Dezeen Showroom:Danish designer Thomas Bentzen's Linear System Series for Muuto includes tables, lighting, screens and trays and was designed to adapt to many different workplaces.
The Linear System Series collection is suitable for workspaces, educational buildings and hospitality settings and includes the pared-down Linear System Table, which is made from oak and comes in a range of different tabletop finishes.
Pendant lights, tables and moveable trays from the Linear System Series
The table can be used as a freestanding piece or as modular tables and is also available in predesigned configurations. It features one power outlet at each end, a USB-A and USB-C plug, and a cable tray made from recycled PET.
The Linear Lamp Series, which comprises a pendant light, a table lamp and a mounted lamp, was designed to complement the tables and evoke classic library settings where users can personalise public workspaces.
Also included in the Linear System Series is a tray and a screen. The tray adds more space for accessories, while the screen can give users more privacy while still allowing them to interact.
"The Linear System Series places people at its centre, being a place to meet, collaborate and work in focused solitude," said Bentzen.
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.
Belgian studio BLAF Architecten used reclaimed bricks to build this house in Ghent with an irregular shape that curves around existing trees.
Called GjG House, the project is set in the grounds of a 19th-century mansion very close to a main road, so the trees act as a screen.
"Instead of cutting the trees, the house was shaped to fit in between them," explained BLAF Architecten.
Existing trees were left undisturbed
BLAF Architecten re-used existing bricks to create the curvilinear walls of the house to cut down on waste, with wood and steel as supporting materials.
Tall, rectangular windows puncture the walls and there are glass doors on the ground floor to bring even more light to the interiors.
Reclaimed bricks were used for sustainability
The studio said it wanted to show off the qualities of using real brick instead of a stuck-on facade.
"Since the introduction of energy performance standards (EPB) in 2006, thermal insulation in building skins gradually got thicker, causing a shift towards light and low-cost facade cladding materials," said BLAF Architecten.
"As for brick buildings, this meant an evolution towards brick tiles glued onto buildings as 'exterior wallpaper'," added the studio.
Inside there are high ceilings with wooden beams
This supposedly environmentally-friendly mode of construction could actually create more waste and pollution further down the line, the studio said.
"We noticed a construction method with layers glued onto each other would lead to the impossibility to separate the materials at the end of the building's life cycle, resulting in huge amounts of non-re-usable waste," it explained.
Glass doors let in daylight
The construction for GjG House also means that inside the space is free from supporting walls.
"The shape of the shell allows it to be structurally autonomous," explained the studio. "The stability of the outer brick wall is not depending on cross walls, columns or beams, but merely on its form and the brick bonding."
Wooden built-in-furniture follows the curving walls
Beams and brick walls are left bare in places as a feature. Platform-style levels create areas of double-height ceilings.
The kitchen is built into a curving wall, with two-tone blue tiles and bare wood cabinetry. The wooden furniture continues along the undulating wall, forming storage and display niches for the dining area.
Two-tone blue tiles form a kitchen splashback
BLAF Architecten was founded by Bart Vanden Driessche und Lieven Nijs in 2003.
Translucent glass tubes meet with curvy roofs "imagined from cloud circles" in this art museum US firm Steven Holl designed for Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Steven Holl Architects' Nancy and Rich Kinder Building – which forms part of a major campus redesign – is split into segments topped with curved roofs. This creates gaps for natural light to enter into the galleries inside the 164,000-square-foot (15,200-square-metre) building.
Curved translucent glass tubes wrap around the building. Photo by Richard Barnes
"The Texas sky opens 180-degrees overhead above a luminous canopy covering the new building," said Steven Holl Architects.
"Concave curves, imagined from cloud circles, push down on the roof geometry, allowing natural light to slip in with precise measure and quality, perfect for top-lit galleries."
Transparent glass tubes are used on the western side around an arcade
Tube-like laminated glass covers the exterior to contrast existing buildings on Museum of Fine Arts Houston campus – including an adjacent transparent glass and steel building by Mies van der Rohe, and an opaque stone building by Rafael Moneo.
On the west side of Nancy and Rich Kinder Building transparent glass tubes wrap around an arcade area.
The building is open to views of gardens outside
The transparent cladding, formed of laminated glass tubes with semicircular sections, is suspended from steel supports cantilevered off the concrete walls. Tubes are bolstered together by aluminium clips and rest on a steel shelf at their base.
A small cavity between the glass and the concrete acts as a "cold jacket" for the building so that it doesn't overheat.
Galleries are arranged over two levels. Photo by Richard Barnes
The tubes follow the building's unusual curvy roofline at the top and have different relationships between with ground. For example, some stop above concrete benches while others are open at the bottom so visitors can look all the way up.
According to the firm, the facade features a total of 1,103 pieces of glass in over 450 different sizes.
Curved roof reflects lights inside
Steven Holl said it developed the facade by experimenting in its workshop with 1:1 scale acrylic rods that were cut in half and laminated to acrylic sheets, which it found to create an interesting light play.
