Zaha Hadid Architects unveils pebble-shaped science museum for Shenzhen

A cascade of terraces will frame a large atrium at the heart of the Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum that Zaha Hadid Architects is developing in China.

Slated for completion in late 2023, the pebble-shaped museum will encompass 125,000-square-metres and contain a mix of public spaces, galleries and educational facilities.

It has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects as a landmark for Shenzhen's new Guangming Science City – a masterplan intended to establish the city as a hub for innovation.

The museum will be built beside Guangming Park in Shenzhen. Visual is by Slashcube

"The museum will be a key destination to learn and explore the power of science and technology and understand their impact on our life and future," explained Zaha Hadid Architects.

"Linked with universities, schools and innovation centres across China, the museum will form the region's world-class Science City, becoming a landmark institution that will showcase and strengthen Shenzhen's global position as a leading centre of innovation and technology."

A cascade of terraces will frame the entrance area

Inside, the Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum will have a U-shaped plan that bends around the vast atrium at its centre, designed by the studio to cater for "intuitive orientation and navigation".

The plan is reflected externally where the building's smooth pebble-shaped form breaks up into a series of terraces, framing a large glazed wall. This wall marks the entrance to the museum and opens into the atrium.

It will have a U-shaped plan that evokes a pebble externally. Visual is by Slashcube

The terraces and large glazed wall have been positioned to the west of the site, providing views of the adjacent Guangming Park.

Long areas of glazing will also be placed along the lengths of the museum to offer passersby glimpses inside and the atrium will contain large projecting volumes that frame views into the galleries.

An atrium will sit at the heart of the museum. Visual is by Slashcube

Once complete, many of the museum's galleries will be used for permanent exhibitions, while others will be designed to be easily adapted.

This is hoped to ensure the museum's longevity and allow it to host a variety of different exhibitions so that visitors have "a rich and varied experience each time they visit".

According to Zaha Hadid Architects, eco-friendly strategies will also play a key role in the design, with the goal of it becoming "a benchmark for sustainability" in the region and achieving the highest rating in the Three Star System – China’s green building standard.

It will utilise high-performance thermal insulation and energy-efficient glazing, alongside smart building management that can automatically monitor internal environmental conditions, such as temperature, and help minimise the building's energy consumption.

The galleries will be designed to be easily adapted. Visual is by Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects is an international architecture studio that was established in 1980 by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. Today it is headed up by Patrik Schumacher with its main office is in Clerkenwell, London.

Elsewhere in China, the studio is currently designing the palatial Xi'an International Football Centre stadium, OPPO Shenzhen headquarters and the "greenest building" in Shanghai for renewable energy firm CECEP.

Visuals are by BRICK unless stated.

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Jonathan Tuckey Design updates London apartment with pink and pistachio-green storage walls

Pastel storage walls curve and dip through the rooms of this apartment in London's Marylebone neighbourhood, which has been overhauled by architecture studio Jonathan Tuckey Design.

The apartment is situated along Upper Wimpole Street, occupying the ground floor of a Regency-era townhouse that had a rather poor internal layout and limited storage space.

Top image: the apartment's bedroom. Above: a pale-pink storage wall dominates a corner of the living room

"[The apartment] was split linearly and devoid of any sense of hierarchy or public/private spaces," Jonathan Tuckey Design told Dezeen. "The bedroom spilled from the communal hall and was completely visible from the main street and front door."

There was also a significant lack of storage, meaning its owners were unable to hide away the "untidiness of everyday life".

Inhabitants are guided through a tiled corridor

Instead of fitting standard shelves and cupboards, the studio set out to fashion built-in furniture in the form of MDF storage walls, which would be able to comfortably accommodate the inhabitants' breadth of belongings.

By constructing these deep-set storage walls, Tuckey and his team also hoped it would create intricate "rooms within rooms", a concept they had become interested in by looking at American architect Louis Kahn's studies of Scottish castles. Kahn observed how ancillary rooms for servants were often built around main living spaces, set into the castles thick outer walls.

