Marcel/a Baltarete uses 3D animation as therapy for gender dysphoria

Royal College of Art graduate Marcel/a Baltarete has created a series of short animations depicting themselves as otherworldly beings to alleviate and interrogate their feelings of gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria describes the distress that can be experienced by people, whose biological sex and gender identity do not match – a feeling Baltarete describes as "grief, discomfort and inadequacy all at the same time".

Above: Baltarete's animation shows their avatar with a translucent body. Top video: A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief II is one of two short films created by the designer

Baltarete, who is nonbinary and uses they/their pronouns, studied fashion at the RCA but changed mediums partway through their graduate degree. They taught themself how to work with 3D modelling, augmented and virtual reality.

"I started feeling uncomfortable and dishonest with fitting garments on other people's bodies when I realised I didn't have a good understanding of my own body, as the questions around my own gender identity started to surface," they told Dezeen.

"I knew I had to explore these questions on my own body, but doing so in real life would have felt too exposing, so the digital world allowed me to maintain a safe distance."

Baltarete 3D scanned their head to create a virtual avatar of themselves, which is digitally enhanced and animated to transform into digital beings with fur, translucent horns or impossibly glossy skin.

In two short films, titled A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief part one and two, the designer plays with abstracted body parts that suggest different sexual organs, as a way of exploring their feelings about different gender expressions without having to engage with the realities of their own body.

A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief I 

Baltarete described the process as therapeutic, saying that it was able to relieve their feelings of gender dysphoria in favour of an unprecedented "gender euphoria".

"Digital re-embodiment allowed me to reimagine an alternative way of living, a post-human, trans-human future where I wouldn't be limited by any physical or mental constraints," they said.

"It also allowed me to question my desire for a fit, masculine-appearing body and if this is something I genuinely identify with or a product of my internalised misogyny."

The medium of animation allows Baltarete to experiment with adding or subtracting different body parts

Baltarete is currently an artist in residence at The Immersive Kind, an interdisciplinary collective working to ensure that digital technologies contribute to an accessible, inclusive and sustainable future rather than simply being used as a means of surveillance and subjugation.

A crucial step in this, according to the initiative's co-founder Kadine James, is broadening access to new technologies among people of colour and the LGBT+ community, which is underrepresented in the tech world.

A Journey of Digital Introspection and Relief Part I features less detailed graphics than the second part

"Queer designers have the power to present alternative approaches to digital representation," she told Dezeen.

"What we explored with Marcel/a was how we can work towards redesigning and inspiring 21st-century, inclusive approaches to the digitalisation of society.

"To Marcel/a, the digital human can become an extension of a real human. There is a sense of freedom and liberation present in their work that can only be represented through the medium of extended reality," James continued.

Virtual and augmented reality are already being used as forms of therapy, with companies including Oxford VR and Stanford University's VR-IT clinic using it to treat phobias, social anxiety and PTSD.

Baltarete's avatar is depicted with horns or iridescent fur

Baltarete explained that their project could also help other people alleviate the depression and anxiety that can be associated with gender dysphoria.

"If this entire experience could take place in VR in a very realistic manner where you can physically experience a different body, I imagine the effects would be much greater," Baltarete said.

Interdisciplinary art collective BeAnotherLab has previously created a virtual reality headset that allows users to swap genders, in order to help them experience life from a different perspective.

Last year also saw creative agency Virtue develop the world's first gender-neutral voice, in a bid to eradicate bias in technology.

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Urbania is an interactive exhibition about city planning in Prague

Architecture platform RSAA designed Urbania, an immersive exhibition about city planning, for the Prague Institute of Planning and Development in the Czech Republic.

The installation at Prague's Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP) has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the exhibition design category.

Trained guides took visitors on a guided tour of the exhibition, which featured light, sound and interactive installations.

Top: visitors could pedal a bicycle. Above: some of the eight stations in the exhibition

Visitors were invited to pedal a bicycle, call their grandmother from a phone booth, sit on benches and walk around a stylised scale model of a factory filled with objects framed by cutouts.

Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Praha) set up Urbania to teach residents of the Czech Republic's capital about urban planning and change negative perceptions of civil servants.

A model of a factory filled with manufactured objects

As well as educating guests, the guides also debriefed them and gathered their responses to feedback to IPR Praha to help the institution with research.

"Urbania is part an audio-visual experience, part a platform for debate, which using an immersive setting demonstrates some of the typical situations that come up in city development," said IPR Praha.

"Urbania is accompanied by a photo installation throughout the city, which prominently displays photos of civil servants and their actual quotes, which aim to challenge the often negative perception of public sector employees," the organisers added.

"The intent is to humanise their challenges while also showing the positive impact they can have and the necessity of the role of the civil servant."

