Snøhetta designs carbon-negative Powerhouse Telemark office in Norway

Snøhetta has completed the carbon-negative Powerhouse Telemark office in the city of Porsgrunn, Norway, which was designed to produce more energy than it will consume over its lifespan.

The angular building is highly insulated and has a large photovoltaic canopy covering its roof and south-facing facade that will generate 256,000 kilowatts of energy each year.

According to Snøhetta, this will mean it creates enough surplus renewable energy to compensate for the carbon consumed by the office over a 60-year lifespan – including its construction, demolition and the embodied-carbon of building materials.

Powerhouse Telemark is an energy-positive office in Norway

Powerhouse Telemark was designed by Snøhetta with R8 Property, Skanska and Asplan Viak, and is its fourth Powerhouse building, following Powerhouse Brattørkaia.

The Powerhouse buildings were developed in response to the climate crisis and the building industry's contribution to global carbon emissions, with the goal of offering a "sustainable model for the future of workspaces".

It has a giant photovoltaic canopy that generates clean energy

"Architecture, as we see it, probably has the purpose of creating better environments for human and non-human existence on Earth," said Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorsen.

"There is no question that we, as a profession, have to deal with the problems, not challenges, real problems that we have at hand, at any time through our professional network and cross-collaboration," he told Dezeen.

The office has an angular and "clearly identifiable" form

"Powerhouse is a constellation of different companies that work with different clients in order to create a building that principally produces extensively more clean energy than it consumes," Thorsen continued.

"What we've proven with this building is that there is no excuse for the building industry, not to build energy-positive buildings anymore. All the systems that are in this building are existing in the market."

Wooden cladding is used as solar shading

Powerhouse Telemark is distinguished by its 11-storey, skewed form that features a steep roof angled at 24-degrees and a distinctive 45-degree-notch on its east-facing facade.

This provides the building with a "clearly identifiable expression", helps to maximise the amount of solar energy the photovoltaic canopy can harvest and creates light-filled spaces inside.

"Environmental concrete" is exposed internally

The building's facades are highly insulated and clad in a mix of wooden panels that provide solar shading and Cembrit facade panels – a large fibre cement sheet.

Cembrit was chosen as it provides the building with a "density akin to that of a stone structure" – meaning it can store thermal heat during the day and slowly emit heat during the evening. This helps to passively heat and cool the building, in tandem with a system that uses geothermal wells dug 350 metres below ground.

The building features a "barception"

Inside the office comprises a mix of different office spaces, alongside a "barception", a shared staff restaurant, penthouse meeting spaces and a roof terrace.

A basement was not included to reduce the amount of concrete required for the project.

The concrete walls are teamed with wooden furnishings

Among the office spaces are two storeys of flexible, co-working spaces that allow users to easily expand or downsize their workforce, and switch between working privately or collaboratively.

They are positioned in the angular, west and south-facing areas of the building that are brighter and have larger, open-plan arrangements.

Smaller and more traditional, enclosed workspaces are contained behind the building's straighter facades, away from sun-exposed areas. Together, this layout reduces overheating and dependence on artificial cooling.

A canteen was built on the angular side of the building

Powerhouse Telemark's interior material palette is also designed to be as sustainable as possible, composed of a minimal palette of local wood, gypsum and carpet tiles made from 70 per cent recycled fishing nets.

These elements were designed to complement the building's exposed "environmental concrete" structure – a type of concrete that uses less energy in its production and produces less carbon dioxide than traditional concrete.

There are two-storeys of co-working spaces

The material palette, furnishings and fixtures are consistent and standardised throughout the office to reduce waste.

Meanwhile, artificial lighting is used at an absolute minimum, with windows incorporated throughout the bring light into the depths of the building.

Notable elements of the interiors include two large staircases that connect the building's ground floor to its upper levels. There is also a straight, wooden staircase hidden on the ninth floor of the building that guides visitors up to the building's roof terrace.

