Olympic Village Plaza built using 40,000 pieces of donated Japanese timber

Tokyo studio Nikken Sekkei has designed a timber communal building at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games' athletes village, which was built using 40,000 pieces of Japanese wood.

The temporary structure, which will serve as the central meeting place for athletes within the Olympic Village, contains a cafe, bank, medical spaces, lounges, hair salons, retail spaces and a media centre.

Top: the building will be used by athletes, officials and guests. Above: it was constructed using 40,000 pieces of Japanese timber

The 5,300 square-metre communal space is located at the Harumi waterfront district of Tokyo on the eastern side of the athletes' village.

It was constructed from 40,000 pieces of sustainably Japanese cypress, cedar and larch, which were "borrowed" from local governments across the country.

Wood was stacked in layers

"Use of wood from different regions throughout the building will express diversity and harmony," said the Olympics in a press release.

"In addition to revitalising the timber industry and contributing to the conservation of sustainable forests, use of Japanese lumber reflects the goal of reducing environmental impacts and realising sustainability by leaving a legacy that attests to the participation of all regions of the country in the Games."

It has wood interiors

Nikken Sekkei arranged the donated timbers to create a structure that draws on the design aesthetics of traditional Japanese buildings.

It is a low-lying, single-storey structure that is clad in long vertically and horizontally arranged beams and was topped with a corrugated metal roof.

Pieces were marked with the names of the donating areas

Inside, wood was arranged in a lattice formation with the structure of the building celebrated and left exposed.

Each piece of wood used in the building was marked with a stamp that detailed the name of the area it was sourced from.

After the completion of the Games, the structure will be dismantled and wood returned to the donating municipalities to be reused in local construction projects.

"Under the project, lumber borrowed free of charge from local governments across Japan will be used to construct the Village Plaza," said the organisers.

"Then after the Games, lumber from the dismantled Village Plaza will be used as a legacy in local governments' public facilities and elsewhere."

The building pictured during construction

Nikken Sekkei previously collaborated with Japanese timber company Sumitomo Forestry to propose building the world's tallest wooden building in Tokyo.

The studio also designed the Ariake Gymnastics Centre for the Games, one of only a few venues built specifically for the event.

The building will be dismantled and materials reused

The building is part of the Olympic organisers plan to promote sustainable initiatives at the game.

"Engaging the whole country and prioritising environmental sustainability is a core pledge of the Tokyo 2020 Games," said Tokyo 2020 Vice President Toshiaki Endo.

"[This] project is based on these principles, and is the first initiative of the kind in the history of Olympic and Paralympic Games."

Other initiatives aiming to make the Games sustainable include the athletes' beds being created from cardboard frames, podiums made from donated plastic waste and medals made from recycled smartphones.

Images are courtesy of Tokyo 2020.

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Cubitts app uses 3D-scanning technology to find the right glasses for every face

British eyewear brand Cubitts has launched an app that takes the trial-and-error approach out of buying spectacles by telling you which frames will best fit the precise dimensions of your face.

Using only an iPhone camera, the Cubitts app makes it possible to 3D-scan a face "to sub-millimetre accuracy", then precisely match it with the best fitting spectacles from the brand's collection.

The Cubitts app shows which frames are best suited to the dimensions of your face

According to company founder Tom Broughton, the technology could revolutionise the process of buying glasses. Not only could it make the in-store process more efficient, but also make it significantly easier to buy glasses online.

"The app was born from the realisation that the process of buying glasses hasn't changed for 300 years," Broughton told Dezeen.

"Even in the last decade, with the emergence of the internet and smartphones, it's still the same. You go to some physical space where you have thousands of frames, all arranged in a completely random order. With no real guidance or sizing, you just keep trying on pairs until you find something that you think is all right."

"The process is fraught with all the same problems when you buy online," he added. "It's a pretty shoddy experience overall. But we think we can change that."

The technology works using the TrueDepth camera in the iPhone X and later models

The app uses HERU technology, which was developed in-house by the Cubitts team. It is based around the technological capabilities of the TrueDepth camera, which was first introduced with the iPhone X.

