decmyk

Tuesday 8 December 2020

Hooba Design Group clads Tehran office building in brick panels that adjust to the sunlight

Local architecture studio Hooba Design Group has completed an office building for the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, which features a smart brick facade that adapts to different times of the day.

The Sharif Office Building was designed as a communal workspace for the Sharif Innovation Zone next to the university. It was built on top of an existing concrete structure that forms the ground floor of the building.

Exterior of Sharif Office Building by Hooba Design Group — Top image and above: the Sharif Office Building is located next to the university in Tehran

This was expanded and completed with modifications based on Hooba Design Group's new design, which features specially-made smart-brick panels that adjust according to the sunlight.

To create the facade Hooba Design Group designed a brick that took its cue from the 1940s-style bricks that clad the nearby university buildings. The studio's version is larger, with a cut-out in the middle that is the same dimension as the traditional bricks.

Brick facade of Sharif Office Building by Hooba Design Group — Its facade is made from specially-designed bricks

"The intention was to reinterpret the traditional brick used in the university buildings, using industrial bricks," Hooba Design Group founder Hooman Balazadeh told Dezeen.

"The hole in this brick gives a semi-transparent character to the solid block."

These bricks, which were manufactured by Azarakhsh Bricks exclusively for the project, are set on panels equipped with light sensors that adjust according to the sunlight throughout the day.

Window of Sharif Office Building by Hooba Design Group — These are set on panels that adjust to the sunlight

"They adjust based on lighting patterns and the required light exposure in the interior spaces," Balazadeh explained.

"Sensors are programmable based on two different scenarios and are set up based on user preferences in each floor."

Terrace at Sharif Office Building by Hooba Design Group — Sharif Office Building has communal workspaces and offices

Designing the facade from brick but using new technology was a nod to the nearby 1960s brick-clad university buildings, as well as the fact that the Sharif Office Building will house students working on technological innovations.

The 7,200 square-metres building (77,500 square feet) will house the Bon Tech Institute, which was initiated by the Sharif University of Technology as a research-based communal working space for students.

View of Sharif Office Building by Hooba Design Group — It was built on an existing concrete structure. Photo is by Mohammad Hassan Ettefagh

"The aim of this group was to provide the students with adequate facilities for research and investigation and to reduce the huge amount of brain drain from the country," Balazadeh explained.

Sharif Office Building will have offices as well as common spaces, including a meeting space and a cafeteria which will be connected to the outdoors and the university commons. Inside, the offices are open and semi-open, separated by interior green spaces.

Its design also took the surrounding environment into consideration,

"The double skin used in this project helps to control the sun heat exposure in the climate of Tehran and eventually reduces energy consumption during the hot season," Balazadeh said.

Hooba Design Group also designed a new type of brick for an earlier project, the headquarters of brick manufacturer Kohan Ceram, while its design for the Aptus concrete factory had an all-concrete envelope.

Photography is by Parham Taghioff unless otherwise stated.

Project credits:

Principal architect: Hooman Balazadeh
Project architect: Elham Seyfiazad
Design team: Elham Seyfiazad, Saman Soleimaniha, Mona Razavi, Saeed Farshbaf, Davood Raeesi
Detail design: Dariush Ghorbani
Site supervision: Dariush Ghorbani
Construction director: Mohsen Agahimand
Mechanical engineer: Bahram Eksiri
Electrical engineer: Amin Khaniki
Structural engineer: Majid Naghipour
Lighting design: fad Lighting Co.
Physical modelling: Mehran Alinezhad
Graphic: Ehsan Lessani

The post Hooba Design Group clads Tehran office building in brick panels that adjust to the sunlight appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3qM835l

Moon coffee table by Boffi

Dezeen Showroom: Moon is an oak coffee table with bevelled edges and a smooth, hand-sanded top by Italian furniture makers Boffi.

Moon is available in a bleached white finish or a dark grey version, for which the wood is stained using charcoal.

The bevelled edges of the tabletop slope downwards following the line of the legs as they taper in towards the bottom.

"Tactile, fluid and graceful – the Moon table has a sleek structure with a top that is perfectly sanded by hand to reveal the natural veining of the wood, making each piece unique," said Boffi.

"Combining functionality, texture and emotion, Moon is the perfect addition for the living space."

Moon is available in a rounded, square and rectangular version, which each come in different sizes.