More private work areas are housed on the north side

Snøhetta's other Powerhouse buildings completed over the last decade are Powerhouse Kjørbo and Powerhouse Montessori.

The completion of Powerhouse Telemark follows Thorsen's warning to architects that they must plan for "armageddon situations" and the studio's pledge to only design carbon-negative buildings, meaning their projects will generate more energy than they consume over their lifetime.

"For the next 10 years Snøhetta will focus on turning our project portfolio carbon neutral in terms of all projects in the design stage," the firm told Dezeen. "Within the next 20 years [we will] ensure that our built projects are carbon neutral."

Photography is by Ivar Kvaal.

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Pablo Chiereghin violently destroys and rebuilds furniture for Riot Design exhibition

Italian visual artist Pablo Chiereghin has created a series of furniture pieces from the remains of items he destroyed "using a riot aesthetic" for an exhibition at Vienna's Kunstforum.

Named Riot Design, the exhibition consists of a series of reconstructed pieces of furniture and everyday items displayed alongside videos showing Chiereghin destroying the original items.

"Riot Design is a process through consumerism, violence appeal, design and the market," explained Chiereghin.

"Un-personal everyday objects are destroyed and transformed using a riot aesthetic and then brought back to functionality through an invasive restoration," he told Dezeen.

The Riot Design exhibition is at Vienna's Kunstforum.

Each of the items, chosen for their normality, was destroyed on-site within the gallery, which is in the former vault of the bank that houses the Kunstforum.

They were then reassembled using construction materials that are usually hidden within items to draw attention to the rebuilding.

Riot Design consists of destroyed and rebuilt furniture

"The act of destruction is part of the artwork, violence models and deconstructs the object, leaving left-over pieces which are then to be recomposed in a unique object," Chiereghin said.

"The exhibition is conceived as a whole installation which combines objects and videos, changing rhythm through rough sounds and flirty objects, between construction materials and pink moulded plastic."

The items were chosen for their normality

Chiereghin destroyed the items while wearing a helmet or balaclava to make a visual connection to the act of rioting.

"The combination of the objects and the riot tools was influenced by the destruction result I wanted to obtain and by visual references to the history of riots," said Chiereghin.

"The idea of applying violence to things is common, either in everyday life or in the art," he continued. "Nevertheless, I was for a long time fascinated by the power of exercising violence and the appeal that violence has on human beings."

The furniture was destroyed within the exhibition space

"With the passing of the time I realised I wanted to excerpt the idea of riot and its violence from a context and use it as a cultural, ready-made tool of design," continued Chiereghin.

"Destruction activates multilayer connections: damage, hedonistic liberation, loss of value and reaction against status quo."

Videos show the items being destroyed

The exhibition was created after Chiereghin watched lots of footage of riots, including those at the WTO in Seattle in 1999 and the Genova G8 Summit in 2001. The artist also focused on anti-austerity riots in Greece between 2010-2015, along with the recent riots in Hong Kong and USA.

He accepts that the subject matter and the title of the exhibition may prove controversial, but hopes that it challenges visitors to ask questions.

Pablo Chiereghin violently destroyed the pieces

"If somebody finds it inappropriate, contradictory or speculative they are right," he said.

"The project offers a multilayer approach, which goes from entertainment to speculative design and consumerism critics," he continued.

"Visitors have possibilities to stay on the level they want but I think I would be happy if some visitors go home with questions."

Riot Design is on at the Kunstforumin in Vienna from 15 October to 22 November 2020. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Object Studio creates portable social-distancing bench for Amsterdam

Corona Crisis Kruk is a bench with a handle designed for social distancing by Dutch design firm Object Studio to let users sit together while staying apart.

The piece of lightweight street furniture has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the seating design category.

Corona Crisis Kruk is two stools connected by a beam

Object Studio created Corona Crisis Kruk to help people adapt to life following government guidelines for the coronavirus pandemic.

