BreaZea room divider created from scented bioplastic

Design studios Crafting Plastics and Office MMK have teamed up to develop a scent-infused 3D-printed room divider made from bioplastic that is currently on show at Salone del Mobile.

BreaZea is showing as part of The Makers Show at Salone del Mobile, which showcases work by designer-makers, and consists of modules in two different designs that can be combined however the user wants.

The room divider is 3D-printed from bioplastics

The organic-shaped room divider was 3D-printed using one of Crafting Plastics' Nuatan bioplastics, which are made from blends from the PLA and PHA biopolymer groups.

BreaZea was designed as part of a larger project to let people smell bioplastics, which are normally odourless.

"This whole project, Breathe In/Breathe Out, started in 2018," Crafting Plastics co-founder Vlasta Kubušová told Dezeen.

"We were wondering, together with the German architect Moritz Maria Karl of Office MMK, how to bring a new identity to bioplastics, since normally you perceive these materials through their visuality and structure, not through their smell."

It has a sweet scent reminiscent of bread and maize

Wanting to create a scent for bioplastics that would make people associate it with something pleasant, similar to fresh wood, Crafting Plastics began thinking about what could be an appropriate smell for this new material.

The bioplastic used for BreaZea is made from cornstarch and sugar and when it's heated up, it has a "starchy, sweet, baking-bread like smell" which the studio says is unique for starch and sugar-based biopolymer blends.

The modules can be combined infinitely

Crafting Plastics therefore worked with scientist Karol Červenčík to develop a smell for BreaZea that would be reminiscent of the material's origins.

"It smells maize-y, caramel-y and sugary," Kubušová said. "This is actually the scent that we feel when the material is processed and we can smell it because it's heated up, but otherwise you wouldn't normally smell it."

To create the scented room divider, the studio is experimenting with both oil-based and water-based scents, which are added either to the bioplastic material itself before it it is 3D-printed or to the finished product.

"We're 3D-printing it and putting the scent onto the finished material, while another option is to encapsulate scents into the material," Kubušová said.

"This will stay in the material for longer. We're currently developing this process, but it looks like it will work."

BreaZea's designs is a visualisation of its scent

BreaZea's shape – an organic design that recalls corals and leaves – was created to evoke the way it smells.

"We really wanted to find a way in which to express the smell itself," Kubušová explained. "For us, the scent was something that doesn't have a regular shape but goes from very tiny places and spreads around, and which can be connected in different ways."

"So that was the idea, but it's really freely sketched."

The room divider is currently on display at Salone del Mobile

When it has come to the end of its lifecycle, the BreaZea can be placed in an industrial compost, where it will biodegrade in 60-120 days, Kubušová said.

Crafting Plastics hopes the design will be available for purchase in a month.

Bioplastic projects are becoming more common, with other recent projects including a couture dress adorned with algae sequins and a bioplastic made of forest and farm waste.

Photography is by Adam Sakovy.

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BreaZea will be on display at The Makers Show in Milan until 10 September as part of Salone del Mobile. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Live panel on philanthropy and design with Cyrill Gutsch, Cherine Magrabi and Nadja Swarovski

Dezeen is teaming up with Salone del Mobile to live stream a talk on philanthropy and design. Watch live from 3:00pm Milan time.

Dezeen's collaboration with Salone del Mobile will see us live stream a panel discussion in its Open Talks series, curated by Maria Cristina Didero, every day this week during Supersalone.

The third talk to be live streamed is a panel discussion on design-based philanthropy and charitable foundations.

On the panel is Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch, chair of the Swarowski Foundation and Waterschool Nadja Swarovski, House of Today Foundation foundation director Cherine Magrabi Tayeb and design historian Libby Sellers.

Cyril Gutsch will be joining the panel.

The panel seeks to explore how the creative industries can redefine philanthropy and what collaboration with charitable foundations can achieve.

Gutsch is a designer and brand and product developer. He is also the founder of Parley for the Oceans, a collaboration network that aims to raise awareness of the ecological fragility of the oceans and to develop and implement strategies to protect them.

In 2019, Gutsch was selected as one of the leading entrepreneurs working towards one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Entrepreneur Cherine Magrabi Tayeb is a member of the panel

Cherine Magrabi Tayeb is the founding patron of the Beirut Art Center, and founder and curator of House of Today.

After the Beirut explosion on the 4 August 2020 she worked to restore design studios and aid designers who had been affected by the blast .

Also joining the discussion is Nadja-Swarovski. Photograph by Nick Knight

Nadja Swarovski was the first female member of the executive board of Swarovski. Her recent work includes Creatives For Our Future, an initiative to identify and empower the next generation of creatives in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships.

Swarovski also leads the Swarovski Waterschool, which educates young people in water conservation and sustainability.

The talk will be moderated by Libby Sellers a design historian, writer and independent curator based in London.

Sellers was previously senior curator of London’s Design Museum, and was honoured as a Woman of Achievement in the Arts by the British Women of the Year awards in 2014.

