Manu Bañó launches raw metal OBJ-01 lamp as first solo project

Designer Manu Bañó, the co-founder of EWE Studio and an Esrawe Studio associate, has introduced his first product under his own name – a lamp made from raw metal that can be assembled by hand.

The OBJ-01 light is made from laser-cut stainless steel, steel or brass and manually assembled using a rubber hammer.

Top image: the OBJ-01 is made from raw metal. Above: the material is sourced from local metal distributors

Bañó buys the metal from different metal distributors in Mexico City, where he's based, looking for the least scratched sheets to have to polish them as little as possible.

"I am attracted by raw and pure materials, by their weight, by the industrial processes that transform them," Bañó told Dezeen. "I like the depth of metal and its reflective properties."

Bañó likes "the depth of metal"

The project came about during lockdown, which gave Bañó time to think and birthed the idea of creating a new object.

"I spent a lot of time working at home," he said. "I have a large collection of design objects and crafts, so I live surrounded by things I like."

"I decided that I wanted to design an object to add to my collection so that I could see it every day among the objects that I admire."

The lamp consists of a rectangle, a circle and a cylinder

Bañó came up with the design through working with materials he already had at home, mainly recycled cardboard from shipping boxes, before graduating to metal.

"I started with complex designs that I gradually discarded due to the impossibility of going to the production workshops," he explained.

"I ended up stripping away the complexity of the design and keeping the essentials. I decided to work just with one material and one industrial process which I was familiar with; metal and laser cutting."

Its circular screen can be rotated 360 degrees

The resulting OBJ-01 lamp has a sleek, geometric shape and consists of a rectangle, a circle and a cylinder that holds an LED light.

The circular screen at the centre of the lamp can be rotated 360 degrees to direct the light in a variety of ways.

Designed to be a timeless object, the production of the OBJ-01 light minimises offcuts.

"Along the production process there is practically no waste since the size of the lamp corresponds to the commercial format of a metal plate," Bañó said. "I make five lamps out of a plate of 122 by 61 centimetres."

OBJ-01 comes in steel, stainless steel and brass

The lamps are then sealed with beeswax and completed with a LED light. Bañó is producing a small run of the lamp, with 10-20 lamps in each numbered series, which also come with some poetic inspiration.

"Along with each lamp, I deliver a poem written and signed by Guillermo Crespo Galiana, a young Valencian poet who wrote three poems inspired by the piece," Bañó said.

"I love to think that these poems can be displayed near the lamp, so there are always two ways of interpreting it."

Together with Age Salajõe and Héctor Esrawe, Bañó is the co-founder of EWE studio, which was longlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2020 designer of the year award and recently opened its Mexico City showroom inside a former dance hall.

He is also an associate at Esrawe Studio, which was named interior design studio of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020.

Photography is by Alejandro Ramírez.

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Ceramiche Refin references Mediterranean tones and patterns in Riflessi tiles

Dezeen promotion: bright colours and "brush strokes" feature in this collection of porcelain tiles by Italian brand Ceramiche Refin.

Riflessi is a range of large-format tiles for walls and floors, taking cues from Mediterranean colour palettes, patterns and craft techniques.

Striped variations create the impression of brush strokes

The tiles come in complementary shades of green, blue, orange, white and grey, with striped variations to make it look like the colour has been applied by a paintbrush.

The range includes several geometric designs inspired by the traditional tiles of the Mediterranean region. There's also a mosaic that can be used to create an irregular effect.

The tiles come in five shades

"Riflessi is the result of a research project inspired by the Mediterranean regions, their atmospheres and traditions, and the coastal panoramas where the colours of the sun and the sea combine with those of the vegetation and the land," said Ceramiche Refin.

"With Riflessi, the natural elements enter and design the scenography of interiors, but with a sensory approach that transforms light into matter."

The colour tiles include Verde, a muted shade of green

The colour tiles come in two different sizes – 75 by 150 centimetres, or 75 by 75 centimetres – so customers can choose between rectangular or square.

These five designs are named with the Italian words for each colour: Arancio, Blu, Verde, Grigio and Bianco.

The Amalfi tiles combine various colours and motifs

The most decorative tile in the collection is Amalfi, a square design that combines various colours and motifs.

Named after a pretty town on Italy's southwest coast, the Amalfi tiles feature drawings of petals, leaves, ribbons and architectural elements.