A small antechamber features pistachio-green storage walls

Another point of reference were two oil paintings by 15th-century Italian artist Stefano di Giovanni: Saint Francis Before the Sultan and Saint Francis Renounces His Earthly Father.

In the two works, the saint and other biblical figures are depicted standing inside green and pink rooms that feature a series of soaring archways.

"These works helped conceptualise the joinery pieces as an internal architecture, housed within the larger volume of the building," the studio explained.

"They were designed with the ambition of being able to subdivide spaces but also create a relationship with the vertical proportions of the rooms."

An arched doorway looks through to the master bedroom

In keeping with Giovanni's colour palette, Jonathan Tuckey Design has created a pale-pink storage wall in the apartment's living room.

It is inbuilt with flush cupboards, glass-fronted cabinets and a couple of arched niches where small trinkets can be displayed. There's also a decorative golden strip running along the walls upper edge, along with few brass spotlights.

The wall winds up and around an existing marble fireplace before dipping into a short corridor, where the floor has been clad with a striking mix of black and white triangular tiles.

The bedroom has been finished with a green headboard and side tables

Inhabitants are lead through to a small antechamber. Storage walls here are pistachio green and include open shelves. A tall arched doorway grants access to the master bedroom proper, which has been finished with matching green side tables and a huge bed with an emerald-coloured headboard.

The apartment's pastel scheme takes a detour in the study, where the MDF joinery is stained in a natural wood colour. One of this room's walls has also been inset with navy-blue panelling.

The apartment's study features contrasting blue panelling

This isn't the only residential project that features distinctive storage solutions.

Cubículo Arquitectos added extra storage to an apartment in Porto by installing birch-plywood cupboards around its existing structural columns. Lookofsky Architecture also helped the owners of a Stockholm flat maximise on space by erecting a seven-metre-long, sunshine-yellow storage wall.

Photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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Formafantasma watch for Rado is a "modern take on a historic tradition"

Rado Design Week continues with the launch of a special edition of Rado's True Square watch by Formafantasma, which the Italian design duo explain references traditional pocket watches in this exclusive video by Dezeen.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the Italian duo behind Formafantasma, have designed a minimal version of Rado's True Square timepiece that features a small opening on the front to tell the time.

Called True Square Formafantasma, the watch revives a design feature of many traditional pocket watches, which feature a small window on the front of the case so the time can be viewed without opening it.

"We were inspired by traditional pocket watches and closed watches so our design is a modern take on this historic tradition," Trimarchi said in the video.

The monochrome watch's dials sit behind a small window that floats in the middle of the True Square's watch face, which blends into the linked strap of the watch.

The designers worked with Rado to develop their watch design using the brand's injection moulding technology and signature high-tech ceramic material.

"Working with Rado was engaging because the level of expertise in watchmaking is obviously excellent," Farresin said in the video. "There is a clear understanding of the potentials of design."

Trimarchi and Farresin founded Formafantasma in 2009 after graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, founders of Formafantasma

Their work often investigates materials through their historical context and attempts to act as a bridge between their research-based practice and the wider design industry.

The pair have recently curated a research-focused exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London investigating the global impact of the forestry industry and in 2019 they designed a collection of tiles glazed with volcanic ash.

The duo also recently won Designer of the Year at the 2020 Dezeen Awards.

Trimarchi and Farresin will be speaking about the watch to Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs and Rado's CEO Adrian Bosshard and its vice president of product development Hakim El Kadiri, in a live talk at 4:00pm London time today as part of Rado Design Week.

Formafantasma's True Square watch is one of four watches by a roster of global designers that will be revealed during Rado Design Week, a week-long collaboration between the Swiss watch brand and Dezeen.

Dezeen will publish exclusive videos revealing special editions of Rado's True Square watch by designers Formafantasma, Tej Chauhan and Thukral & Tagra, followed by a live conversation with each of the designers. Click here to check out the schedule.

