SAU Taller d'Arquitectura opens up narrow interior during Spanish home renovation

A double-height living area crossed by a small wooden bridge sits at the centre of this home in Girona, Spain, renovated and extended by SAU Taller d'Arquitectura.

The Sant Daniel House is just 3.5 metres wide and sandwiched between party walls, so the Barcelona-based practice wanted to open up its interior as much as possible. The aim was to create continuous views along its 12.5-metre length and making the circulation areas "almost disappear".

Top: interior walls were painted white. Above: the home is sandwiched between two buildings

A central axis on both floors cuts lengthways through the two-storey home, aligning the entrance with a door out to a long garden at the rear.

"Emptying the initial volume...permits new visuals between areas, providing natural light to all the rooms and guaranteeing a good climatic behaviour and cross-ventilation," said the studio.

A log burner was placed in the double-height living space

On the ground floor, the entrance leads through a study area into a large, double-height living area, with simple finishes including a log burner with an exposed flue.

Continuing along this central route, the staircase is tucked alongside a bathroom to one side of the home, hiding it from view on the main longitudinal axis.

The kitchen was fitted with green tiles and wooden surfaces

At the back of the home is a kitchen-dining space, where a simple run of countertops with a green tile splash back sit opposite a large central table, alongside doors leading out to the garden.

The rear elevation has been finished with pale green render, with iron gates over the openings allowing for the building's cross-ventilation strategy while still providing security.

On the first floor, the main bedroom and bathroom block sits at the rear of the home while the children's bedroom is towards the front. This is accessed via a wooden walkway that crosses above the living room.

Mirroring the alignment of the doors along the building's ground floor axis, the long upstairs corridor frames square windows at either end, with the rear bedroom also opening onto a small balcony.

A ladders leads to a small extension under the roof

Opposite the main stair on the first floor, a set of ladder-style steps lead up to a small extension tucked under the exposed wood of the roof.

Pine and fir timber fittings and window frames along with white walls create a simple material palette, punctuated by areas of green and yellow. Skylights help to draw additional light into the long, narrow space.

Wood covers the floors of the upper level

"The result is raw architecture, neutral and well-suited for the place, letting the user, the objects and the time give their own character," said the studio.

In 2015, SAU Taller d'Arquitectura completed a house in Spain with a triple-layered sliding facade to allow for varying degrees of light and privacy.

The photography is by Andrés Flajszer.

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Dezeen Awards 2021 public vote opens soon

The Dezeen Awards 2021 shortlists will be announced next week. After this, we’re inviting all Dezeen readers to vote for their favourite entries in our second annual public vote.

Our jury of 75 industry-leading professionals, including Rafael Viñoly, Kelly Wearstler and Sumayya Vally, have now completed the shortlisting process for this year's awards, narrowing down the longlisted entries to around five entries per category.

All shortlists will be announced on Dezeen next week, with the public vote opening on 13 September.

The public vote will allow readers to choose one entry per category until voting closes on 11 October.

Projects and studios with the highest number of votes in their category will win a special Dezeen Awards 2021 public vote winners' certificate.

Note that the public vote is separate from the main Dezeen Awards programme, where winners are selected by a jury of industry professionals.

Here's a guide to what's happening next:

6-10 September: shortlists published

The shortlisting process has now been finalised by our panel of 75 judges. The shortlists will be published on Dezeen, on our social media channels and in newsletters.

Each shortlisted entry will receive its own page on the Dezeen Awards website and will be published in full on Dezeen.

6 September: architecture shortlist
7 September: interiors shortlist
8 September: design shortlist
9 September: sustainability and media shortlists
10 September: studio shortlist

13 September: public vote goes live!

You can start voting for your favourite projects on 13 September. Once voting opens, you'll be able to vote via the public vote landing page or via a link on the shortlist page of the project you want to vote for.

11 October: public vote closes

Readers have until 11 October to vote for their favourite projects.