The exhibition encouraged interaction from visitors

RSAA designed eight different interactive stations for Urbania, themed around the topics of participation, inter-sectional cooperation, organisation, pilot projects, strategy, communication, failure and adaptability.

Technology experts 3dsense designed a light and sound show to create a different backdrop for each section and an overall engaging experience.

Light and sound were part of the experience

A 60-minute-long soundscape featuring a story narrated by the fictional character of Urbania played over the timed visitor experience.

Urbania was originally scheduled to run from January to February 2020, but was extended to March due to the popularity of the exhibition.

A phone booth was another interactive installation

RSAA was founded in 2009 by Bronislav Stratil and Jan Roháč and is based in Prague.

Other exhibitions shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 include an exhibition on the history of video games in Madrid and an interactive installation about ASMR in Stockholm.

Urbania took place from 16 January to 13 March 2020 at IPR Praha's Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Gregory sofa by Antonio Citterio for Flexform

Dezeen Showroom: Leather straps peek out from below the plush upholstery of the Gregory sofa, designed by Antonio Citterio for Italian furniture brand Flexform.

The straps form the webbing that holds up the Gregory sofa's seat cushions and criss-cross its metal base, making for a rich interplay of different textures.

Crafted from cowhide, the straps are rendered in chocolate brown, black or tobacco, and can be matched or contrasted with different metal finishes, which range from shiny chrome to burnished, smoky grey.

The Gregory sofa features a metal base crossed by leather straps

"Couture tailoring" distinguishes the seat cushions in the form of French grosgrain piping, while the backrest and bolster cushions are filled with goose down to amp up the cosiness.

The sofa is made up of modular units, which can be arranged and rearranged to fit different spaces, making the design "perfectly poised between classicism and modernity".

Product: Gregory sofa
Designer: Antonio Citterio
Brand: Flexform
Contact: info@flexform.it

About Dezeen Showroom: Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

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Mosbach Paysagistes creates park for Taichung on site of former airport

Phase Shifts Park in Taichung, Taiwan, has been designed by French landscape architects Mosbach Paysagistes and combines nature and technology to create a refuge from the heat and pollution of the city.

The park, built on the site of Taichung's old airport, includes undulating surfaces that channel rainwater, as well as outdoor play areas for families and sports facilities, all connected by winding pathways.

Winding pathways crisscross the 70-hectare park

Mosbach Paysagistes collaborated with Philippe Rahm Architectes and Ricky Liu & Associates Architects + Planners for the project, which is also known as Jade Eco Park.

The project has been shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 in the landscape project category.

The old airport has been turned into a park for the city

Taiwan has a humid subtropical climate, warmed by the Kuroshio ocean current. The park is designed to create pockets of fresher, cleaner air through landscaping and technology.

The design team began by producing a series of maps using data from three computational fluid dynamics simulations. One map covers heat distribution across the site, another humidity and the third air quality.

Undulating surfaces channel rainwater

Cooling technologies used in Phase Shifts Park include misting devices that release clouds of water vapour, and underground heat exchangers that blow cool air at people as they walk through the park.

Drying devices use silica gel to absorb water from the air before circulating it, while air filters remove pollutants such as particulate matter from vehicle emissions.

Technology in the park includes dehumidifiers

Mosquito-repelling devices emit an ultrasound that's too high for human ears to detect but mimics the frequency of a dragonfly's wings, scaring the bothersome insects away.

These technologies, as well as the park's street lighting, are powered by solar panels on the north and south side of the 70-hectare site.

Mosquitos are frighted away by the sound of dragonfly wings

Mosbach Paysagistes planted trees with wide, waxy leaves or white flowers to act as a natural cooling device by creating shade or reflecting sunlight.

These trees also provide shelter from rain showers and absorb some of the moisture from the air through aerial roots, reducing humidity.

Solar panels power the park's air-purifying technology

Roads have been partially buried, with tunnels underneath hummocks that provide hills for people to walk over and cut down on traffic pollution.

Mosbach Paysagistes designed different gardens around Phase Shifts Park, each with different native plants to encourage certain local insects and wildlife.

Pavilions with toilet facilities light up at night

The few structures around the park, such as a maintenance shelter and some educational pavilions, are realised in an unobtrusive pale grey colour to match the street furniture.

At night, the public toilet pavilion lights up to helpfully guide visitors to the restroom facilities.

Mosbach Paysagistes was founded by Catherine Mosbach in 1987. Previous projects include the landscaping around an outpost of the Louvre in northern France.

Other landscape architecture project shortlisted for Dezeen include a playground formed of folds and tunnels in Changzhou and an underground bike parking place in Copenhagen.

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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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