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Monday, 1 November 2021

Pawel Rymsza proposes domed cities with algae lakes "to make big reductions in atmospheric carbon"

Pawel Rymsza's proposal to house humanity in a network of ring-shaped structures built around huge algae-rich lakes is the first of 15 visionary projects selected as finalists for Dezeen's Redesign the World competition powered by Twinmotion.

Called Carbon Neutral Rings, Rymsza's proposal is to create a network of enclosed carbon-neutral cities for humanity to live in.

Each ring is built around a huge reservoir of algae, which would be used to filter the air inside the rings and act as a carbon sink to absorb the city's emissions.

The carbon dioxide absorbed by reservoirs would ensure the cities are carbon-neutral initially and would become carbon-negative over time, as humanity shifts to less carbon-intensive technologies.

Emma van der Leest develops fungal coating to make bio-leather more durable

Dutch designer Emma van der Leest believes that bio-leather might one day replace animal leather in the fashion industry and is developing a fungal coating to make the material more versatile.

Although there are various plant-based leathers commercially available, many of them include a small amount of polyurethane (PU) to make the material water-repellent and durable. As a result, these materials are not fully biodegradable, and so are arguably less eco-friendly than animal leather.

Fungkee fungal coating for bioleather by Emma van der Leest — Emma van der Leest has designed a speculative brand identity for the future product

Van der Leest is exploring whether fungus can be used instead of plastic to make these plant-based leather materials more sustainable.

As well as testing different types of fungus in the lab, she has designed a speculative brand identity for the future product, which she calls Fungkee.

Fungkee exhibition by Emma van der Leest — The coating is designed to make bio-leather more water-repellent and durable

"To take a biomaterial and coat it with PU, which of course is plastic, doesn't really make sense to me," said Van der Leest.

"In nature there are all kinds of different waterproof coatings, on leaves, on mushrooms, on the shields of insects," she told Dezeen. "I made it my goal to find a fungus that could coat this material."

Based on initial results from the lab, the designer believes a product could be developed in the next five to 10 years.

"In 10 years, I can see a lot of companies and designers using this product," she told Dezeen. "That's my wish."

Petri dish developing Fungkee fungal coating for bioleather — The coating is produced by cultivating mycelium spores in liquid

Van der Leest is developing the concept in partnership with cell biologist Aneta Schaap-Oziemlak. In 2019, the pair were awarded the Bio Art & Design Award, a €25,000 prize that helped them get their research off the ground.

They spent six months working with mycology experts Paul Verweij and Sybren de Hoog of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, over which time they were able to prove their concept works.

Fungkee lab research by Emma van der Leest — After the first six months of research, Van der Leest presented the results in an exhibition

For the initial tests, Van der Leest chose a specific type of bio-leather made from bacterial cellulose. This material is effectively grown, by cultivating bacteria and yeast in a vat of liquid.

Van der Leest became familiar with this material after working with Suzanne Lee of BioCouture, a designer who has pioneered bacterial bio-materials.

"That was when I realised how difficult it is to create 100 per cent naturally grown material from organisms," she said.

"Even then, you still need to design in properties that make the material water-repellent."

The concept developed by Van der Leest and Schaap-Oziemlak is for a fungal coating that doesn't just cover the material but actually wraps the cellular structure.

They create this coating by cultivating mycelium spores in liquid and found one particular fungus that gave them the result they were looking for.

"We saw fungal strains growing invasively through the material, which was a good sign," said Van der Leest.

"They weren't biodegrading the material, they were using it as a kind of home. That was one of our goals."

Although the coronavirus pandemic caused delays to the research, the designer plans to continue pursuing her goal of turning Fungkee into a commercially viable product.

Her ambition is for the coating to be used both by industry and consumers. As well as bio-leathers, she hopes to be able to replace PU in other textiles, for instance, on tent fabric.

"It's very interesting to see how you can develop materials or products that are more natural, but with the help of modern science you can scale them," she added.

Fungkee was exhibited at the recent Dutch Design Week, in an exhibition titled It's in our Nature.

Dutch Design Week ran from 16 to 24 October 2021 at venues across Eindhoven. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The post Emma van der Leest develops fungal coating to make bio-leather more durable appeared first on Dezeen.

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Geometric brick rooms installed in Spanish passageway

Architecture offices Palma and Hanghar have inserted a "playful sequence of rooms" made from thermal bricks into an empty passageway that leads to a monumental chimney in Spain.

Called Types of Spaces, the project was a temporary installation commissioned as part of last month's Concéntrico design and architecture festival in the city of Logroño in northern Spain's Rioja province.