Unlike a standard camera, this device integrates facial recognition technology. By throwing 30,000 infrared dots onto a face and capturing this information, it is able to combine visual information with measurement data, which is how Apple's Face ID works.

HERU uses this technology to produce 3D scans made up of 18 key measurements, which include details like ear position, eye spacing and nasal bridge width. It then analyses the particular combination of these measurements to assess which frames would be the best fit.

The app takes a 3D scan of the user's face

Some of the key details it is looking for are, for instance, how the width of the frames compares with the width of the face, whether the glasses will sit straight rather than tip, and whether the centre of the lenses lines up with the pupils.

According to Cubitts' research, only 20 per cent of the UK's 22 million spectacle wearers have the perfect fit, although 75 per cent believe their frames fit them.

"Frames are designed for the average person, but there is no average person," Broughton said.

"There are fully grown adults that have to buy children's frames because their heads are slightly smaller, while some wear badly fitting frames because they can't get a pair big enough. This is absolutely insane."

The app can place different frames onto this 3D model

According to Broughton, it's less a question of whether the spectacles will look good and more specifically about whether they will fit comfortably and position the eye in the correct position for the lenses.

However, in time, the app could use its machine-learning capabilities to analyse purchases made by users. This would allow it to better predict which frame a user is more likely to choose in terms of style.

"That's when it gets really clever, when it just works like magic," said Broughton.

"We will get to that, but it will take time because we have to train the machine learning algorithm. The more people use it, the more powerful it gets."

The app uses an algorithm to calculate which frames will offer the best fit

Broughton founded Cubitts in 2013, with an ambition to make quality eyewear available to a wide audience.

From the outset, the brand has looked to explore new ground. In 2019, it launched a collection made from various waste materials including human hair and potatoes.

Broughton sees the launch of the app as the first step towards a complete disruption of the eyewear industry.

Cubitts could potentially use data gathered by the app to influence the design of new collections, creating frames that cater to as wide a customer base as possible.

The app will be officially launched in September 2021

The technology could even lead to a bespoke service for spectacles, where a customer uses the app to design made-to-order frames to their exact measurements.

"You press a button and they could be 3D printed right in front of you," suggested Broughton.

"It's a new form of production and ownership," he said, "and that's where we want to get to. We want every single product to be made bespoke, irrespective of who the person is or where they are in the world."

"It has so many benefits," he added. "You don't have to have stock, you don't have wastage, you don't have landfill. It fundamentally changes the way that people buy something that is, naturally, a very individual product anyway."

The app is currently only available to invited users, but is set to be launched to the public in September 2021.

Berlin-based eyewear brand Reframd also looked to create tailormade eyewear with its range of 3D-printed sunglasses specifically designed for people with low and wide noses.

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has designed 3D-printed sunglasses made from castor beans that combine Japanese design with modern technology.

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Emil Eve Architects brings warmth and colour to London warehouse apartment

The owners of a converted warehouse apartment in London's Clerkenwell have swapped open-plan living for a more functional room layout, following a redesign by Emil Eve Architects.

The project, called St John Street, sees the previously stark and industrial space transformed into a practical two-bedroom home for clients Mike and Jen.

The original brick walls and concrete columns are left exposed in the main living space

Along with the new layout, Emil Eve introduced oak joinery, glazed tiles and terrazzo flooring to bring more warmth and colour into the renovated living spaces.

The aim was to make the former warehouse space feel more comfortable, but without losing the industrial character that gives the space its identity.

"When our clients acquired the apartment it was a large empty shell, with exposed brickwork walls and columns, and a board-marked concrete ceiling slab," said Emma Perkin, who founded Emil Eve with partner Ross Perkin.

Furniture helps to divide the room into three zones

"Although an industrial palette can feel quite raw and harsh, the materials here had such a beautiful range of tones and textures that we knew we wanted to retain them," she told Dezeen.

