Estúdio 41 completes prefabricated Antarctic research station for Brazil

Two prefabricated volumes form the Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station, which Estúdio 41 has completed for the Brazilian Navy's scientific research programme in King George Island, Antarctica.

Located near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the teal-hued 4,500-square-metre facility houses the naval service's Brazilian Antarctic Program, replacing its 1980s base that was ravaged by fire in 2012.

Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station's setting on King George Island

Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station takes the form of two linear, interlinked vessels that comprise 17 laboratories and accommodation for 64 scientists.

It also contains shared living areas, a gym and a library, incorporated by Curitiba-based Estúdio 41 to support the wellbeing of the occupants and offer them respite from the Antarctic's inhospitable landscape.

It has a teal-hued prefabricated structure

"The challenges of designing a building for this landscape was creating a shelter, a safe place," studio architect Eron Costin explained.

"In certain parts of the planet, nature sometimes creates harsh conditions for the human body," he told Dezeen.

"To design a building in these places is almost like building a garment, an artefact that protects and comforts. It is an issue of technological performance, but it must go hand-in-hand with aesthetics."

The base comprises two linked volumes

Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station is powered by solar panels and wind turbines. It measures twice the size of the Brazilian Navy's original base in order to accommodate more researchers.

The two linear volumes are aerodynamic, helping to reduce the drag of Antarctic winds that can reach up to 200 kilometres per hour, and elevated on stilts to prevent snow accumulation. They are positioned at different heights to ensure each space has an outward view.

Due to the remoteness and harsh climate of the site, the Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station had to be entirely prefabricated.

Its parts were manufactured in China and then shipped to Antarctica over the course of three years, with construction only taking place during the four warmest months of each one.

Stilts elevate both volumes to stop snow accumulating

The facility's structure is made out of carbon steel, a form of steel with a high carbon content that was chosen for its durability and ability to withstand Antarctica's harsh climate.

Its teal-coloured facade is made of 22-centimetres-thick sandwich panels that combine two metal sheets with thermal insulation made from polyisocyanurate – a type of thermoset plastic.

The facility is powered by wind turbines. Photo is by Eron Costin

Inside, the interiors of the facility are designed to accommodate the best technology available for the researchers, while creating a spacious and comfortable environment.

All the finishes are bright and minimal, with all rooms complete with a window to help boost occupant wellbeing and create a connection to the outside.

Every room has a view outside. Photo is by Eron Costin

Other recent projects based in Antarctica include Kuryłowicz&Associates' proposal for a golden research centre and the Discovery Building for the British Antarctic Survey by Hugh Broughton Architects and Ramboll with NORR and Turner & Townsend.

In 2013, Hugh Broughton Architects also created the world's first mobile research facility on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf.

Photography is by Leonardo Finotti unless stated.

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Photographs capture OMA's Jewish temple extension taking shape in LA

These photographs by architect Alessandra Cianchetta capture the construction of the tilted and patterned walls of the extension OMA has designed for a Jewish temple in Los Angeles, California.

The project, called Audrey Irmas Pavilion, will mark OMA's first cultural building in California when it completes early next year.

Audrey Irmas Pavilion will have slanted walls covered in hexagonal tiles

First unveiled in 2018, it will provide a series of multi-functional gathering spaces alongside the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, which is home to one of the largest Jewish congregations in the city.

As shown in Cianchetta's photos, the design is composed of tilted walls that will be eventually completely covered in hexagonal shapes. These tiles are punctured by rectangular openings that are rotated in different directions.

The windows are rotated in different directions

OMA developed the decorative exterior to reference the interior murals of the existing building, which was completed in 1929 and provides an example of Byzantine Revival architecture style, with key features including its dome-shaped roof.

The slanted facades of Audrey Irmas Pavilion will be punctured by an arched doorway facing the street and an opening to terrace on the western wall.

There will also be a third smaller glazed opening below this that forms an entrance from a courtyard slotted between the old and new buildings.

Inside, Audrey Irmas Pavilion will have the main event space, a smaller multi-purpose room and a sunken garden. According to the firm, these will be "stacked one atop another to establish vantage points and framed views in and out".

