Gonzalez Haase AAS creates minimal interior for Berlin communications office

Architecture studio Gonzalez Haase AAS used aluminium and translucent sheets of polycarbonate to create the few fixtures and furnishings that appear inside this sparse Berlin office.

The office belongs to trendy communications agency BAM and has been designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS as a celebration of "raw materiality and geometric simplicity".

"The raw, minimalistic aesthetic serves as a blank canvas for the agency's creative projects," the studio explained.

Measuring 270 square metres, the office takes over the ground and first floor of a building at the heart of the German capital.

The spacious lower level has been left open so that the agency can use it for large-scale meetings, or transform into a showroom or gallery-style space for events.

It's only interrupted by a floor-to-ceiling sliding partition that can be pulled across to divide the space into two separate rooms when necessary.

The partition is crafted from four sheets of polycarbonate and has intentionally been positioned to sit slightly diagonally to contrast the sharp right angles that appear elsewhere throughout the space.

A white flight of stairs with a wire-frame balustrade leads up to the office proper.

Raw aluminium has been used to craft a series of blocky furnishings at this level, most notably a 22.5-metre-long shelf that extends from one side of the room to the other.

The shelf incorporates several open and closed storage cupboards, and a bench seat where staff can sit to eat their lunch.

Aluminium has additionally been used to make the long central work desk and the cabinetry in the small kitchenette.

Another angled polycarbonate partition appears at this level, but in this instance separates a boardroom.

"These monumental [aluminium] elements find balance in the large, translucent walls of polycarbonate sheeting," added the studio.

Further textual interest is created by the chipped wood and wool acoustic panels that have been staggered across the ceiling. They're inset with simple strip lights that illuminate work areas below.

Gonzalez Haase AAS was established in 1999 by Pierre Jorge Gonzalez and Judith Haase.

The studio often applies a pared-back aesthetic to its projects – last year it completed Tem-plate, a fashion concept store in Lisbon that has been simply finished with white walls, concrete floors and display fixtures clad in crinkled silver metal.

As well as BAM's office, other minimal workspaces in Berlin include Brutalist Silence, an office designed by Annabell Kutucu that features exclusively concrete surfaces and only a handful of furniture.

Photography is by Thomas Meyer.

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Bayern Munich's kit pays homage to Herzog & de Meuron stadium

Adidas has based the design of FC Bayern Munich's 2020/2021 football kit on the facade of its home stadium, the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Allianz Arena.

The third shirt for German top-tier football club FC Bayern Munich features a red diamond graphic print that was directly informed by the team's stadium.

FC Bayern Munich plays at the Allianz Arena in Munich, which was designed by Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron and completed in 2005.

Its facade is clad in ETFE panels that are arranged in a diamond pattern and illuminated in red when the team plays at home. This shape was incorporated into the shirt design.

"It's a very important symbol for the club which is famous all over Germany and Europe," said Bianca Mast, senior product manager of football apparel at Adidas.

"The silhouette of the stadium features a diamond pattern which is a well known visual link to the club," she told Dezeen.

Utilising the diamond pattern continues the club's connection with the motif, which is also incorporated in the club's crest and the flag of the state of Bavaria – where the club is based.

"The diamond pattern of the stadium is very well known and it is already often used as a visual reference for the club," explained Mast.

"The diamonds are not only part of the Bavarian flag but also the club's crest. It is a visual reference which has already been used several times in designs for the club."

The club released the kit ahead of its appearance in the UEFA Champions League Tournament in Lisbon, where the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the Champions League will be played.

FC Bayern Munich will play against Barcelona on 14 August as part of the culmination of this year's tournament.

Earlier this year, London club Arsenal revealed the chevron-covered home shirt of its 2020/2021 kit, which was informed by the club's art deco history. Rival English club Chelsea also unveiled a herringbone-pattern shirt informed by the suit-makers of Savile Row for its 2020/21 home kit.

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PLP Architecture reveals titanium-clad headquarters for Yandex in Moscow

UK-based PLP Architecture has unveiled its design for a 12-storey office for Russian search engine Yandex in Moscow, which will be clad in titanium to create "a beacon" for the company.

Set to be built in the Gagarinsky district of Moscow near the Moskva River, the 170,000-square-metre office block will house all of the company's staff.

PLP Architecture decided to clad the headquarters in titanium to give the building an iconic appearance that would make it stand out from other offices in Moscow.

"Russia produces the second-highest amount of titanium in the world and we wanted this to help create an iconic and symbolic building that would serve as a beacon of technology for the company," said Alessandra Luzzatto, partner at PLP Architecture.

"The crystalline form of the campus is composed of titanium panels on the facade and roof, which are designed to allow the building's shape and texture to constantly adjust as the light changes throughout the day," Luzzatto told Dezeen.

"We wanted to avoid a material that would read as flat and titanium adds life, depth, and movement in changing climatic conditions," she continued.

"Our inclusion of this type of material to wrap the entire building will lend it a particularly unique appearance on Moscow’s diverse skyline and help to break down its scale and massing."

The office will be built alongside two plazas with the ground floor of the building partially open to the public.

It will contain cafes, shops, co-working spaces and a technology museum that will focus on Yandex's growth since the 1990s into one of the country's largest technology companies.

"Two new outdoor plazas offer welcoming entry points, connecting the building with nearby parks and streets," said Luzzatto.

"Inside the unique, sculpted form of the building, scale is broken down into a network of interconnecting spaces that focus on optimised use and that complement adjacent functionalities," she continued.