The Forme tiles create overlapping circle patterns

The single-tone Forme tiles combine to create an endless pattern of overlapping circles.

Meanwhile the Fiore tiles feature a curvy motif that can be laid in a repetitive design, or combined to create large flower patterns.

The Fiore tiles combine to create large flower patterns

Caleidos is a mosaic design, featuring tiles in a mix of seemingly random shapes.

The tiles come in all five shades and there's also a multicolour arrangement.

Caleidos is a mosaic design

"Riflessi allows you to gently refer to the Mediterranean tradition with more or less vivid shades, depending on your environment and your decoration style," added Ceramiche Refin.

For more information about the Riflessi tiles, visit the brand's website.

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Linehouse transforms Shanghai swimming pool into office space

Design studio Linehouse has converted a Shanghai office block's swimming pool into an additional workspace, using a palette of blue vinyl, peachy leather and light-hued timber.

The swimming pool was part of the fitness facilities made for office workers of the Jing'An Kerry Centre, a mixed-use development in Shanghai's Jing'An district designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox back in 2013.

The bowl of the swimming pool has been turned into a huge seating area

However as the pool was rarely used, locally-based studio Linehouse was asked to convert the room into something slightly more practical.

It now plays host to various seating areas where staff can work or host informal catch-ups with clients throughout the day. Businesses in the development can also choose to use the room for corporate events or talks.

Flecked blue vinyl lines the inside of the former pool

The focal point of the room is still the swimming pool, but it has been drained of water and lined with flecked blue vinyl from flooring specialists Tarkett.

"It was a great opportunity to play with levels which normally an existing interior space does not allow," Linehouse's co-founder, Alex Mok, told Dezeen.

A curved pane of glass encloses a boardroom

Flights of steps that double up as seats have been built-in at the side of the pool, topped with baby-pink cushions. A semi-circular banquette upholstered in peachy-coloured leather has then been created at the far end of the pool.

The studio also decided to preserve the huge oval skylight that lies directly above the pool.

Around the skylight runs spherical pendant lamps and a series of light-hued timber fins, some of which extended down towards the floor to form slatted screens.

Some work areas are fronted by slatted timber screens

Should workers need to take a call, they can escape to one of the private phone booths which are at the peripheries of the room.

Inside, the booths are lined with leaf-printed wallpaper from Calico.

Printed wallpaper lines the inside of the phone booths

There's also a small cafe anchored by a Ceppo Nova stone counter and a formal boardroom enclosed by a curved pane of glass.

The black gridding across the glass is meant to mimic the form of the blue wainscotting that lines the room's walls. Emerald-green wainscoting features in the meetings rooms, which have been created inside the swimming pool's former changing areas.

Meeting rooms boast emerald-green wainscotting

Linehouse was set up by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling in 2013. This isn't the studio's first conversion project – last year it turned part of an abandoned factory into a teahouse, where guests enjoy their drinks from inside glass-fronted boxes.

Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.

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Project credits:

Architect: Linehouse
Design lead: Alex Mok, Briar Hickling
Design team: Cherngyu Chen, Eleonora Nucci, Jingru Tong
Client: Kerry Properties

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The Smile by BIG in New York has a chequerboard facade and rooftop pool

The Smile by architecture firm BIG is a mixed-use development in New York's Harlem neighbourhood with a stainless-steel facade designed to recall the "textured surface of the moon".

Named for its curved frontage, The Smile at East 126th Street contains a nursing school at ground level and 223 residential apartments above.

Apartments have floor to ceiling windows

A chequerboard facade alternates between blackened stainless-steel panels and full-height glazed windows for the apartments.

On the rooftop, hot tubs, a swimming pool, candy-coloured loungers and lawns have views over the city.

The facade is covered in overlapping black steel

The curving side of the T-shaped building is stepped back from the street and slopes inwards as it rises to maximise daylight for the interiors.

To the south, the building cantilevers over the existing buildings on 125th Street. Viewed from above, the building bends upwards like a drawing of a smile.

The rooftop has a pool and hot tubs

"The facade of The Smile drapes gently between the building's two neighbours and leans inward to allow sunlight and air to reach the street, thus fulfilling the century-old set-back requirements in a new way," said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.

"Like a good neighbour, it fits into the existing neighbourhood, feeding from the community's energy to add new sparks to the community of East Harlem."