The decorative exterior is intended to reference the interior murals of the existing building

OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu and his New York-based team won a competition in 2015 to design the extension – named after lead donor Audrey Irmas – for the Erika J Glazer Family Campus.

Occupying an entire block, the campus is composed of the temple, an early-learning centre, elementary school and a religious school.

Audrey Irmas Pavilion is among a number of projects that OMA New York has underway across the US. Others include the design of galleries in Gio Ponti's Denver Art Museum and an extension of the historic Tiffany & Co store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Photography is by Alessandra Cianchetta.

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RIBA warns of housing emissions crisis from surge in home working

The increase in people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic risks a housing emissions crisis unless the government takes urgent action, says the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The Greener Homes report, released today by the Royal British Institute of Architects (RIBA), warned the UK will see a dramatic increase in the proportion of total emissions from housing as more people work from their homes rather than offices.

Energy efficiency must be upgraded

UK housing stock is among the least energy efficient in Europe said the report. Nearly a fifth of the country's carbon emissions came from the residential sector in 2019, up from 15 per cent in 2008.

RIBA's called for the UK government to bring forward a National Retrofit Strategy – a long-term policy and investment programme that would help upgrade the energy efficiency of UK housing.

Among the measures it suggests is a sliding scale of stamp duty – a tax you pay when you buy a property or piece of land – which would be capped at £25,000 pounds and see the most energy-efficient homes accrue less tax than the least.

Retrofit funds should be released now

The report recommended that the UK government front-loads the £9.2 billion it has earmarked for energy efficiency improvements over the next decade and instead spends it under this government.

RIBA also called for better targeting of income support payments such as the winter fuel payment, stronger standards for new homes, and a clear long-term timeline for increasing the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for both the private and social rented sectors.

The National Retrofit Strategy should also include more information and regulation of the quality of building work carried out to make energy efficiency improvements, RIBA said.

UK homes "shamefully behind" Europe

If the UK is to meet its target of net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050, there has to be a near-total elimination of emissions from its housing stock argued RIBA.

“When it comes to energy efficiency, our homes are fundamentally below the mark," RIBA President Alan Jones said.

"Our housing stock sits shamefully behind most European neighbours, and this will only be made more obvious by the changes in working habits brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic."

"We need urgent government action – a National Retrofit Strategy – with front-loaded spending that would double as a fiscal stimulus and a new stamp duty policy to encourage homeowners to think twice about opting for sub-standard homes," he added.

Last year, RIBA launched a sustainability guide to "deliver real and lasting reductions in carbon emissions", which outlined sustainable design principles and performance metrics for the architecture profession.

The initiative supports RIBA's 2030 Climate Challenge, an initiative to encourage its members to achieve net-zero whole-life carbon for all new and retrofitted buildings by 2030.

In 2019, the organisation declared a state of climate emergency and committed to a five-year plan of action for climate change.

Main image by Deeezy for Pixabay.

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Listening to Swan Lake Awakens the Memory of a Former Ballerina with Alzheimer’s

We’re not crying, you’re crying. Music’s ability to improve the mood and boost cognitive skills in people with dementia has long been documented. “Music is no luxury to them, but a necessity,” wrote neurologist Oliver Sacks in his book Musicophilia. “It can have a power beyond anything else to restore them to themselves, and to others, at least for a while.” Such is the case in this video of former NYC ballet dancer Marta C. González who was given the opportunity to listen to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, a piece of music we can assume she performed numerous times as shown in the interspersed archival clips from the 1960s. The music seems to awaken the choreography stored deep in her brain as she begins to spontaneously perform from her wheelchair. González founded and directed her own dance ensemble called Rosamunda.

The video was recorded last year in Valencia, Spain and published by Música para Despertar (Awakening Music), a non-profit organization that brings music to patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dimension to help raise awareness of its therapeutic impact. (via Kottke)

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TRNK's Provenanced exhibition pays homage to the influence of African and non-western design

New York design brand TRNK has juxtaposed furniture by seven contemporary design studios with vintage African masks and furniture for its Provenanced exhibition.