Libby Sellers will be moderating the panel

This year's edition of Salone del Mobile, titled Supersalone, is curated by architect Stefano Boeri as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the cancellation of the 2020 edition.

Taking place in Milan in September rather than in its usual April slot, the special edition of the fair will feature products displayed on a series of parallel walls instead of in branded booths.

Salone del Mobile and parallel fuorisalone events will take place from 5-10 September 2021 in Milan. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Only one week left to enter Dezeen's Redesign the World competition with Epic Games

There is just one week left to enter our Redesign the World competition with Epic Games, which closes at midnight on Wednesday 15 September. Enter now!

Dezeen teamed up with Epic Games, creator of architectural visualisation tool Twinmotion, to launch the Redesign the World competition at the end of July.

Competition seeks radical proposals for reimagining the planet

The competition was conceived in response to the ever-growing threat to planet Earth's habitability due to the impact of human activities such as agriculture, mining, industry and construction. Pollution and habitat destruction threaten ecosystems while climate change poses an existential threat to all life forms.

The contest calls for radical new solutions to ensure that planet Earth remains habitable for hundreds of years to come. Proposals should address questions such as how vital ecosystems will flourish and how we can reshape the world to make it better than the one we have now.

The full brief and details of how to enter are available here ›

Entries will be assessed by an expert judging panel

Entries will be assessed by a judging panel comprising Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Twinmotion product marketing manager Belinda Ercan at Epic Games.

Fairs and Ercan will be joined alongside a selection of industry experts including White Arkitekter CEO Alexandra Hagen, structural engineer Hanif Kara and speculative architect Liam Young.

"The problems the world faces are huge in scale and they demand equally epic solutions," said Fairs.

"So we have set the ultimate design challenge and asked architects and designers to redesign the world. We're looking for big, bold ideas that show visionary thinking."

Belinda Ercan of Epic Games said: "I can't wait to see how our entrants will use Twinmotion's intuitive capabilities to unleash their creative thinking and convey their imaginations in the form of compelling digital stories."

Top prize of £5,000

The contest is free to enter for anyone over the age of 18 of any profession and from any country in the world.

The 15 best proposals selected by the judges will be published on Dezeen in November during our Dezeen 15 online festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th anniversary.

A top prize of £5,000 will be awarded for first place, £2,500 for second place, £1,000 for third place and £500 each for the 12 remaining finalists selected by the judging panel.

How to enter

Entrants must submit a video animation and still image created using architectural visualisation tool Twinmotion, along with up to 500 words of text about their proposal.

Dezeen hosted an online workshop on how to use Twinmotion to help participants with their entries, which includes tips and tricks and a 30-minute practical tutorial on how to use the software.

The deadline for submissions is 15 September and the finalists and winners will be announced from 1 to 19 November.

For submission information, judging criteria, terms and conditions and all other information about the competition, please visit: dezeen.com/redesigntheworld.

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Fabien Roy creates power cut-resilient incubator to protect babies in sub-Saharan Africa from hypothermia

Swiss architect Fabien Roy has designed Robust Nest, an incubator for hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa that functions throughout power cuts and is currently being exhibited as part of Milan design week.

With the small-scale incubator, on display at the Alcova design show until 12 September, Roy hopes to save some of the 1.1 million premature babies lost each year to hypothermia in the region.

Robust Nest is much smaller and lighter than traditional incubators

According to the designer, the standard incubators aren't suitable for use in hospitals in countries such as Kenya, where power cuts can be common.

"The main causes are their inability to provide heat during frequent blackouts, the difficulty to transport heavy and bulky devices on dirt roads and their vulnerability to high humidity rates, dust and temperatures," Roy told Dezeen.

"Blackouts kill a lot of babies. It's a super sad situation. This incubator is supposed to heat the baby for the entire blackout. The goal is to keep the babies warm."

A thermal battery inside the incubator keeps the baby warm for four hours

Robust Nest, which runs on a thermal battery developed by the Essential Tech Center of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, can keep babies warm for up to four hours. This will protect babies throughout the majority of blackouts.

When the incubator is plugged in at the hospital, the energy heats pouches of parrafin wax inside the battery, turning the wax into liquid in the process. During a power cut, the paraffin solidifies and releases energy as heat which keeps the baby warm.

Each incubator has a thermal battery that is predicted to last one million cycles of heating and cooling.

Roy added a handle so that healthcare professionals can easily carry the incubator

To make the medical device less "heavy and bulky", the designer made Robust Nest smaller than traditional incubators.

This was made possible thanks to the difference in hospital practices around the world.

The handle can also be used to help secure the incubator while in transit

In the region, it is routine for mothers to warm premature babies through skin-to-skin contact, an effective natural way to reduce the risk of hypothermia.

"The size is based on the local medical protocol in Kenya and sub-Saharan countries," Roy explained.

"In Kenya, they remove the babies from incubators much earlier than in other countries such as Switzerland," he explained.

"The maximum size of the babies is 40 centimetres before they are removed from the incubator."

Polycarbonate was used for the lid of the dome

Another benefit of the reduced size is that it makes construction and modification much easier, something that is particularly useful in hospitals where space is contested.

