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Architecture studio Summary built VDC, a modular housing scheme in Portugal's Vale de Cambria, out of prefabricated concrete elements.
Set on a sloping site, six independent cabin-style homes and a communal terrace sit atop a mixed-use building.
Six houses share a communal terrace
Summary created VDC after presenting a prototype at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016.
Prefabricated concrete modules were used to speed up construction and keep costs low, while a flexible design should allow the complex to be extended or changed in the future.
A mixed-use building sits underneath
The ground floor, in particular, is supposed to be as flexible as possible. Concrete slabs make up its perimeter walls with no structural dividing walls.
"It's possible to add or remove compartments or let the whole floor function as a big open space," said Summart. "Users may adapt the space according to their needs."
Prefabricated concrete elements kept costs low
The first-floor homes, each measuring 45 square metres, were built according to Summary's modular housing method called the Gomos System.
Inspired by the prefabricated modules used to install sewers, the units are made of precast concrete sections that can be joined together to create a continuous shell of any size.
"All its components are fully prepared in the factory and quickly assembled in situ, performing at once as structure, insulation and cladding elements," explained the studio.
Concrete modules form the six houses
Slanted roofs add extra ceiling height, and glazed ends under deep eaves bring light into the interiors.
"Designed and licensed as a collective housing building, with this feature this project offers the main advantages of single houses," said Summary.
"There are clearly individualised entrances and complete acoustic separation between the different units."
Yellow walls contrast with raw concrete walls
The raw concrete structure has been left bare to continue to minimise costs. Bright yellow internal elements, such as doors and room dividers, and powder-blue built-in kitchens add pops of colour to the homes' interiors.
Sliding doors save on space and a table on casters can slot in under the counter as a breakfast bar or be rolled out to be used for group dining.
Each house has its own entrance and no shared walls
Summary was founded by Samuel Gonçalves in 2015 and is based in Porto.
Architect: Summary Project leader: Samuel Gonçalves Architects: Samuel Gonçalves, Inês Rodrigues, João Meira, Gonçalo Vaz de Carvalho Client: Private Engineering: FTS, Technical Solutions Prefabrication and assembly: Farcimar, Soluções em Pré-Fabricados de Betão
American petwear brand Pagerie has released its debut collection Sahara, featuring a leather dog collar, leash and harness treated in the same tannery as Hermès's coveted Birkin bags.
The business bills itself as the world's first "luxury fashion house for pets", and each piece is made by hand using sandy-hued, full-grain French leather and marine-grade stainless steel normally reserved for making yachts.
The Babbi harness is paired with the as-yet unreleased Colombo harness
"I just always found it odd when I'd see people dressed immaculately but then their dog is sporting a bright red plastic leash from a chain pet store," founder Mandy Madden Kelley told Dezeen.
"Our pets are a reflection and extension of ourselves and I realised there was such a gap in the market for products that live up to that connection."
A steel turnlock graces the front of the Dórro collar
The Sahara collection shuns an overly cutesy or utilitarian look in favour of a minimalist design and form-fitting silhouette reminiscent of equestrian equipment.
"Everything about Pagerie's styles, shapes cuts and patterns is meant to conform to the shapes and contours of our dogs," said Kelley.
"Other pet accessories tend to be too sporty, masculine or they tend to cover the pet's entire body. What I was looking for was something more sensual. I wanted to create designs that highlight the gracefulness and elegance that pets have."
The turnlock can be closed by flipping down the central hook
At $380, the Dórro collar is the cheapest item in the collection and comes with a buckle that can be adjusted to its wearer on first use.
From then on, the collar can be fastened and unfastened in a process "as seamless as opening and closing your Birkin", Kelley explained, simply by closing the steel turnlock and securing it by flipping down the hook at the centre.
The matching Tascher leash can be set to three different lengths and used for two dogs simultaneously. It also comes with a cylindrical pouch for doggie bags or treats, rendered in the same sand-coloured leather as the other pieces.
As the most expensive piece, the $720 Babbi harness is modelled after a horse's saddle and even comes with a removable, quilted lining similar to the saddle pads worn by horses.
The Babbi harness comes with removable quilted padding
Kelley, a former lawyer and current beauty influencer, argues the collection's price tag is justified because it will encourage slower, more considered consumption.
"I would be shocked walking into someone's homes if they had several different leashes and collars simply because they weren't able to come across something high quality that they love," she said.
"Quality costs more but it can last a lifetime. When my team and I developed the designs for Pagerie, we made them to be timeless, high-quality pieces that would never go out of style or need to be disposed of or replaced."