The exhibition, which is online-only, features work by designers including Sardinia-based Pretziada, Tbilisi design studio Rooms, and Ethiopian American artist and industrial designer Jomo Tariku.

Among the pieces showcased is the Nyala chair by Tariku, whose shape was inspired by the east African mountain antelope, and the stoneware and raffia Bona lamp by Barcelona-based ceramicist Marta Bonilla.

The Nyala chair draws its shape from the horns and hind legs of the Bale Mountains antelope

Provenanced mixes the contemporary commissioned works with vintage African masks and chairs, including a Baule mblo mask from the Ivory Coast and a hand-carved chair made by the Lobi people in the early 20th century.

The exhibition aims to underline how African and non-western design has influenced western artists and designers for centuries without being fully contextualised, according to TRNK founder Tariq Dixon.

The exhibition juxtaposes traditional masks with modern and vintage furniture

"This idea had been brewing in my head for a while, and it’s a conversation that comes up with my peers of colour quite often," Dixon told Dezeen.

Dixon felt a greater sense of urgency about bringing the exhibition to life when conversations around race and racial diversity became a global dialogue in June of this year, after the killing of George Floyd in May.

"Within the design industry, it seemed to me that the most visible conversations were centred around representation, diversity, and inclusion, however, I didn’t feel like these conversations alone were sufficient," he said.

"These gestures act as a band-aid – albeit, a necessary one at this point – but if we are to realise lasting, sustainable change, we have to unpack our wrought histories and the legacies that still plague us with ignorance or biases."

The Bona lamp is made from stoneware and raffia

The designers featured in Provenanced were chosen specifically to let viewers explore the connection between the contemporary designs and the vintage works.

"I wanted to achieve a visual seamlessness with the selected works so that viewers could easily connect the dots between past and present, non-western and western," Dixon said. "All of the works share similar visual languages when it comes to form, line and materiality."

"I also wanted to highlight the breadth and depth of these African and Indigenous contributions to western design by selecting designers with varied origin stories and levels of intentionality. Not all of the designers would consider African or Indigenous art forms as primary sources of inspiration."

A number of the pieces on show, both modern and historic, are forms of seating, which Dixon sees as an example of a storied, reciprocal relationship between African and western design.

"It’s easy to see how western cultures have taken inspiration from the languages presented by the two vintage chairs (Jimma and Lobi) presented in the exhibition," he said.

"The African influence over seating was especially popular in the Art Deco movement with designers like Victor Courtray and Pierre Legrain."

Partera was informed by Mexican birthing chairs

A contemporary example is Ewe Studio's Partera chair, informed by ancient birthing chairs that were used in Mexico and around the world and are still popular today.

"Our re-interpretation carefully derived by respecting its origin, history, and portraying the power of the object, reflected in its shape and the process of hand-carving and burning the wood," the studio said.

Though the contemporary pieces on show are made by global studios, none of the designers featured in the Provenanced exhibition are based in Africa.

"This was definitely a consideration, but I instead decided to centre this exhibition on how African and Indigenous visual languages have penetrated western design culture," Dixon said.

A vintage Grebo mask (centre) on show at Provenanced

"I wanted to illuminate the ways in which these contributions have been largely erased or obscured by our colonialist legacies, now either unknown or unacknowledged by the western design industry at large," he added.

"The exhibition was also an opportunity for the participating designers to self-reflect, and in some cases, reconsider how they think about and explain their references."

He intends to continue the Provenanced project and hold future exhibitions with new contributors.

"I would certainly like to offer African and designers from the Black diaspora to respond, either by recontextualizing these sources of inspiration or responding to western reinterpretations of these ideas," Dixon said.

The designers and studios taking part in Provenanced are Ewe Studio, Marta Bonilla, Rooms, Pretziada, Ben and Aja Blanc, Jomo Tariku and Form Atelier.

Among other recent design exhibitions are Riot Design, for which Italian visual artist Pablo Chiereghin created furniture from smashed-up everyday items, and Alpenglow Project's inaugural show of art by North American designers.

Film and exhibition images are by Form and Rausch.

Provenanced can be viewed online now. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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