18 October: all public vote winners announced

Winners will be decided in each category based on the highest number of votes. We will be announcing all public vote winners on Dezeen on 18 October.

November

Dezeen Awards winners will be ratified by our master jury, and winners will be announced in November. We'll be sharing more information about this soon.

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Reflect kitchen by Jean Nouvel for Reform

Dezeen Showroom: architect Jean Nouvel has designed Reflect, the latest kitchen from Copenhagen-based kitchen brand Reform, which is intended to create a mesmerising play of light.

Reflect is an all-metal kitchen, with a front made of steel that is lined with vertical ridges, reflecting light in different directions.

The Reflect kitchen features ridged steel cabinets

According to Reform, the high-gloss surface brings Nouvel's signature experimentation with light and atmosphere into the kitchen setting.

"Jean Nouvel is known for his minimalistic but yet playful and artistic expression, especially how the form and materiality plays with the light and creates different colours and reflections," said Reform founder and CEO Jeppe Christensen.

The reflective kitchen fronts create a mesmerising play of light

"I think his kitchen design encapsulates this in a sublime way," he continued.

The Reflect kitchen is available in two monochrome finishes, black or untreated metal, while the countertops are stainless steel and grey and black Fenix laminate.

Reform was founded in 2014 in Copenhagen with the goal of making great kitchen design available at a reasonable price range.

Product: Reflect
Designer: Jean Nouvel
Brand: Reform
Contact: anne@reformcph.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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Gaming technology can help architects "engage people in a more dynamic and inclusive way"

Visualisation techniques from video games could help planners and the public understand architecture, according to architects that use gaming software.

Fly-throughs and interactive videos could make proposals understandable during the consultation and planning processes, they said.

"A lot of people cannot understand [architectural] drawings," said Adam Laskey of architecture studio Marraum, which has used visualisation tool Twinmotion for planning submissions in Cornwall, England.

"We used this information to pitch it to neighbours during consultation periods and also councils," he said, referring to a one-minute fly-through visualisation of a residential extension.

Twinmotion is used to understand project conception

“We were creating videos for our planning applications to help them understand,” Laskey said.

"We make sure our clients can fully walk around their project before we progress past conceptual design and move into planning so they fully understand what they're working with," he added.

Twinmotion can be used to create realistic architectural visualisations, such as this one by Joel Guerra

Laskey made the comments during a live Dezeen talk about how game engines are transforming the architectural industry.

The talk was held in August in collaboration with Epic Games, whose Twinmotion software allows architects to make use of visualisation technology developed for the gaming industry.

"Benefit of modelling and rendering in 3D"

"Trying to sell ideas through a series of still images is always quite strange," said Murray Levinson, partner at architecture practice Squire & Partners.

“I’ve always recognised the benefit of modelling and rendering in 3D and trying to get the spatial qualities of any project across to a client or the planning authority,” said Levinson, who uses Twinmotion to explain projects to both clients and planners.

“We can test out the height scale and bulk of those spaces," he said. "It comes to a point where we might show it to the planning authority to help us get planning consent."

"If you can engage with people through this type of software, it could give everyone more confidence about proposals which might be otherwise difficult to conceptualise in a 2D image," he added.

"We see games as a tool for engagement, for connecting people thinking about how they can become collaborative design environments," said Sandra Youkhana of architectural design studio You+Pea.

"I’ve been to some pretty sad [planning] consultation events and I think these kinds of tools can help to engage people in a more dynamic and inclusive way."

Playable planning notices

Youkhana and her partner Luke Pearson teach at the Videogame Urbanism studio, which forms part of the Urban Design Masters programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

The duo explained how their students used video-game technology to explore ways of creating a "playable planning notice" that would be more engaging than the paper notices that are pinned on lamp posts.

"The use of game systems and game engines is something people are becoming much more aware of," said Pearson.

"There's a whole science behind getting people to engage with things and structures and making a structured play that creates results."