The Sahara collection is the first release by petwear label Pagerie
A tropical garden can be seen from within this spa in Sukhumvit, Bangkok, which architecture studio Space Popular has designed with soothing green and white treatment rooms.
Infinity Wellbeing is set within a building on one of the side streets, or "sois", that lead off Sukhumvit's main road.
It is entered via a luscious garden planted with dragon trees and lipstick palms, which Space Popular hopes will offset the shops, food vendors and towering skyscrapers that cluster around the spa.
Above image: the garden that surrounds the spa's entrance. Top image: one of the spa's treatment rooms.
"Designing the arrival and departure sequence is perhaps the most challenging element as the interior ambience is highly contrasting with the bustling street atmosphere in Bangkok," the studio's founders, Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, told Dezeen.
"Through the leaves of the garden, the spa is in strong contrast to the street with its often chaotic collage of sounds and sights."
The spa's reception is decked out in calming shades of green and white
The leafy plants also help obscure views through to the interior of the spa, where the studio has continued the calming ambience by utilising a serene colour palette of off-whites and pastel greens.
Lesmes and Hellberg were particularly inspired to use the colour after coming across a local green-hued marble.
Chairs in the spa are part of Space Popular's latest furniture collection
At the centre of the reception area is a fluted white service counter. Sheer white curtains have then been hung at the peripheries of the room, serving as a backdrop to customer seating areas.
The accompanying armchairs, recliners and bar stools are all from Space Popular's latest range of furniture called The Second Collection. Each piece features a tubular mint-green framework and "petroleum-blue" upholstery.
Mint-green timber louvres line the spa's corridors
Green tube-like bases also feature on the stone-topped side tables dotted throughout the room, which also come as part of The Second Collection.
A contrasting pop of colour is provided by the copper-tone grid that runs across the reception's backlit ceiling. Stems of the grid extend down and away from the ceiling to form overhead lamps.
Green-terrazzo vanity units feature in the spa's treatment rooms
Corridors lined with mint-coloured timber louvres lead through to Infinity Wellbeing's white-painted treatment rooms, most of which have been finished with vanity stands and washbasins crafted from green terrazzo.
The garden-facing massage rooms are slightly moodier in tone – walls are clad in dark teal acoustic panels, while packaging foam is used to create coffered ceilings. Space Popular said it wanted to juxtapose high-end and humble materials like this from the outset of the project.
"It's a contrast often seen throughout Bangkok, which despite its abundance of luxury and shine manages to maintain its agility and inventiveness through its market and street food culture," the studio explained.
The moody massage rooms have up-close views of the garden
Only one of the treatment rooms, which boasts sandy-pink walls, diverts from the colour palette seen in the rest of the spa. It also has a dramatic tiered ceiling which staggers upwards into a cone-like shape.
"[The room] had very particular constraints due to where it was located – it doesn't face the garden – so we decided to turn it into its own world," added Space Popular.
A tiered ceiling is the focal point of another treatment room
This is the second branch that the studio has designed for the spa company. The first location, which is simply titled Infinity, was completed back in 2017. It's situated in Bangkok's Bang Rak district, occupying a pair of traditional Thai shophouses.
Twenty-seven years ago while studying at the University of Illinois, illustrator Diana Sudyka (previously) retrieved a bundle of postcards from a dumpster. The ephemeral correspondence revealed a relationship between farmers and workers from the Harvard area and a man named John Dwyer, either their accountant or investor who lived throughout Chicago, Cicero, and Berwyn. Dated from 1939 to 1942, the short letters generally contained information about livestock sales and farm expenses.
Now based in the Chicago area, Sudyka repurposes the envelopes as canvases for her watercolor and gouache paintings of flora and fauna native to the Midwest. “I have a strong attachment to the envelopes for various reasons, not least of which is that I was born and raised in Illinois, and spent a good deal of time in rural areas of the state,” she shares with Colossal. The penmanship, patina, and markings on the paper all inform her decisions to reflect a particular shrub or beetle duo amongst the remaining postmark and stamp. “I am drawn to the beauty of the handwriting on the envelopes, and the variation in the inks used,” she says, also noting her affinity for the assembled artworks of late artist Joseph Cornell.
Through delicate depictions of squirrels and long-legged herons, the illustrator connects her own experience enjoying the region’s bucolic settings with the decades-old content of the letters. “I often think about the wildlife that I saw as a child in those rural areas, unaware at the time of how much agriculture had already altered the land. And now as an adult, so much of both wildlife and those family farms are gone. The envelope paintings are my homage to both,” she says.
Prints of Sudyka’s postcard illustrations, which you can follow on Instagram, are available on her site.