Corona Crisis Kruk is formed of two kruk – stools in Dutch – joined together by a beam with a handle in the middle. The furniture is made from CNC-milled birch plywood pieces that slot and screw together.

A handle in the middle means it can be picked up and moved

It can be picked up and moved, then placed anywhere for two people to sit while remaining 1.5 metres apart.

"When the coronavirus hit the Netherlands in March this year, the Dutch government responded by setting new guidelines for its people to strictly refrain from touching others, and remain distant from each other," said Object Studio founder Björn van den Broek.

"We all had to behave differently from what we were used to," he added.

Sitters on the bench must keep 1.5 metres apart

People in the Netherlands were instructed to stay 1.5 metres apart from others in public.

"I live right next to the Noorderpark in Amsterdam, and from my house, I can easily see the park visitors passing by. I saw the struggle happening and recognised my own uncertainty in the behaviour of others," van den Broek said.

Corona Crisis Kruk is designed to help people remember and visualise the safe distance to keep, thanks to ruler-style measuring lines that are etched into the sides

The design is intended to ease anxiety during the pandemic

Van den Broek designed the benches in March and had six manufactured by a local maker round the corner from his house.

"As soon as I had put them in the park, the response was amazing," he said.

"People understood them right away, and just loved using them. Even in a circle around them people kept the right distance from each other, without having to check or correct others on their behaviour."

Ruler-style markings remind people to social distance

The first benches have the names of the Noorderpark on their sides, and the Amsterdam Museum has bought one for its courtyard.

"One of the benches recently got vandalised, but I am repairing it, with a nice add-on with a positive 'hold on people' text," Van den Broek told Dezeen.

"People are fed up with the virus and the social distancing rules, but we have to stay strong and hold on for some extra time."

Object Studio is now offering custom versions for any organisations that want their own Corona Crisis Kruk, with all profits donated to Doctors Without Borders.

More design for social distancing includes a restaurant serving tray by Austrian studio March Gut that is 1.2 metres long, and mobile screens for separating students in school by furniture brand UNIT Fabrications.

Photography is by Cees Hin.

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"No evidence" that urban density helps spread of coronavirus says Richard Florida

Cities will bounce back as young creatives take advantage of lower rents and dense urban areas prove better at mitigating the coronavirus pandemic, according to urban theorist Richard Florida.

The pandemic "may make cities more affordable to artists and creatives" he said, adding that dense neighbourhoods "have been better at mitigating and combating the crisis" when compared to suburbs or the countryside.

Florida said that the collapse in demand for offices and retail premises in urban centres could help creative people, who are needed to create vibrant cities in the first place.

While some families and older people may leave city centres for the suburbs or the countryside in the wake of the pandemic, their departure will create opportunities for younger people, he said.

"The gloom and doom prognostications are overblown," said the American author and academic in a remote lecture delivered to the Utopian Hours conference in Turin, Italy, last month.

"Cities will survive," he said.

"Young people have to go" to cities

Florida said that while some families and older people may leave city centres for the suburbs or the countryside in the wake of the pandemic, their departure will create opportunities for younger people.

"What we see throughout history, and what we're seeing now, is that cities are the kind of place that young people have to go," he said.

"And I think that's what we're going to find: that young people, artistic creatives, have a mass migration back to cities."

He added: "If you're a young person, and you want to establish your career, you want to meet other young people, you don't want to sit in your parents' basement forever."

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted the creative industries, with Florida estimating that "over half of all artists, performers and musicians are unemployed".

"But artists and creatives have been critical to revitalizing cities, especially in the past century," he said. "And they will be so in the current crisis."

Florida delivered the remote lecture from his home in Toronto to the annual Utopian Hours conference, which explores cities and urbanism.

The urbanist said that previous pandemics have "not dented the long arc of urbanization," describing the long-term trend towards increased city living as "a far greater force in our world than infectious disease".

His words echoed those of architect Norman Foster, who last month argued in a speech that previous pandemics have led to improvements in urban life.

