Seven designers share objects created within a kilometre of home during lockdown

Barcelona-based designer Sanna Völker has curated a collection of seven furniture and homeware pieces, which were created during coronavirus lockdown to reflect the unique limitations and opportunities of the current moment.

The pieces in the project, called Km Zero, include two benches and stools, a teapot and ceramics set and a trio of vessels, and were created by seven different Spanish design studios.

Each product was crafted within one kilometre of the designer's home. The materials were sourced from within the same radius in order to explore the possibilities awarded by local production.

Among the contributing designers are Isaac Piñeiro, Júlia Esqué and Paula Clavería (clockwise from top right)

"In Spain, as lockdown started to ease, we were allowed to go for walks in our immediate neighbourhoods," Völker told Dezeen.

"We couldn't exceed the one-kilometre limit but we could stroll around our closest streets during a few restricted hours each day. This is the moment where many of us discovered workshops and artisans located just a few hundred meters away from our homes and studios."

Several of the objects deal with the loneliness of social distancing and the ways in which the pandemic has reminded us of the importance of community and collaboration.

Industrial designer Marta Ayala Herrera created a wooden bench with two individual, round seats separated by protruding armrests, to reflect on the isolation of the individual in Western society.

Marta Ayala Herrera designed the 2/1 bench to have two separate but structurally dependent seats

"The context in which we live rewards and encourages this tunnel vision and the construction of everyone's bubble," explained Herrera.

"However, the arrival of a crisis in the space where we live has exposed the shortcomings and inconveniences that this type of society offers us.”

That's why, although the bench might appear to allow users to sit separately, the seats are actually dependant on their shared base in order to stand.

The No2 stool by Paula Clavería is made from reclaimed rubble and granite

Madrid-based Paula Clavería focused more on the materiality of her immediate surroundings and forged her No2 stool from abandoned rubble and granite pieces found on the streets of the La Latina and Lavapiés neighbourhoods.

These are stacked on top of each other and cobbled together into a Flintstone-like, three-legged seat, designed to represent the bricolage of buildings that make up these districts.

Sanna Völker crafted a tall, cylindrical teapot that emits the sound of dripping water in the steeping process

Beyond curating the project, Völker also contributed a teapot, called Presence, which consists of a cylindrical body and a strainer with an oversized, doughnut-shaped rim.

When water is poured into the strainer, it slowly drips into the main body of the pot through a small hole at the bottom.

"Presence is an object that explores the personal experience of truly slowing down," said the designer, who created the piece in collaboration with a local ceramics workshop.

"Through combining the tea ceremony with the soothing sound of water, the project reflects on time and on staying present. The piece questions our constant search for efficiency and optimisation and invites a shared moment of stillness by focusing on sensorial information."

Future Archeology by Turbina Studio was crafted in collaboration with a nearby ceramics studio

Barcelona's Turbina Studio contributed a series of bowls and plates, in which perfectly smooth, concave shapes are embedded into roughly textured bricks to create the impression of fossilised artefacts.

The series, called Future Archeology, is made from fired clay and cast stone and hopes to make us consider whether the way towards a more sustainable future might be to look towards the past.

Traditional Spanish esparto grass is used to form the rope of Omayra Maymó's 1927 stool

Omayra Maymó's 1927 stool features a seat that has been formed by wrapping a piece of rope repeatedly around its geometric frame. The rope was made by a local artisan from a type of grass fibre called esparto, which is native to Spain.

Also featured in the collection is a bench by Isaac Piñeiro, fashioned from a piece of bent, laminated wood that had been collecting dust in his studio, and a series of vessels, created by Júlia Esqué using offcuts from a nearby metal workshop.

Júlia Esqué created her Indoor Landscapes using waste metal tubes

"Producing and consuming locally has been on our minds for years but sometimes, until we're forced to act upon an idea, we don't fully commit to it," Völker said.

"Due to the current situation, we are finally doing what we have been wanting to do for quite some time now. And at least for some time ahead, we will have to make use of our local resources and opportunities."

The Sabu bench by Isaac Piñeiro repurposes a bent piece of laminated wood from his studio

Völker, who was born in Sweden, has curated a group exhibition for the past three years, focusing on different pressing social issues each time. In 2018, Perception focused on the impact that Instagram has on our experience of exhibitions and came complete with a mandated social media blackout.

And last year, the Sisters show focused on female empowerment, femininity and social justice.

The pieces in the Km Zero collection were made using local materials and in collaboration with local artisans

With this year's agenda dominated by the pandemic, a slew of other designers have unveiled furniture and home objects for a "new normal".

Mexican architect Enrique Tovar has designed a foldable desk that can be carried to different locations, while UK brand UNIT Fabrications has developed a series of mobile screens for a local primary school to enact social distancing.

Photography is by David Leon Fiene.

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Atelier XÜK converts disused Chinese primary school into boutique hotel

Shanghai architecture studio Atelier XÜK has created a series of timber interventions to turn a former school in Qinyong, China into a hotel while leaving its original, solid masonry structure intact.