Seven gardens are cut into the building's footprint to denote different entry points with the largest located at the Texas city's Bissonnet and Main Street intersection. This also forms principal access to the Museum of Fine Arts' Susan and Fayez S Sarofim Campus.
Inside, the curved underside of the roof acts as a reflector of the natural light into galleries organised over two levels. They have views into various gardens around the building with trellises providing shade from strong sunlight.
"When standing in the new entrance lobby of the Kinder Building, one can see gardens and lush Houston vegetation in four directions and feel the inviting energy of a new sense of openness to the community," said Steven Holl Architects.
The interiors are arranged around a central atrium
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building is one of two structures that Steven Holl Architects has developed as part of a new masterplan of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (MFAH)'s 14-acre (5.7-hectare) site. The project also involved the replacement of the 35-year-old Glassell School of Art, which was completed in 2018.
The firm beat finalists Morphosis and Snøhetta in an international competition in 2012 for the campus redesign. The firm's scheme, first unveiled in 2015, aimed to add new buildings to offer a "complementary contrast" to structures by Mies van der Rohe and Rafael Moneo.
Windows offer diffuse lighting in bright white galleries
Architect Steven Holl founded his eponymous firm in 1976. Today it has offices in New York and Beijing and is headed up by Holl with partners Chris McVoy, Roberto Bannura and Noah Yaffe.
Featuring John Pawson's pale lime plaster walls in his own minimalist retreat, emerald-green cabinets in Paris and an all-black kitchen situated under a light chimney, the variety gave commenters a lot to talk about.
"The most important social space in any home is the kitchen island," commented Erich Trumpelstiltskin.
Other commenters were concerned about the practicality of some of the materials chosen. "John Pawson's one is a failure," declared Apsco Radiales. "It should have a full-height backsplash that is easy to keep clean."
Egad disagreed. "I have a plaster backsplash in my loft," they said. "I was originally concerned that it would be a problem but turns out after 18(!) years there's been minimal staining."
"Some interesting ideas," continued Apsco Radiales. "One thing I look for in kitchens is a large sink – none seem to have one here. Makes me wonder if these kitchens are not working kitchens but are just for show."
Dave Spence simply enjoyed browsing: "That was too much fun."
The resulting bite-sized pieces of meat, currently on display at the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition, has caused a stir among readers.
"'Technically eating human meat is cannibalism..." commented Barry in response to the designers' claims to the contrary.
Tadeusz Szewczyk (Tad Chef) was also concerned about the morality of the project saying: "Lab-grown meat – be it human or animal-sourced – is neither healthy nor ethical."
"This is further proof there are too many people on this planet without a meaningful occupation," added Jb.
"Finally, we can have our steak and eat it, too," quipped James.
"The metal panels and the wood/white interiors feel blandly on-trend without really referencing a pretty interesting subject matter," criticised Dcxa.
Apsco Radiales had practical concerns: "Wondering how well the stainless steel skin will last over time, winds, temperature changes, expansion, contraction."
But the design is not without its fans. "The project clearly expresses the ideals: discipline, modesty and rigorousness," concluded Wil Worthington. "A Medal of Honor for the architectural design!"
Dezeen is the world's most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page.
An outdoor auditorium will top the student centre that Adjaye Associates is developing for Rice University's forested campus in Houston, Texas.
Slated for completion in 2023, the three-storey facility will encompass 7,400 square metres and replace the university's existing 1950s student hub called the Rice Memorial Center.
Adjaye Associates' proposal is hoped to become the new heart of the 121-hectare campus and will incorporate a distinctive rooftop auditorium, alongside a multicultural centre that supports the diversity and inclusion of students.
Adjaye Associates wins competition for Rice University project
"This is an important and inspiring project for Adjaye Associates and we look forward to collaborating with Rice to imagine a new campus anchor point that engages its community in the most inclusive way possible," said the studio's founder, David Adjaye.
"Responding to the architectural history of the university, the city of Houston and the region, the student center will come to embody its position at the heart of the campus, fostering catalytic connections between undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff activated in both the threshold and formalized spaces of the new building," Adjaye explained.
Above: a visual of the multicultural centre. Top image: an aerial view of the proposed student hub
Adjaye Associates' proposal for the student facility was the winning entry of competition held by Rice University for which there were three finalists.
Though the university has requested that the majority of the existing student hub will be demolished, Adjaye Associates' design will incorporate its original chapel and a memorial to 10 Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps students who died in a plane crash in 1953.
Adjaye Associates has disclosed few details about the student centre's design, though the visuals reveal its massing will be broken into a series of smaller volumes, unified by an earthy-hued gridded facade.
Alongside the oval-shaped auditorium, the rooftop will also incorporate green space and solar panels.
A visual of the multicultural centre reveals that it will have a neutral material palette, lined with curving timber walls.
Once Rice Memorial Center complete, it will be the second building at Rice University to have been designed by a winner of RIBA's Royal Gold Medal, following the completion of Anderson Hall by James Stirling in 1981.
Last year, Adjaye's firm completed a contemporary art centre Ruby City in San Antonio, Texas. The building has an angular, red concrete skin based on a dream of its patron, philanthropist Linda Pace.