Product: Moon
Brand: Boffi
Contact: info@depadova.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.

The post Moon coffee table by Boffi appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2VQpzqL

Bombori handmade washi paper lamp by Boffi

Dezeen Showroom: Bombori is a lighting design from Italian furniture brand Boffi, which is made from traditional Japanese materials such as washi paper.

The handmade Bombori lamp has a frame made of Akita cedar wood with thin, translucent Mino washi paper stretched over the top.

Bombori pendant lamp by Boffi — Top: Bombori as a floor lamp. Above: the lamp can also be a pendant

"It transforms light into poetry that merges strength, stability and grace – recurring elements of Japanese tales," said Boffi.

The rounded light is available as a pendant or a floor lamp, with a stand made of powder-coated steel.

Product: Bombori
Brand: Boffi
Contact: info@depadova.it

The post Bombori handmade washi paper lamp by Boffi appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2JOGA27

Dezeen's top 10 student and graduate projects of 2020

University of Colorado students share architecture projects in the Rockies

Continuing our review of 2020, we've rounded up 10 standout projects created by design and architecture students this year, from a high-altitude lavatory to ramen packaging that dissolves to flavour the broth.

Longs Peak Privies by students of the Colorado Building Workshop

Architecture students from the University of Colorado Denver have designed a series of backcountry privies to line the 14,259-foot trek up to Longs Peak in the Rocky Mountains, filling a structure of prefabricated gabion walls with rocks collected on-site.

This is to replace toilets created for the popular trail in the 1980s, which had deteriorated so much that park rangers had to resort to shovelling human excrement into buckets and carrying it down the mountain on the back of a llama.

Find out more about the Longs Peak Privies ›

Feel the Conversation by Sandeep Hoonjan and Xianzhi Zhang

In a bid to make long-distance conversations more intimate, especially in light of widespread coronavirus lockdowns, two students from the Royal College of Art have developed a duo of phones with silicone tongues and feelers attached to their earpieces.

These move in unique, haptic patterns that are generated based on the intonation of the person on the other line, creating a physical sensation to match their speech.

Find out more about Feel the Conversation ›

Dissolvable noodle packaging by Holly Grounds

Ravensbourne University student Holly Grounds has infused an edible biofilm with dried herbs and spices to create a ramen wrapper that dissolves and flavours the noodles when boiled alongside them.

The aim is to replace the many plastic sachets that normally accompany the ready-meal and take decades to decompose, while the dish itself is designed to be cooked and eaten in a matter of minutes.

Find out more about the packaging ›

Doux Leurre by Pauline Müller

How much is too much, asks this facial jewellery piece by Pauline Müller from Switzerland's Lucerne School of Art and Design, in which a string of pearls is suspended in a golden frame like a Newton's cradle desk toy turned into a mouthpiece.

Toeing the line "between eccentricity and absurdity", it considers humanity's long tradition of facial and bodily modification, while creating an intense, visceral experience for both the wearer and onlooker.

Find out more about Doux Leurre ›

Kusy Kawsay by David Guambo

David Guambo, an architecture student at Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica (UTI) in Ecuador, has built himself a stilted studio using the indigenous, adobe-like construction material of bahareque.

The building sits propped up on a hillside, supported by crisscrossing wooden beams and topped off with a gabled straw roof, while a floor-to-ceiling window offers views of the valley beyond.

Find out more about Kusy Kawsay ›

Carrie by Amelia Kociolkowska

Central Saint Martins graduate Amelia Kociolkowska has developed a wearable spandex pouch, which can be strapped to the thigh so that soldiers and police officers can easily access their period products even while in the field and juggling heavy artillery.

The design also includes a pocket with a waterproof, removable lining, where they can stash used pads and tampons while they are unable to dispose of them on crime scenes or on patrol.

Find out more about Carrie ›

Pronunciation tools by Yangyang Ding

A series of 12 metal instruments, created by Yangyang Ding from the Rhode Island School of Design, are designed to be wedged between teeth, worn like a head brace or held up in front of the mouth to help Mandarin speakers pronounce difficult English sounds.

Each tool is matched with a different phoneme such as "v" or "I" and automatically corrects the wearer's mistakes by moving the tongue, lips and jaws into the position needed to create the desired sound.