The school, which was originally built in the 1970s when Qinyong was demolished and reconstructed as a strictly planned people's commune, is now the Lostvilla Qinyong Primary School Hotel.

The former village school's 18 classrooms have been converted into the 22 guest bedrooms for the hotel.

An ancillary wing, which used to be a service building for faculty, is now home to a cafe, several dining rooms and a rooftop canteen, while the former playground made way for a brutalist concrete swimming pool.

"As the most important public building of the people's commune period, the school replaced the traditional family shrine and became the centre of public life in Qingyong Village, as well as an important carrier of the village's collective memory," Atelier XÜK's co-founder Kenan Liu told Dezeen

"So the school's facade has been preserved as much as possible, out of our respect for the history and collective memory of the villagers."

In order to avoid drilling into the masonry shell, made from blocks of local sandstone, a system of raised wooden platforms was installed throughout all of the rooms, under which the necessary pipes, plumbing and cables were installed.

This use of timber volumes is repeated throughout the renovation, with the foyer rendered as one large timber box jutting out from the centre of the original building, and wooden bathroom units inserted into the guestrooms.

"These wooden 'wash boxes' do not touch the ceiling, which reinforces their temporariness. It's as if they could be easily removed and then the interior of the school could be restored," said Liu.

In each room, a section of the original floor was retained and turned into a sunken stone garden, framed with a metal railing.

This is designed to create the impression of being in an archaeological site, where visitors can take in the original dimensions of the room and its history.

All of the woodwork, including the platforms and bathroom units as well as doors and windows, was manufactured in situ by craftsmen from the local Jiangnan region.

"At the peak of the construction, there were 50 carpenters on the site, with two carpenters in each room to complete all the interior woodwork," Liu explained.

"The in-situ fabrication method eliminates the lack of precision caused by sub-contracting and allows for a balance between quality and costs within the intense timeframe of the project, which took only one year from design to completion."

The wood itself was repurposed from demolished houses in the region, with old wooden beams turned into versatile, five centimetres by five-centimetre units.

Making use of the building's sturdy masonry structure, Atelier XÜK perched a cafeteria on the roof of the annexe. This consists of another timber box, this time encased in a light steel structure and finished with corrugated, fibre cement panels for a roof.

It is accessible through a newly built, external staircase and a bridge connecting the wing to the main building.

"The aim of the project was to introduce a new programme into a disintegrating commune to revitalise its economy without being regarded as an intrusion with the sole aim of making a profit," Liu explained.

"At the same time, the residents are glad to see the nexus of their childhood memories rebirthed as a new landmark for the village, rather than gradually collapsing into total destruction."

Last week, the Lostvilla Qinyong Primary School Hotel was longlisted for a 2020 Dezeen Award in the Rebirth project category.

Previously Atelier XÜK added a corrugated-metal attic room to a Spanish colonial-style house in Shanghai, where the studio is based.

Elsewhere, Jonathan Dunn Architects has transformed a Victorian school in the English town of Rye into a wood-clad cinema while Amsterdam's Standard Studio converted a former teachers' lounge into a family home.

Photography is by Hao Chen.

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Yellow grates filter light into apartment building by Laurent Troost Architectures

Bright yellow metal grates that take cues from a mango tree detail the facade of this apartment building in Manaus, Brazil designed by local studio Laurent Troost Architectures.

Manga-Vila Santa Thereza is a housing complex in Manaus, a city in Brazil situated along the banks of the Negro River near the Amazon rainforest. It comprises 12 units, three of each type, studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom, spread across two buildings that are connected by a small courtyard.

Yellow grates detail the east and west faces of the rectangular buildings and protrude from their rooftops. The bright colour used on the grid-like material draws from a mango tree located on the site.

"On the facades most exposed to the sun (east and west) a metal grid was installed that filters the light and the views, creating a yellowish halo in line with the mango tree that originated the project concept," said Laurent Troost Architectures.

The metal grating filters light that passes through reducing solar incidence and acting as a mechanism for cooling the residential units and allowing for cross ventilation throughout the building.

It is among a series of passive design strategies included in the 1,039-square-metre building, which accommodates a mix of residents, including students, single people, young couples and families.

Other energy-efficient practices are photovoltaic roof panels that produce light for the common areas and the gap located between the volumes, which reduces heat transfer.

"The Vila Santa Thereza building tries to present conditions of passive sustainability and identical spatial qualities for all units in order to achieve social equality," the studio said.

"These passive sustainability characteristics of the building allow the demand for energy consumption of each housing unit to be well below the local average."

On the north and south elevations an assortment of various-sized windows are arranged across the white walls.

Each unit is outfitted with floor to ceiling windows that provide views of the surrounding neighbourhood and the distant Rio Negro. Inside the apartments, the kitchen and laundry area open up to the living and dining space.