The live talk coincided with Dezeen's Redesign the World competition, in partnership with Epic Games, which calls for proposals to rethink planet Earth.

Competition entrants must use Twinmotion to produce a 3D visualisation of their concepts and submit a video animation and still image, as well as 500 words of text explaining the proposal.

The Redesign the World competition is open for entries until 15 September 2021. See the brief and entry criteria for details of how to enter and watch the workshop for tips on how to use Twinmotion to create your entry.

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Rebecca Weiss designs ultrasound-powered male contraception device

German design graduate Rebecca Weiss has won a James Dyson Award for a male contraceptive device called Coso, which uses ultrasound waves to temporarily halt sperm regeneration.

Weiss's Coso device is designed to be a reversible contraceptive solution. To use it, a person would fill the device with water up to the indicated mark, turn it on so it heats to operating temperature, and sit for a few minutes with their testicles dipped into it.

Coso is a male contraceptive device that applies ultrasound waves to the testicles

The ultrasound waves temporarily halt sperm regeneration, with contraceptive effectiveness beginning two weeks after the first application.

The effect is reversible, with fertility expected to return no later than six months after the last application.

Weiss began designing the male contraceptive device after being diagnosed with a cervical cancer precursor that meant she could no longer take the pill.

When she and her partner looked for alternative methods and found there were no male-centred options beyond the condom or a permanent vasectomy, she started exploring the topic as part of her master's thesis in industrial design at the Technical University in Munich.

The designer imagines making it in different colours

"The problem is not unique to me personally," she said. "It affects many others as well. This is also evident in the current growing public discussion about the lack of contraceptive alternatives."

Her design for Coso is based on research that found ultrasound contraception has been successful on animals, but has so far been untested on humans. She hopes her design promotes further testing.

Coso is a small bowl-like device, with a smooth coloured exterior that looks similar to premium domestic gadgets.

Appearance and ease-of-use were key to the design brief Weiss set herself, to encourage uptake where no invention has previously succeeded.

The top section is like a small bowl, while the base contains the ultrasound module

Attempts to make a male contraceptive pill were abandoned after they caused side effects, even though they were arguably no worse than those caused by the female contraceptive pill. Others failed due to a lack of user-friendliness, according to Weiss.

"Coso, in contrast, offers a user-friendly contraceptive approach that is easy to use without any kind of physical intervention, pain or previously known side effects," said Weiss.

"New technologies only work if they are accepted by users and society."

To address this problem, Weiss involved her target demographic closely in the design of the product, surveying 422 participants and conducting co-design workshops with 25 of them.

Workshop participants contributed their thoughts on the requirements for the device and were also asked to draw their own ideas for an ultrasound device.

Weiss evaluated the ideas together with experts from urology, andrology, sexual therapy and psychotherapy and then began making and testing cardboard prototypes.

Weiss's design process focused on making Coso extremely user-friendly

The final design is a detailed CAD model, with defined colours and materials that have been evaluated with users.

Its features include auto-shutoff after treatment and an accompanying app to monitor progress.

The device has a battery, microcontroller, ultrasound module and LED strip in its base, with a status display and water level mark in the well providing a user interface.

The water level mark would need to be set by a doctor to suit the user's specific testicle size.

The idea for ultrasound contraception comes from a 2012 study by the Parsemus Foundation, which tested on animals, so its application to humans is hypothetical at this point.

There would need to be financial support for clinical trials before the product can launch.

"Without valid data, the project cannot be realised," said Weiss. "I am therefore looking for contacts with research institutions and industry partners who are willing to fund clinical trials."

The James Dyson Awards recognise excellence in student design and engineering from around the world.

Having won the German heat, Coso will now be considered in the international stage of the award. The shortlist will be announced on 13 October.

Another of this year's national award-winning designs was a knife-wound-healing device named REACT, designed by the UK's Joseph Bentley.

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