LARQ launches pitcher that purifies water using UV light

Dezeen promotion: LARQ, the Californian company behind a self-cleaning water bottle, has launched the "world's most innovative" pitcher, which cleans water with UV light and a plant-based filter.

Like with the bottle, which won product of the year in Dezeen Awards 2019, LARQ created the pitcher as part of its mission to provide clean drinking water sustainably, while working to omit plastic pollution caused by bottled water.

The LARQ Pitcher was designed to provide filtered tabletop water without the build-up of contaminants found in typical water pitchers.

"The LARQ Pitcher furthers our mission to lower dependency on single-use plastic while providing the healthiest hydration option for our customers," said LARQ co-founder Justin Wang.

"Our foray into the home is the next step in bringing sustainable, clean, and safe water to more people by making it accessible across all of our daily hydration needs."

Along with filtering the water, the LARQ Pitcher uses UV light to purify water once it has passed through the filter. LARQ claims this makes the product the "world's most innovative water pitcher".

The UV-C light is in the 280-nanometre range, the same that is used in LARQ bottle, which the company said eradicates almost all harmful and odour-causing bacteria and viruses.

The system works to removes 90 per cent of lead, chlorine, mercury, cadmium, copper, zinc, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and Radon from the water.

Cleaning automatically takes place every six hours or can be activated at the touch of a button on top of the lid, and is marked by a racetrack-like LED light underneath the lid.

LARQ Pitcher has a unibody design, with water filtering taking place inside an opaque top slotted on top of a clear base. The lid is filled up via a spring-loaded door that drops under the pressure of water, which means that it can be filled up using one hand.

The filter is made from plant-based materials, including coconut carbon, rather than plastic in order to make it more environmentally friendly than traditional cartridges. It is also designed without a plastic casing, which in turn has reduced the amount of plastic typically used in filters by 75 per cent.

Other features of the LARQ Pitcher include an intelligent filter life tracking, which provides alerts when the filter needs to be replaced.

LARQ Pitcher is available for pre-order with either a Monaco Blue lid or Pure White top on both LARQ's website and Kickstarter, which is currently 605 per cent funded. It will retail for $135.00 and ship this winter.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, LARQ first launched its bottle in the US in October 2018 and in the UK in June 2019, following a successful crowdfunding campaign where the company managed to raise $1.4 million (£1.04 millon) in under 30 Days.

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A Short Film Turns Footage of Major Highways into a Dizzying Animation

“Circulatory Systems,” a mesmerizing short film by Worldgrapher and the Hong Kong-based production company Visual Suspect, deftly compares major highways to human arteries and veins. Made by simply cropping and duplicating real footage, the dizzying video twists and turns through complex interchanges that are repeated in patterns and emblazoned with headlights and the city’s glow. Many of the shots descend into the center of the transportation systems, glimpsing the moving cars and traffic lights. To watch more of Visual Suspect’s animated projects, head to Vimeo and Instagram. You also might like this trippy music video by Cyriak Harris.

 

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Guallart Architects designs post-covid housing for new city in China

Self-Sufficient City by Guallart Architects is a concept for a housing development in Xiong'an New Area, China, which would be able to produce its own energy and food during another coronavirus lockdown.

Spanish studio Guallart Architects included greenhouses for growing food, large sloping roofs covered in solar panels, and workshops filled with 3D-printers in its design.

Its scheme won the residential and communities category in a competition to design new urban typologies for Xiong'an New Area run by the local government.

The urban area could be self-sufficient in a lockdownn

Designed for an area of Hubei province 80 miles from Beijing that is being turned into a new green city, Guallart Architects designed their winning entry under coronavirus lockdown restrictions and used this as inspiration for the Self-Sufficient City.

"We developed this project during confinement," said studio director Honorata Grzesikowska.

"The entire team worked from home and we decided to include all those aspects that could make our lives better."

3D printers and rapid prototyping machines would be in co-working spaces

As the title suggests, the residential development would be entirely self-sufficient in the event of a full lockdown.

Food could be grown in the greenhouses that would cover many of the buildings, and small scale "co-working digital factories" would use 3D printers and rapid prototyping machines to make replacements for missing or broken items in the event of supply chain disruption.

Food could be grown in greenhouses and allotments

"We cannot continue designing cities and buildings as if nothing had happened," said Guallart Architects.

"Our proposal stems from the need to provide solutions to the various crises that are taking place in our planet at the same time, in order to create a new urban life, based on the circular bioeconomy, that will empower cities and communities."

A circular economy is a system where pollution and waste are minimised in favour of reuse and environmental protection, and a bioeconomy refers to the use of renewable energy and resources to make food, energy and materials.

Cross-laminated timber is a renewable construction material

To create the Self-Sufficient City model, Guallart Architects merged a traditional European courtyard-style city square with modern Chinese housing towers, interspersed with greenhouses.

Comprising four blocks, the development would intermingle housing with offices, shops, and a food market, as well as a kindergarten, swimming pool and fire station.

The blocks would be a mix of apartments, shops and offices

Guallart Architects stipulated the buildings would be made from cross-laminated timber, as wood is a renewable resource.

Different apartment layouts would be able to accommodate couples with or without one or two children, as well as multigenerational families, as well as elderly couples or young single people wishing to share common facilities.