"Our approach was to contrast these rougher historic surfaces with contemporary interventions in a carefully considered palette of materials to complement the existing tones and create a warm and inviting home."

The entrance lobby doubles as a library with in-built oak shelving

The biggest task of the project was planning a new layout that would suit the client's lifestyle and daily habits, but which also work with the existing windows and structural columns.

Emil Eve's approach was to organise the main living spaces at one end of the floor plan and the bedrooms at the other, so that both could benefit from the natural light. Ancillary functions, such as bathrooms, were then slotted into the centre, behind a spacious library-style entrance lobby.

Pocket doors allow spaces to feel more bright and open

"The space is long and thin, with windows at each end, so we needed to consider how to maximise natural light in the areas where our clients would spend most of their time," said Ross Perkin.

"We developed the idea for a library space, which would form the entrance to the apartment, which linked all the other rooms and enabled views from one end of the apartment to the other through large sliding pocket doors," he explained.

The new joinery creates plenty of storage space

Almost all of the new partition walls integrate built-in shelving and cupboards, giving them a feeling of solidity while also creating much-needed storage space.

As a result, these elements have a high-quality finish level, allowing them to contrast with the raw surfaces of the original outer walls.

"We wanted to retain as much of the historic fabric and the sense of openness as possible," said Ross.

"So these internal spaces are conceived as independent elements, each lined with bespoke timber joinery and ceramic tiling to create a distinctive atmosphere and identity."

The new layout allows clients Mike and Jen to comfortably work from home

The living area is now the largest space in the home.

Two concrete columns, as well as large furniture pieces, help to divide the space into three different zones – a lounge space, a dining area that doubles as a workspace, and a kitchen and breakfast bar. This makes it easier for multiple activities to be going on at once.

The kitchen features an island with an integrated teriyaki hotplate

The kitchen is the most distinctive element in this room, combining lime-washed birch plywood units, dark green tiles, yellow pendant lights and an island with an integrated teriyaki hotplate.

A similar green tile features in the main bathroom – the idea was to reference the Victorian glazed tiles that are common in the area.

The main bedroom features a slatted bedhead and window seat

A more serene approach was adopted for the bedrooms, where the brick walls have been finished with a natural clay plaster.

As well as a walk-in-wardrobe and en-suite, the main bedroom also features a custom-made slatted bedhead and window seat, with interacted bedside shelving.

The other bedroom is a guest room, so most of the time it functions as a gym.

The brick walls are finished in clay plaster, for a calmer feel

Parquet flooring features in both the bedrooms and living spaces, while the rest of the apartment features terrazzo flooring, which helps to create subtle transitions between different areas.

Emil Eve worked with Harbour Joinery Workshop to design and build all of the new joinery elements, as well as some of the furniture pieces.

It is an approach the architects are familiar with, having designed in-built furniture for previous projects, including their own former home, Gibson Gardens.

Green tiles in the bathroom reference the area's Victorian history

The standout elements here include the floor-to-ceiling shelves and closets in the library, the neatly organised walk-in-wardrobe in the main bedroom, and the custom low sideboard in the living room.

"We love joinery and always design our own pieces to suit each project," said Emma. "Here, we conceived a family of joinery elements for the different spaces, but with common characteristics."

"We used oak for the library space, which is a really warm timber and a traditional material for libraries, to give the atmosphere of a book-lined sanctuary at the heart of the home. The dressing room, kitchen, pantry and ensuite echo the language, but in lighter plywood to delineate these spaces."

Photography is by Mariell Lind Hansen.

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David Rockwell displays the seven deadly sins in shop windows

American architect David Rockwell has designed the sets for an outdoor theatre series in New York composed of short plays based on the seven deadly sins and performed in empty shop windows.

Called Seven Deadly Sins, the seven 10-minute-long plays are each by a different playwright. All but one of the plays takes place in a series of empty shopfront windows in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

Rockwell's seven sets represent the seven deadly sins

"As an architect and New Yorker, the pandemic has made it clear that the city without people feels like an empty theater," Rockwell told Dezeen.