"Is Covid-19 going to change our cities?" asked the founder of London-studio Foster + Partners. "I suggest that it might seem so now, but in the wider arc of history, the answer is no."

Reduced demand for office space will "driving down rents"

However, Florida said that Covid-19 will lead to changes in the way cities are configured, with fewer people travelling to offices and retail hubs in urban centres.

"The biggest impact on cities is going to be reduced demand for office work in the central city," he said. "That's going to create a real opportunity for driving down rents and converting commercial areas to residential, and there'll be less demand for retail."

"And our cities will need artists and creatives to help rebuild, especially as there's less demand for offices via remote work and less demand for retail spaces because of online shopping."

The rise of remote working will make cities more, not less, important, he argued, since people working from home will become more reliant on their immediate neighbourhoods for everything from childcare to getting a haircut to socialising.

These are all "easier to organize in a city or in a community in which there's some density," he argued.

"Where you live becomes more important than ever before, not less, because you can't get on a plane, you don't go to the office, you're kind of stuck in your neighbourhood."

"No evidence" density is to blame

Early on in the pandemic, large cities such as London and New York were hit hard, leading to fears that urban density helped the spread of the virus. This in turn led to predictions that dense cities would suffer as economically mobile people fled to lower- density areas.

But Florida said that these cities were hit first due to being globally connected via tourism and business travel, rather than because of their density. "There is no evidence, none, that density is to blame for the Covid crisis," he said.

"Denser places if anything, these studies show, have been better at mitigating and combating the crisis through social distancing and providing effective health care."

However, responding to an audience question at after his talk, Florida clarified this point, saying that while population density does not cause greater infection, overcrowding in slums and disadvantaged areas can greatly increase risk of transmission.

"We find a much closer relationship between Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, even in the advanced world, in overcrowded, less advantaged communities," he said. "It's not people per square mile, or per square kilometre, but people per square foot."

"We are going through a great urban reset"

Florida is best known for his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which argued that the most economically productive cities are those that attract creative people, who seek out tolerance, diversity and a wide range of cultural activities.

However, his 2017 book, The New Urban Crisis, argued that the runaway success of some cities has created unprecedented inequality and helped cause the rise of populism and nationalism in areas that have been left behind.

Now, Covid-19 has combined with the new urban crisis and the recent protests against racial inequality to "provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to address the long history of economic injustice and racial division to reset and rebuild our communities, not just our big cities, our big cities and small cities, our suburbs and rural areas in ways that are better."

"We are going through a great urban reset," he declared. "I would argue this is the greatest urban reset in a century. It is our opportunity. No, it's our obligation together to do this."

Utopian Hours 2020 was held in Turin, Italy from 23-25 October, with Dezeen as media partner. For details of more architecture and design conferences, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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Ten architecture and design events this November and December from Dezeen Events Guide

Design Shanghai, Design Miami and Dubai Design Week are among the architecture and design events listed in Dezeen Events Guide taking place this winter, alongside a host of virtual programmes including an Archigram symposium and the Dezeen Awards ceremonies.

Other events taking place in November and December include an Enzo Mari exhibition in Milan curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Quito Pan-American Architecture Biennial in Ecuador, Barcelona Design Week and Contemporary Istanbul.

Above: the iconic illustration of the coronavirus virion is one of the designs on show at the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition. Top: Walking illustration by Drawing Architecture Studio for the M+ museum's Archigram Cities symposium

Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition
21 October 2020 to 28 March 2021

The nominees for the 2020 Designs of the Year awards are currently on show at the London Design Museum until March of next year, allowing visitors to reflect on the state of the world in the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic.

Exhibits are arranged in chronological order, starting with Jack and Huei's proposal for naming Bleached Coral as colour of the year at the start of 2019 and leading all the way up until January of this year, when the CDC released its 3D rendering of the novel coronavirus.

About Time: Fashion and Duration exhibition
29 October 2020 to 7 February 2021

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the annual exhibition put on by its Costume Institute is this year sharing a retrospective of seminal fashion pieces from 1870 until the present day.