"They don't have a lot of space in hospitals and dispensaries," said Roy. "You can stack the polycarbonate domes of Robust Nest as well as the base and save space."

"You also reduce the cost of the shipment and then once it has arrived in the country, you facilitate the local logistics because it only needs one person to carry it," he added.

Alongside solving the powercut issue, Roy envisions that Robust Nest will help prevent deaths that occur as babies are transferred between hospitals and distilleries.

A metal handle around the rim acts as both a handle for healthcare professionals to carry the device as well as a "bumper" in vehicles.

Roy adopted a minimal grey and white design with orange signage

"The concept was to consider the entire lifecycle of the project and not just be using a hospital. We wanted to create something that we can transport babies transfer babies from a dispensary to a higher level hospital if necessary," he said.

"When you put it in a car, you can attach the seatbelt and it acts as a bumper to transport babies," he added.

For Roy, this feature is "super important for specialists" as it solves deaths both in and outside of hospitals.

Robust Nest can be deconstructed and stacked on top of each other when not in use

Roy chose a minimalist grey and white colour palette with bright orange signage to highlight sensitive areas such as around locks.

"I made the choice to design something quite conventional in the minimalist design field," he recalled.

"For the interface, I avoided using text, which is language-dependent, because a percentage of the medical staff cannot read. Instead, I chose to use pictograms."

Robust Nest will undergo trials in Kenya in early November. It is expected to be ready for use in 2022.

The project recently received the national James Dyson Award for Switzerland, and will now proceed to the international stage of the award. The shortlist for the award, which reward excellence in design and engineering from students around the world, will be announced on 13 October.

Another of this year's national award-winning designs was Coso, a male contraceptive device designed by Rebecca Weiss that uses ultrasound waves to temporarily halt sperm regeneration.

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The 2021 Alcova design show is taking place from 4 to 12 September at Via Simone Saint Bon 1 as part of Milan design week 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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SPAN Architects builds Astor Residence on remote Maine coast

New York City studio SPAN Architects has completed a remote retreat in Maine on a property that includes a replica of a traditional Chinese tea house and gardens.

The home is located on Maine's rugged coast, overlooking the waters of Western Bay. Encompassing roughly 200 acres (80.9 hectares) of land, the residence serves as a retreat for a New York City couple.

The house was built on a property on the Maine coastline

The property once belonged to American socialite Brooke Astor, who gained an early interest in China through her travels as a child when her father served in the US military. Her secluded Western Bay property served as a getaway for her and close acquaintances, where she built a traditional Chinese pavilion and tea house.

Its current owners first engaged Karen Stonely and Peter Pelsinski of SPAN Architecture several years ago for an apartment in Manhattan. They chose to work with the architects again to restore the property's existing tea house and pavilion, as well as create a new guest house and primary house for the owners, their family, and friends.

A Chinese pavilion on the site was renovated as part of the work

"The meandering garden and structures by late architect Robert Patterson have been meticulously restored and modernised," said SPAN Architecture. "SPAN's larger masterplan for the property incorporates these accessory structures – the historic, Chinese-styled cottage now called the Pool Pavilion and the Teahouse as it was – to complement a new guest house as well as a new main house."

The angled rooflines of both these structures offer views of the bay beyond the owner's living spaces, and create sheltered outdoor areas for socialising and gathering.

The new structures have angled rooflines

SPAN Architecture created the guest house first, as a way of testing certain design ideas that would later be applied to the main residence. This smaller building sits slightly further away from the water than the main house, which also helps keep it out of sight.

The main residence's lowest level comprises four bedrooms and is partially sunken into the landscape, opening on one side to the exterior. This creates a plinth for the upper stories, which contain all of the home's public spaces, and the owner's bedroom above.

"The experience of walking through the house parallels that of meandering through the landscape," said SPAN Architecture. "The same way that the landscape offers ever-changing vistas, surprise, delight and a sense of discovery, the plan creates a narrow entrance that gives just a hint, to visitors, of the open, double-height living space beyond, with the kitchen in another direction entirely."

The primary bedroom occupies the top floor of the house and enjoys a wraparound terrace that overlooks the other outdoor spaces. Full-height glass walls on three sides create a complete immersion in the site's lush natural surroundings.

A wraparound terrace provides panoramic views from the primary bedroom

SPAN Architecture's material palette was based on local materials, as well as research on the tea house and pavilion's original architect. Local cedar, Douglas fir, and stone from the same quarry as used for the earlier building were applied throughout the interiors.

An eclectic selection of furniture pieces rounds out the decor. "A charming aspect of the furnishing is that old and new happily co-exist; antique and vintage decor contrasts with other, more modern sculptural elements," said SPAN Architecture.

Eclectic furniture features throughout the house

Other waterfront homes in Maine include a cedar-clad home by Caleb Johnson that sits on sturdy wooden stilts, and a home split into two parts connected by a tall glass atrium that architects Maria Berman and Brad Horn built for themselves on Vinalhaven Island.

The photography is by Rob Karosis.

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