Find out more about Ding's project ›

Solar project by Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey students

Mud, coconut shells and cactus slime were used to form a series of solar lamps, created by Monterrey students in the hopes of providing a low-cost lighting solution for the close to seven million people in rural Mexico who live outside of the electricity grid.

The use of readily available, natural materials allows the lamps to be assembled on-site by the user, with only a small solar panel and the accompanying electrical components needing to be supplied.

Find out more about the Solar project ›

Fallback by Royal College of Art and Imperial College students

With internet blackouts increasingly being used by authoritarian governments as a tactic to keep their citizens uninformed and unable to organise, a group of London students have developed a system that provides access to news coverage even during a shutdown.

Fallback's forecasting algorithm predicts the risk of an internet shutdown in any given region and sends articles from a user's chosen media channels to a satellite, from which they can then be retrieved using the Portal satellite modem.

Find out more about Fallback ›

Passivhaus by South Dakota State University students

A group of students in Brookings, South Dakota, worked with their instructors, architects Robert Arlt and Charles MacBride, to create this Passivhaus, which they claim is the first in the region to produce more energy than it consumes.

Built using a grant from the state's Governor's Office of Economic Development, the building features solar panels on the roof and quadruple glazed windows. A gabled roof offers shading in summer while responding to the architectural vernacular of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Find out more about the Passivhaus ›

The post Dezeen's top 10 student and graduate projects of 2020 appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3gnEZw9

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named world's worst plastic polluters for third year running

Plastic pollution from Coca-Cola and other companies

For the third consecutive year, an audit by environmental initiative Break Free From Plastic has found The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé to be the companies creating the most plastic pollution.

The annual survey saw 15,000 volunteers in 55 countries collect 346,494 pieces of plastic from their surrounding environment.

The brand most heavily responsible for this pollution was Coca-Cola, totalling 13,834 pieces across 51 countries, which is more than Pepsi and Nestlé combined.

Meanwhile, in the top five for the second year in a row are Unilever and Mondelēz International, which between them own household names like Dove, Magnum, Cadbury and Oreo.

Companies are failing to make meaningful changes

An accompanying report, authored by activists from Break Free From Plastic and Greenpeace among others, argued that the audit data shows how large multinationals are hiding behind "clever marketing tactics and lofty 'sustainability' goals" while failing to make the meaningful changes to back them up.

"The world's top polluting corporations claim to be working hard to solve plastic pollution, but instead they are continuing to pump out harmful single-use plastic packaging," said Emma Priestland, Break Free From Plastic's global corporate campaigns coordinator.

"We need to stop plastic production, phase out single-use and implement robust, standardised reuse systems. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé should be leading the way in finding real solutions."

Seven of the ten worst polluters, including the top three, are signatories of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.

This requires companies to eliminate all unnecessary plastic, innovate to create more sustainable substitutes, and reuse or recycle all plastic items within a circular system.

But the foundation reported that its signatories only reduced their use of virgin plastic by 0.1 per cent from 2018 to 2019, while Coca-Cola actually increased the amount of plastic it uses.

Emphasis on recyclable and compostable packaging is greenwashing

Instead of reducing their production, the Break Free From Plastic report argues that the companies have largely chosen to advertise their targets to make 100 per cent of their packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

This is equated to "greenwashing", solely designed to justify the corporations' "excessive production of single-use plastic".

"Only nine per cent of all the plastic ever made has been recycled, yet the companies that produce this plastic continue to hail recycling as the ultimate solution to combating the plastic pollution crisis," the report reads.

"However, most single-use plastic simply can't be recycled or it's just not economical to do so, especially when the cost of virgin plastic is very low."

The report also accused companies of using terms like bioplastic or compostable plastic to make consumers feel better about their choices, while exploiting their ignorance about the fact these pieces will only degrade in certain pressure and temperature controlled settings – if they do at all.

"The only way to truly solve the plastic pollution crisis is to stop making so much plastic," the report concluded.

Environmental campaigners continue to be divided about the role that petroleum-based plastic can play in moving towards a truly circular economy, in which waste and pollution is entirely eliminated.

Andrew Morlet, the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has advocated for keeping plastic "in the economy and out of the natural system" through a continual process of chemical recycling.

But Dutch designer Richard Hutten has called this idea "bullshit", with both him and Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch arguing that the material is fundamentally incompatible with sustainable production and consumption practices.

Image is courtesy of Nick Fewings.

The post Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named world's worst plastic polluters for third year running appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/36T3bmU