Situated between the two buildings is a partially covered courtyard anchored by concrete columns painted bright yellow to match the screens installed across the facade. The patio doubles as a car park for residents to store vehicles and also features a patch of vegetation with a mango tree.

Two sets of staircases against the back wall of the outdoor space lead up to the residential floors. On the top floor there is a shared recreational and dining space that is wrapped in the yellow grating.

Laurent Troost Architectures, which is based in Manaus, also completed a residence in Manaus with a weathered steel roof that folds over the concrete structure. The project was the Dezeen Award winner of the Rural house of the year 2019.

Other apartment buildings in Brazil include a residential tower designed by Pininfarina that takes cues from car design and a design by Isay Weinfeld in São Paulo that comprises stacked volumes lined with vegetation.

Photography is by Maíra Acayaba.

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Project credits:

Architecture: Laurent Troost Architectures
SD phase team: Laurent Troost, Diogo Lazari, Raquel Brasil dos Reis
CD phase team: Laurent Troost, Raquel Brasil dos Reis
Structure: Thais Nina
MEP: Eng. Harlen Santos
Landscape: Laurent Troost, Hana Eto Gall

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A Disorienting Short Film by Lydia Cambron Recreates ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in Quarantine

Eerie, hypnotic, and faithfully depicting the dismal reality that is 2020, a new short film by Lydia Cambron envisions her recent quarantine experience under the frame of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 2020: An Isolation Odyssey, the New York City-based designer recreates the 1968 version’s iconic ending as a way to “(poke) fun at the navel-gazing saga of life alone and indoors,” she writes in a statement.

Positioned vertically, the characters’ movements are synchronized perfectly, but while the original film’s Keir Dullea wades through the ornate home in an astronaut suit, Cambron sports a face mask and latex gloves. The reenactment is situated in the designer’s one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, and while it maintains the domestic qualities of the original, it also features contemporary updates, like a MacBook sitting on the table rather than a lavish meal. She even parallels the minutes-long credits precisely.

Cambron notes that the contemporary version considers a similarly disorienting life. “Multitasking while #wfh, conjuring guilt or longing with unused exercise equipment, your entire being reduced to a measure of time—these scenes all illustrate the absurd comedy of trying to maintain control during this unprecedented and unpredictable time,” she explains.

Follow Cambron’s parodic explorations—which include an annual exhibition titled JONALDDUDD— on Instagram and Vimeo. (via Daring Fireball)

 

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La Shed Architecture creates translucent barn to give cows "a better quality of life"

Architecture studio La Shed Architecture has built a large agricultural barn with polycarbonate sheeting walls for a farm in Montérégie, Quebec.

The Montréal studio designed the barn to improve the quality of life for both the animals and the workers at organic cheese farm Au Gré des Champs.

To create a building that would blend into the landscape harmoniously La Shed Architecture chose to use materials commonly found on farms to construct the barn.

The building's framework was made from spruce, with hemlock planks used for the walls. Its sheer facade was constructed from two layers of polycarbonate sheets – one clear and one translucent.

Photo is by Virginie Gosselin

The decision to use a translucent exterior for the barn was based around the idea that natural light enhances both well-being and productivity.

"For visitors, these translucent facades allow them to make the link between interior spaces and exterior grazing spaces, and thus better understand the living environment of cows," said La Shed Architecture coordinator Christian Laporte.

According to the architect, during the day the walls let through so much natural light that it feels like being outdoors, while at night the barn lights up like a lantern.

"By day it feels like being outside," he told Dezeen.

"At night, the opposite effect occurs, and the artificial light illuminating the interior of the barn filters through these translucent walls. The barn, therefore, becomes a landmark in the middle of the fields, like a large luminous lantern."

La Shed Architecture also used polycarbonate sheeting because it exposes the internal structure of the wall, adding to the barn's contemporary character.

Galvanised sheet metal was used for the overhanging roof, which offers shelter for visitors when the farm hosts events.

Large shutters on the longitudinal walls allow for natural ventilation, and in winter time the space is heated by the cows' own body heat.

The studio also had to take into account technical restraints related to free-stabling, including having large spaces for the cows as well as specific routes for milking cows.

"The farming family wanted to offer both their cows and their employees a better quality of life," Laporte said.

"For the cows, this new barn meant the end of tie-stall housing, where cows are confined in stalls; they would henceforth operate in free stalls, allowing them greater freedom of movement," he continued.

"For the employees, this new barn should allow them to work in a more spacious, bright and pleasant environment."

Photo is by Virginie Gosselin

In addition to spatial constraints, the studio had to take the habits of the barn's new inhabitants into consideration.

"We had to create a route to facilitate the movement of the cows in the building according to the order of the tasks to be accomplish during the day," Laporte explained.  "Cows love stability and routine."

Other innovative barn buildings include HilberinkBosch Architects' asymmetrical barn made from wood felled from own land and Asher deGroot of Motiv Architects' Swallowfield Barn that was built together with the local community.

Photography is by Maxime Brouillet unless otherwise stated.

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