of Testbeds.

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Perception-Twisting Miniatures by Artist Frank Kunert Transform the Mundane into the Surreal

All images © Frank Kunert, shared with permission

Frank Kunert (previously) is a Germany-based photographer and modelmaker who creates mind-stretching scenes that, from afar, appear like everyday urban environments with the same beige color palette and concrete walls that are common across the world. On closer inspection, though, Kunert’s work reveals itself to be a series of surreal scenarioshe takes viewers on a fantastical journey in which mundane objects are transformed and merged into unusual architectural scenes that explore the “absurdity of life.”

In one work, a cot is sandwiched in the middle of a desk and bookcases, while in another, two old stools sitting on a small carpet face a large window that resides high in the sky, with two minuscule glasses of rosy wine positioned beside them. Each piece of Kunert’s tiny, perception-twisting models takes him weeks to months to create, and afterward, he photographs them with a large-format, analog camera.

Kunert turns common objects into pieces of admiration, giving viewers the chance to reflect on redesigning old collectibles or waste items for new uses. Throughout this period, social distancing has influenced Kunert’s work and many of his designs reflect a new normal. For example, he redesigned an old wooden table, which he divided into individual booths for diners. 

You can view more of the artist’s projects on Instagram and in his book, Frank Kunert: Lifestyle, which is available on Bookshop.

 



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Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter creates red concrete house in Lillehammer

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

Oslo architecture studio Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter has designed a house from prefabricated concrete panels in Norway for a three-generational family that took part in its construction.

Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter's House in Red Concrete in the town of in Lillehammer was built with a facade made from repetitive, insulated-concrete elements in order to help keep costs down.

"The repetitive facade made it possible to use the same casting for the concrete elements many times," co-founder John Sanden told Dezeen.

"The cost is really low, which was possible because of the simple construction system, the repetitiveness and the work done by the client themselves."

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

To keep the project affordable, Sanden + Hodnekvam chose to use prefabricated, insulated concrete elements with a 50-millimetre outer layer of pigmented concrete for all the facades.

The studio also designed the house so that no inner walls are load-bearing. This was to save money in the future as it means the house can be adapted to the client's changing needs but also meant the owners could help build the house themselves.

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

"After the load-bearing part of the construction was in place, the clients have put up inner walls and finished large parts of the remaining work themselves," the studio said.

"This gave them a deeper understanding of the building, and it made them really love the house already long before they moved in," Sanden added.

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

As the house was built on a sloping site, with a height difference of about 10 metres across it, Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter dug it into the hilldside and aligned it at a diagonal angle to the fall of the terrain to create outdoor spaces and improves its views.

"A large part of the house is dug into the hillside in order to fit the programme to the compact site, and at the same time follow height regulations and maximise the view," the studio said.

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

The distinct red colour of the exterior was achieved by adding iron oxide to the concrete mix. "The pigment gives the house a different appearance than the grey, which gives the house its own character," Sanden said.

"The pigment, along with the wooden windows and the geometric pattern between the concrete elements, makes the building stand out as something different than just a concrete box."

Red concrete house by Sanden+Hodnekvam

Inside the house, the rough concrete walls and ceilings have been left exposed and are complemented by walls in knot-free pine panelling, which was also used for the ceilings in the kitchen and living room. Pine plywood furniture was built on site.

"A lot of the furniture is specific for each room, which creates a clean interior that is easier to keep tidy in the everyday life," Sanden said. "The furniture also helps to create an area-effective building."

Floors were covered in hardwearing cement screed. "It is a house that is built to last by adaption or re-appropriation," the studio concluded.

Norweigan studio Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter was founded in 2014 by John Sanden and Ingvild Hodnekvam. The studio also chose to work with concrete and wood when creating a cabin overlooking a Norwegian fjord.

Photography is by Sanden+Hodnekvam Arkitekter.

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Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios designs net-zero-carbon timber office in London

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

UK architecture studio Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has designed a six-storey cross-laminated timber office named Paradise, which will be net-zero-carbon to align with its Architects Declare commitments.

The architecture studio designed the carbon-neutral office as it focuses on creating more sustainable architecture to meet the aims of climate change network Architects Declare.

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

"As founding signatories of Architects Declare, we have made a public commitment to creating net-zero carbon buildings by 2030, and it is our aim on every building we design," said Joe Jack Williams, associate at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

"For the Old Paradise Street development, we have an opportunity to provide a net-zero carbon building that can host environmentally conscious businesses that can't afford to build their own building," he told Dezeen.

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Set to be built on Old Paradise Street alongside a railway in Vauxhall, London, the office will be directly opposite Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery, which was designed by Caruso St John Architects and won the Stirling Prize in 2016.

The timber-framed building will contain 5,500 square metres of office space.

It will be constructed with a combination of cross-laminated timber (CLT) slabs and cores, glued laminated timber (glulam) beams and some supporting steel beams on a concrete foundation.

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios calculated that the sequestered carbon captured in the timber will mean that the construction process will be carbon negative. As a large amount of carbon is captured it will offset the next 60 years of the building's carbon emissions.

"The initial carbon sequestered by the timber structure will offset the rest of the embodied carbon for the structure and facade, in addition to nearly 60 years of operational carbon emissions," said Williams.

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

"Accounting for the sequestered carbon in this way is not widely done, and we wanted to meet that debate head-on so we can have clarity moving forward," Williams continued.

"There is already a focus on operational carbon for buildings, particularly in London, but for Paradise we've been able to talk about the increasing issue of embodied carbon, moving away from carbon-intensive concrete and steel towards renewable materials."

Paradise net-zero carbon office, London, by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Within the building, the glulam beams and CLT floor plates will be exposed throughout the office spaces.

"From a sustainability viewpoint, CLT is one of the few renewable structural materials available and can be mechanically fixed to enable it to be simply reused at the end of its life," said Williams.

"But it's not just about sustainability, it also provides a beautiful, warm, natural finish that fits into our aims of delivering a healthy environment."

UK architecture practice Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios was founded in 1978 and is now led by Keith Bradley and Peter Clegg. The studio won the RIBA Stirling Prize for the Accordia housing development in 2008.

It joined the other Stirling Prize-winning firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects and David Chipperfield Architects, in calling for architects to shift their behaviour towards climate change by signing up to Architects Declare last year.

Earlier this year another founding signatory – Foster + Partners – came under fire for designing a new airport in Saudi Arabia.

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