Colourful concrete entryways are designed to echo the bright hues used in the multi-storey artist's murals that adorn the buildings of East Harlem, depicting historic figures and sharing political messages.

One-third of apartments of The Smile, which occupies a historically black neighbourhood, will be reserved as affordable housing.

Colourful tiles mark the entrances

Steel panels for the facade were manufactured in Germany using a combination of mechanical and chemical finishing to create a durable surface.

"The Smile's facade takes inspiration from the textured surface of the moon, and blends with the black and red brick of the existing buildings in the neighbourhood," said BIG.

The mailboxes are also brightly-hued

Inside, the interiors continue to nod to Harlem's history, with colourful herringbone tiles peppering the floor and a wall of mailboxes behind the reception desk.

"Residents are immersed in an explosion of reds, blues, greens, and yellows, inspired by Harlem's Puerto Rican and Caribbean culture and history," said BIG.

Italian steel kitchen cabinets feature in some apartments

For the apartment interiors, those on the north side of The Smile are decorated in an industrial style with exposed concrete. To the south, the apartments feature exposed steel trusses and kitchen cabinets made from Italian steel.

Amenities for residents include a gym, spa and sauna, and access to a co-working space that overlooks a six-storey gallery in the building.

Facilities for residents include a spa

A communal lounge includes a kitchen and pantry for events and cooking classes.

BIG was founded by Bjarke Ingels. Recent projects by the practice include a design for a base on the Moon for NASA and a Copenhagen power plant with a dry ski slope down the roof.

Photography is by Pernille and Thomas Loof.

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Client: Blumenfeld Development Group
Collaborators: ZDG, Thornton Tomasetti, Cosentini Associates, Milrose Consultants, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Langan, Van Deusen Associates, Aquatectonic Lothrop Associates LLP, Steven Winter Associates, Jaffe Holden, Robert Schwartz and Associates, Fox Rothschild, Lerch Bates
Partners-in-charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Beat Schenk, Kai-Uwe Bergmann
Project leaders: Michelle Stromsta, Jennifer Ng, Lucio Santos, Elena Bresciani, Everald Colas
Project leader, Interiors: Francesca Portesine, Jennifer Ng, Rita Sio, Jose Jimenez
Team: Adrien Mans, Agne Rapkeviciute, Annette Miller, Ava Nourbaran, Ben Caldwell, Benjamin DiNapoli, Daniele Pronesti, Deborah Campbell, Douglass Alligood, Eva Maria Mikkelsen, Gabriel Hernandez Solano, Iannis Kandyliaris, Jan Leenknegt, Jennifer Phan, Jennifer Wood, Jeremy Babel, Jialin Yuan, John Kim, Julie Kaufman, Julien Beauchamp-Roy, Kurt Nieminen, Lina Bondarenko, Mark Rakhmanov, Meli Harvey, Quentin Stanton, Sarah Habib, Shu Zhao, Taylor Fulton, Terrence Chew, Terry Lallak, Valentina Mele, Wells Barber, Wojciech Swarowski, Yaziel Juarbe, Yoanna Shivarova

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Patcraft's Inset flooring collection resembles wood and concrete

Dezeen Showroom: commercial flooring manufacturer Patcraft has released a range of wood- and concrete-effect flooring with diagonal metallic inlays.

The Inset collection comprises vinyl-covered planks similar to parquet, that are designed to resemble different woods and concrete finishes and topped off with bronze, silver or gold metallic strips.

Thanks to their angled position, these accents create a playful finish when part of a whole floor.

Patcraft has released a collection of wood- and concrete-effect flooring

The range is available in 18 by 36-inch planks that can be laid in a scattered formation to seamlessly blend from one finish to another.

According to Patcraft's senior hard-surface designer Kelly Williams, Inset was informed by the technique of parquetry and the way it creates decorative, geometric effects.

Metallic accents run diagonally across the planks

"The initial vision for this collection was inspired by parquet flooring designs and the eclectic mix of materials within interior design," she said.

"We explored a modern take on this parquetry aesthetic, incorporating both wood and concrete visuals and adding metallic detailing for a dynamic effect."

"The unique product allows for flexibility in design while adding warmth and a subtle radiance to commercial spaces," she added.

Product: Inset
Brand: Patcraft
Contact: mia@hlstrategy.com

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