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Yinka Ilori's first homeware collection turns functional items into artworks

Dezeen Showroom: London designer Yinka Ilori has translated the characteristic, joyful patterns that grace his large-scale installations into a limited-edition homeware collection.

The 20-piece range marks Ilori's first foray into household items, spanning rugs, cushions, stoneware and tablecloths alongside more unexpected utilitarian items such as melamine trays, tea towels and enamel mugs.

Above: Yinka Ilori's homeware collection has 20 pieces. Top image: The Omi tray is styled with the Aami Aami plate and tablecloth

"I like the idea of turning something that we normally don't pay much attention to in the home into something artistic, a statement piece that has a narrative behind it," he told Dezeen.

"I think we spend so much time being distracted by other things that we tend to not appreciate functional design as much as we could."

It includes three rectangular pillowcases, each with a different pattern

Rather than collaborating with an established design company to realise the pieces, Ilori took control over their creation from start to finish to maintain creative independence.

The results are being released by Ilori's newly established, self-titled brand, which will be for sale primarily on his own website.

"I wanted to establish a homewares brand in-house as I felt it was important for myself and the studio team here to have a complete, self-sufficient understanding of the whole process, from design concept through to production and retail," he said.

"Lockdown cancelled many of our projects this year so it gave us the time back to start making this idea into a reality."

The same pattern is emblazoned on different pieces from mugs and bowls to plates and pillows

Each piece is created in collaboration with different craftsmen and suppliers, with stoneware bowls and plates made in Portugal while rugs are hand-knotted in Nepal.

Much like streetwear, they will be released in limited edition "drops", in order to feel out where there is most demand from the public and allow this to guide the direction of the business.

The Omi plate (left) can be paired with the Parable placemats as well as the Aami Aami plate (right)

The motifs themselves were taken directly from the designer's previous work and scaled down to fit onto the different homeware pieces, which "act as mini canvases".

A series of circular coasters and placemats are emblazoned with some of the seminal seating designs that launched Ilori's career, while other pieces feature patterns directly transposed from his installations.

The Aami Aami print is also turned into a tablecloths

Like much of Ilori's work, these prints combine both his Nigerian roots and impressions from his childhood in north London.

"The patterns I've used in this collection were based on the idea of a cultural exchange – a merging of African and English cultures and customs," he said.

"For me, these patterns represent both the past and the present, uniting two cultures together in the London of today and celebrating the society we have now."

Waves and rum barrels feature on the Omi print tea towel (right)

One print, named Omi after the Yoruba word for water, nods to the river Thames and the London Docklands as historical gateways for trade, which facilitated a meeting and mingling of different cultures.

This is visualised through a pattern of lapping, azure blue waves and oval rum barrels, that can be found throughout the collection.

Similarly, two rugs feature the abstracted, repeated motif of a pineapple, which was such a rare luxury item when it was first brought over from South America that London socialites would rent one for a single night to display it at their dinner parties.

The Gangan rug is adorned with a pattern of pineapples

Elsewhere, the collection features enamel mugs, a "classic British design" that nods to the country's industrial history, alongside household linens, which Ilori says carry a particular nostalgia for him.

In his childhood, hand towels were a democratic object in the house, used by all different members of the family for different purposes, while a tablecloth invariably signalled a special occasion.

Decked out in Ilori's joyful patterns, these simple, functional pieces are allowed to become decorations in their own right.

Ilori will also be selling socks independently of the homeware collection

The drop is available from today via Ilori's website as well as SCP and luxury fashion retailers Browns and Matches.

This year has also seen the trained furniture and product designer stretch his creative muscles to create a skate park near Lille in France as well as the interior for London boutique Mira Mikati.

In September, he was accepted London's 2020 Emerging Design Medal with the words: "I just hope my work inspires the next generation of young designers with a similar background to me."

Collection: Yinka Ilori homeware
Designer: Yinka Ilori
Contact: hello@yinkailori.com

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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