"A production such as The Seven Deadly Sins that takes place right on the street creates that kind of interactive frisson that makes New York one of the greatest cities in the world," he added.

"It celebrates that spirit of gathering outside and transforms the streets into a playhouse."

The play entitled Envy takes place in a shipping container

Envy is the only production performed in a shipping container, while the rest of the plays take place in shopfronts close together between West 13th Street and Gansevoort Street. Rockwell did not design the set for Greed.

Designed in individual distinctive colours, each play's set features a bright graphic sign spelling out the word of the sin it represents.

The seven deadly sins, also known as cardinal sins, refer to seven universal sins that are traditionally considered to be immoral in Christian teaching. They are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth – the names of each of the plays.

Audiences begin the experience at a set representing the concept of purgatory

Audiences begin their experience at a loading dock near the Whitney Museum which acts as Purgatory, a biblical concept for the place that sinners go to when awaiting their fate after death. Neon lights and a red Mylar curtain that doubles as a ticket window decorate the space.

The sets and storylines of each short play vary dramatically. Lust presents its audience with a vivid neon purple scene with a pole placed in the middle of the set, on which a pole dancer performs a monologue.

Sloth, meaning laziness, includes a contrastingly mundane living room and reveals a young couple arguing while the husband idly plays video games. Gluttony takes place in a reimagined Garden of Eden.

"The experience is highly choreographed," explained Rockwell. "Audiences move from storefront to storefront in groups, seeing all seven plays in an hour and 45 minutes."

Lust presents the set for a pole dancer

Pride delves into the story of a trans blogger who is wrestling with a large corporation having begun to craft the content he publishes, leading to his readers feeling betrayed by him.

The play takes place against a backdrop of trans flags, a rainbow curtain made of Mylar and Pride-themed bunting.

"Each play has its own unique story to tell," said Rockwell.

"We developed a concept for each show then explored the design in renderings before laying out ground plans that accounted for the various audience sightlines, one of our main challenges."

Sloth features an ordinary-looking living room

The architect walked through various New York neighbourhoods with Seven Deadly Sins director Moisés Kaufman before settling on the Meatpacking District.

New York City Department of Transportation worked with the pair to make the productions possible.

Pride features brightly-lit Pride bunting

Rockwell reflected on what he hopes audiences will take away from the plays, which are showing in Manhattan until 25 July.

"The playwrights have tackled the subject matter in incredibly compelling and divergent ways, so I expect audiences will be hugely entertained and provoked, in the best possible sense, by the work," he said.

"Sin is a topic about which everyone can relate, and this is a very full theatrical meal with something for everyone."

"On a deeper level, I hope that this gives audiences a chance to flex our collective empathy muscles, which may have atrophied a bit during a year of isolation," concluded the architect.

The plays take place in Manhattan shop front windows

David Rockwell is an American architect and designer who founded the Rockwell Group in 1984. He recently designed the set for this year's Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.

The photography is courtesy of David Rockwell.

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Seven Deadly Sins is on show in the Meatpacking District in New York until 25 July 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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News of RIBA's climate initiative features in today's Dezeen Weekly newsletter

The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter features news that fewer than six per cent of UK architecture firms have signed up to a RIBA climate initiative.

Just 230 of the 4,000 Royal Institute of British Architects chartered practices have signed RIBA's 2030 Climate Challenge. Those who have signed aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from buildings they design.

Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and Grimshaw Architects are among those that have failed to join.

Readers aren't surprised. One said, "This is because architects don't get to dictate what buildings are made from or how they are made. It's the client or builder, who pays the bills, that determines these things."

NOLA children's asylum revived as Hotel Saint Vincent by Lambert McGuire Design

Other stories in this week's newsletter include the renovation of a 19th-century infant asylum in New Orleans, a 12-metre 3D-printed pedestrian bridge in Amsterdam, and our lookbook featuring tactile interiors that make use of natural biomaterials.

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