Homes would have outdoor terraces and balconies

South-facing terraces that would catch the sunlight and help to regulate the homes' temperature. In case of another pandemic-induced lockdown, it would ensure every household still has access to their own outdoor space.

Apartments would also come with spaces suited to remote working, with 5G connectivity as standard.

Solar panels on sloping roofs would provide electricity

The 5G network would also serve Guallart Architects plans for a neighbourhood app, which could send residents an alert about lockdowns, as well as everyday notifications about local concerts, vegetables coming on sale at the market, or children's toys available to swap or share.

While cars would be allowed in certain areas, some streets would be for pedestrians and cyclists only, with public transport and electric taxis included to help people reduce their reliance on personal vehicles. Drones would be used for deliveries to free up the roads.

Each apartment would come with its own birdbox

Rainwater runoff from hard surfaces would be collected for reuse, and green areas would all have sufficient soil depth for planting vegetables.

Inside the greenhouses, a mix of hydroponic farming and LED grow lights systems would provide facilities for indoor farming to supplement outdoor allotments and medicinal herb gardens.

Gardens and orchards would attract butterflies

Green roofs, public gardens and orchards planted with butterfly-friendly flowers would help sustain biodiversity, and to further welcome nature into the city, each apartment would have its own birdbox and shelves for swallows to nest in.

Guallart Architects was founded in Barcelona in 1993 by Vincente Guallart.

Other designers considering the future of housing in light of the coronavirus pandemic include Ukrainian architect Sergey Makhno, who also champions self-sufficient housing, and Michelle Ogundehin, who drew up 11 proposals for homes under the new normal.

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Therme Art presents a live panel discussion on urban wellbeing

Stefano Boeri, Anni Hood and Suhair Khan will feature today on a panel discussion hosted by Therme Art and Dezeen exploring wellbeing in cities. Tune in here live from 5:00pm UK time.

The panel is the fifth instalment of Therme Art's new initiative Wellbeing Culture Forum, a programme of online discussions that explore the role of culture, art, design and architecture in promoting health and wellbeing in urban populations.

Therme Art is the creative arm of the Therme Group and provides artworks to its spas and resorts around the world.

Architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri will join a panel discussion on urban wellbeing hosted by Therme Art and Dezeen

Titled Human Cities – Fostering a Systems-Approach to Urban Life, the session will explore how to maintain the health and wellbeing of urban populations while preserving cities as places of prosperity.

The panel will discuss the role of diversity, creativity, culture and nature in fostering physical and psychological wellbeing in urban populations, as well as how the acceleration of social inequality in cities can be prevented.

Moderated by Therme Art's CEO and curator Mikolaj Sekutowicz, the panel will respond to the recent publication of the Therme Group's green paper Human Cities: Increasing Urban Wellbeing, an open-source report examining how humans can thrive in urban environments.

Also joining the panel is Shuhair Khan from Google Arts and Culture

The panel will feature architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri who is known for his building and city designs that are covered in plants and trees, such as a vertical forest city in China designed to combat air pollution and a plan for a Mexican smart city covered in 7.5 million plants.

Also on the panel is chief executive of wellbeing consulting firm Well Intelligence Anni Hood, and Suhair Khan, project lead for Google Arts and Culture in London.

Ben Rogers, director of the Centre for London, and Jörg Spitz, founder and executive director of the Academy for Human Medicine and Evolutionary Health, will also join the discussion.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam, will also be a part of the panel

In addition, the panel will be joined by Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of the British charity Oxfam, and design consultant, curator and writer Jane Withers.

The talk is the latest in a series of public discussions organised by Therme Art, the first of which featured Hans Ulrich Obrist, Frida Escobedo, Stefano Boeri and more and explored the relationship between art and architecture.

The second iteration featured a discussion about the value of live cultural events amidst global unrest with Es Devlin, Zoé Whitely and Marc Spiegler among others.

The third session featured a discussion with Sonia Boyce, Elvira Dyangani Ose and David Kohn and others about the role of art and culture in the built environment.

The fourth instalment of the series featured a talk with Maria Adebowale-Schwarte, Jayden Ali and Ken Arnold and others on how to design healthy and happy cities.

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Painted on Front Pages, Lisa Törner’s Evocative Animals Astutely Comment on Major News Stories

“The Wall Street Journal.” All images © Lisa Törner, shared with permission

Lisa Törner repurposes the front pages of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the French weekly Le Canard Enchainé into inky canvases for her expressive creatures. For each edition, the Stockholm-based artist offers insightful commentary on the day’s events: a pensive monkey masks an article about bankers on Wall Street, a turquoise peacock adorns the coverage of Karl Lagerfield’s death, and a slinking leopard is rendered alongside a heartwrenching story about a mother and child, who were separated more than 50 years ago. “The panther symbolize(s) the son’s escape from North Korea,” she tells Colossal.

Törner, who is the daughter of Swedish sculptor and illustrator Bernt Törner, grew up in an artistic household and learned to paint at a young age. In her own practice, she sketches the evocative animals directly on the front pages. Her technique includes a combination of blank ink, acrylics, and oil paints to complete the wild creatures.

Explore more of Törner’s paintings on Instagram,  and pick up a print from Absolut Art. You also might enjoy these sunrise editions of The New York Times.

 

“Bear Market”

“Monkey Businesses”

“Stealth Black Panther”

“The three wise monkeys” 

Left: “RIP Karl Lagerfeld.” Right: “Le Canard”

“POTUS”

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