"The open, publicly-accessible ground floor helps to show the company off and includes a museum, education facilities and co-working areas."

Above the largely public ground floor will be reception areas on a mezzanine level with 11 floors of office space above.

A full-height central atrium topped with a roof light will be the heart of the new building. It will be crossed by a series of stairs and bridges to connect the various floor and departments.

"The inclusion of many layers of spaces such as a central hub, pocket and rooftop terraces, and various open bridges and stairs aim to invigorate the company to inspire interaction and innovation amongst subsidiary companies, departments, teams, and individuals," said Luzzatto.

The completed building will join other headquarters for internet companies being built around the world. Architecture studios BIG and Heatherwick Studio are designing a campus for Google in California, while Frank Gehry recently extended Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters.

When designing Yandex's headquarters PLP Architecture looked at and built on the designs of other campuses for technology companies around the world.

"Yandex's unique position and offerings mean that it has very specific needs and requirements that necessitated a crafted and tailored design for their new campus," said Luzzatto.

"In doing this, we benchmarked our new building and studied well-known campuses around the world created for everything from IT to academic uses," she added. "Our goal here was to fully understand a suitably-inclusive workspace made for young and smart people."

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These Absurdly Contorted Animals by Bruno Pontiroli Will Leave You With a Backache

“Le Tigre Reversible” (2020), oil on wood panel,18”x 21 inches. All images © Bruno Pontiroli, shared with permission

The troupe of wild animals in Bruno Pontiroli’s paintings contort their bodies into backbends and handstands that would rival even the most accomplished gymnast. A wrinkly hippo balances on its tongue, a tiger arches its torso into a 90-degree angle, and a hyena rotates its hind legs in the air. The French artist (previously) notes that he begins the bizarre artworks with easily-recognized animals that he then shapes “like the way a child plays with modeling clay or a building set for instance,” morphing a simple depiction of a nimble lion or hare into a peculiar new reality. He explains by saying:

My aim is to turn the narrow vision that we have of the world upside down and disturb our imagination while shaking an accepted reality with images that are as incomprehensible as they are familiar. Distorting a symbol or mixing opposing universes allows me to question the identity of things so that I can reinvent them in a world with no logic. Everything is possible.

Pontiroli’s series A Rebrousse-Poil, or against the grain, will be virtually on view at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles starting August 22. See what the artist has been up to in the meantime on Instagram.

 

“Le rire jaune” (2020), oil on wood panel, 40 x 50 centimeters

Left: (2020), oil on wood panel, 40 x 30 centimeters. Right: “Le coup du lapin” (2020), oil on wood panel, 40 x 30 centimeters

“A rebrousse-poil”

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STC Arquitectos builds cabin in Argentinian woods with reclaimed materials

A slanted metal roof and deck help to shelter this cabin in Argentina, designed by STC Arquitectos using reclaimed materials like scrap metal and oil pipes.

Called Refugio en La Paisanita, the cabin is in the Argentinian town of La Paisanita on the Anisacate River and is nestled into a sloping, forested site with winding stone walls.

STC Arquitectos said it designed the 60-square-metre project to be mindful of the environment, using recycled materials and elevating it on stilts so it doesn't damage the forest floor.

"In terrain with a steep slope and vast vegetation located in the heart of Cordoba, Argentina, we find this small refuge that respects the characteristics of the natural soil and preserves the existing flora without altering the mountain landscape," the studio said.

Using disused materials also created a structure that was affordable to build and maintain, and weather resistant.

"The project pursues an awareness speech about recycling, proposing a sustainable solution that reuses different materials based on an austere, economic and easy-to-maintain architecture that adapts to the conditions of the site," STC Arquitectos added.

The cabin features a frame of metal pipes sourced from disused oil pipes that are placed vertically and horizontally. A deck laid on top comprises recovered eucalyptus boards.

"Disused materials were recovered, processed in the workshop and transferred to the site for assembly, the choice of materials and finishes combine technological sustainability with a strong adaptation to the local climate and low environmental impact," said STC Arquitectos.

At the rear of the property, a concrete barrier wall nestles into the slope.

A feature of the cabin is a large corrugated metal roof that slants upwards in the opposite direction of the hill below. The metal panels rest on a series of vertical pipes around the perimeter of the deck.

The roof creates a covered patio that wraps around the cabin in a U-shape and also protects the smaller roof of the cabin itself, which is a boxy construction clad in more metal panels. All of the metal sheets were sourced from an old field shed or from demolitions and have a rusty appearance.

Windows and glass doors with black frames puncture the three sides of the cabin and can be covered by sliding doors also of corrugated metal. The design allows for the dwelling to be closed off, depending on the weather or if not being used.

Inside, the unit accommodates a living room and kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom. Wood floors, white walls and recycled barn doors outfit the minimal space, while openings are also made with scraps of pipes.

Outside, the deck is complete with stools, two overhead lights and a reinforced concrete counter built into the barrier wall.

STC Arquitectos is based a 30-minutes-drive north from the cabin in the city of Alta Gracia and is led by Juan Salassa, Ivan Castañeda and Santiago Tissot.

Other cabins in South America are ZeroCabin in Chile, a black unit by Felipe Lago and Minimod Curucaca in Brazil, while the top ten cabins on Dezeen in 2019 included a shelter on the water in Norway and a silvery outpost in the Swiss Alps.

Photography is by Gonzalo Viramonte.

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