The show, which is usually launched with the Met Gala in May, highlights the cyclical nature of fashion by mixing up styles from throughout the decades in two clock-like gallery spaces created by set designer Es Devlin.

M+ Matters: Archigram Cities Online Symposium
4 to 21 November

In a virtual event organised by Hong Kong's M+ museum, scholars and architects will come together to reconsider the work of British architecture collective Archigram and its enduring influence on modern architectural discourse.

Over a series of three Zoom presentations, speakers will include architects Liam Young and Mark Wigley as well as Atelier Bow-Wow's Tsukamoto Yoshiharu.

Dubai Design Week
9 to 14 November

Dubai is one of the few design weeks to take place not just virtually by also in real life this year, spanning more than 200 events across the second week of November focused on how we can reimagine the way we live in light of the pandemic.

This includes the Global Grad Show, exhibiting projects by students from around the world, and the trade fair Downtown Design alongside the city's inaugural d3 Architecture Festival.

Dezeen Awards ceremonies
23 to 25 November

The winners of this year's Dezeen Awards will be announced via a three hour-long livestreams, hosted by Saatchi Gallery's poet in residence LionHeart.

Set on three consecutive days, each ceremony will be dedicated to a different category from architecture to interiors and design, with their respective key judges Norman Foster, Michelle Ogundehin and Paola Antonelli each sharing an address reflecting on this year's entries.

Combo chair by Frank Chou, one of the designers exhibiting at Design Shanghai

Design Shanghai
26 to 29 November

Postponed from its original date in March, China's preeminent design fair Design Shanghai will now take place at the end of November, highlighting local designers and brands alongside exhibitors from 30 other countries.

The highly-anticipated Norwegian Presence showcase, which is normally exhibited at Salone del Mobile, will be presented as part of the Chinese trade fair instead, alongside a speaker programme featuring Ini Archibong, Ross Lovegrove and Hong Kong designer André Fu.

Design Miami
28 November to 6 December

For its 16th edition, the Design Miami fair will supplement its regular programme with a new curated exhibition series called Podium, in which pieces of collectable design and craft will be not just on display but also for sale.

In the wake of a tumultuous year in US history and the divisive 2020 election, the showcase will highlight pieces that question what it means to be American, from a 19th-century Navajo tribe textile to ceramics by Puerto Rican "ghetto potter" Roberto Lugo.

World Architecture Festival
30 November to 4 December

The WAF is going virtual this year, with a series of talks, panel discussions and special prize ceremonies being live-streamed for free.

Speakers including UNStudio's Ben Van Berkel, Archigram founder Peter Cook and Jeanne Gang of Chicago firm Studio Gang will discuss everything from recent technical innovations to the ever-present topic of how we can learn to live with pandemics.

Contemporary Istanbul
16 to 20 December

Turkey's leading contemporary art fair will this year offer both virtual and physical events, including its recurring Plugin exhibition, which this year is focusing on human-machine communication and artificial intelligence.

The event's online version will act as a platform for visitors to interact with the fair in real-time, during its actual opening hours.

National Gallery of Victoria Triennial
19 December 2020 to 18 April 2021

The second triennial from Melbourne's NGV will showcase projects from around the globe that blur the line between art, design, architecture, science and technology.

More than 80 artists and designers will take part in this year's edition, including up-and-coming talent alongside stalwarts such as Kengo Kuma, Faye Toogood, Jeff Koons and Patricia Urquiola.

Patricia Urquiola presents an installation titled Recycled Woollen Island at NGV Triennial 2020

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year.

The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks, as well as up-to-date information about what events have been cancelled or postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Inclusion in the guide is free for basic listings, with events selected at Dezeen's discretion. Organisers can get enhanced or premium listings for their events, including images, additional text and links, by paying a modest fee.

In addition, events can ensure inclusion by partnering with Dezeen. For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide and media partnerships with Dezeen, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.

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