Types of Spaces installation — Types of Spaces was installed in an unused passageway

Mexico City practice Palma collaborated with Spanish firm Hanghar to create Types of Spaces, which was located within an unused public passageway that leads to the site of Fábrica de Tabacos, an old tobacco factory.

The installation comprised a series of geometric open-air spaces built from naturally terracotta-coloured thermal clay bricks, which the designers described as "an ephemeral and playful sequence of rooms."

Arranged on a surface of discarded brick chips, the "rooms" provided an immersive gateway to a similarly-coloured red brick chimney that is located at the end of the passageway.

"When we were invited to participate in the festival, we were presented with several possible locations across the whole city to choose from," Palma architect Diego Escamilla told Dezeen.

"The passageway wasn’t even presented in the first meetings by the organisers because they thought we might not be really interested in it," Escamilla added.

"In the end, it was the perfect site for us. A discreet part of the city that could easily go unnoticed at first, but could awaken the curiosity of visitors and invite them to go through it."

View from end of installation — The chimney can be viewed from the end of the installation

While the chimney is a remaining symbol of Fábrica de Tabacos, the factory is no longer in use. Today, its site is split between the Regional Parliament of La Rioja and a public library.

"The project took inspiration from both the site and the material we built it from," explained Palma architect Ilse Cárdenas.

"The starting point for the design was to divide the long passage into a series of concatenated 3.6-metre square rooms in order to form a spatial procession of corridors and rooms of a domestic character in an attempt to reconstruct the void of the passage," added Hanghar architect Eduardo Mediero.

Using 30-by-30-centimetre bricks, the architects say that they took advantage of the bricks' interlocking system, only using minimal mortar reinforcement to secure them in place in order to ensure their reuse once the installation was dismantled.

Thermal clay brick installation — Thermal bricks interlocked to create the "playful rooms"

Palma and Hanghar sourced the bricks from Cerámica Sampedro, a factory in Spain that accepted the bricks back after Concéntrico.

"Our main objective with the project was to not generate waste or trash by buying new materials, which usually happens with many ephemeral projects," said Cárdenas.

"With brick as the main element, we decided to not use anything else, and build the whole pavilion with it. We think it creates a really nice dialogue with the chimney," concluded Mediero.

A room inside the installation — The project was installed for the duration of Concéntrico design and architecture festival

Other recently designed playful installations include a colourful Lego laundrette constructed in London as a place for children to play by Yinka Ilori.

The photography is by Luis Díaz Díaz.

The post Geometric brick rooms installed in Spanish passageway appeared first on Dezeen.

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Opel launches Rocks-e to bring "electric mobility to everyone"

Dezeen promotion: German carmaker Opel has launched an electric Sustainable Urban Mobility vehicle that aims to bridge the gap between car and scooter and can be driven by people as young as 15.

Named the Rocks-e, the Sustainable Urban Mobility vehicle (SUM) is officially classified as a light motor vehicle.

The vehicle will be launched in Germany this autumn and can be driven by people as young as 15 with the appropriate license.

The two-seater vehicle is just 2.41 metres long and 1.39 metres wide and weighs only 471 kilograms.

"Our new Opel Rocks-e is uncompromising in every respect," said Stephen Norman, Opel's head of sales and marketing.

"The design is bold and pure, the dimensions are extremely compact," he continued. "Our SUM drives purely on electricity and the price is unbeatable."

Charging station for electric car — It can be fully charged in 1.5 hours

The electric car is designed as an emission-free, easy-to-park vehicle for city use. It has a range of up to 75 kilometres (46 miles), which can be covered at up to 45 kilometres per hour (28 miles per hour).

It has a 5.5-kilowatt-hour battery that can be fully recharged. To enable easy, convenient charging, a three-metre-long cable is integrated into the car.

Opel designed the Rocks-e to be efficient, but also have a strong aesthetic that aligns with its ambitions.

"The Rocks-e enables electric mobility to everyone and will attract a lot of attention in city traffic with its unusual, purist design," added Norman.

The front of the car is distinguished with the new Opel Vizor brand face with LED headlights and indicators.

Both of the car's doors were designed to be identical to improve production cost. This means that they swing in different directions. While the passenger doors open in the usual direction, the driver's door is reversed and swings backward.

Inside the vehicle, the focus is on simplicity with essential information easily visible.

The light and open interior is topped with a panoramic glass roof.

The vehicle has been released as part of Opel's PACE! strategy, which will see an electrified variant of each Opel model released by 2024.

Find out more about the Rocks-e on its website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Opel as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Opel launches Rocks-e to bring "electric mobility to everyone" appeared first on Dezeen.

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Sunday, 31 October 2021

Klima wraps Maple Haus in the Utah mountains in weathering steel

Local firm Klima Architecture prioritised energy efficiency and a low-maintenance exterior while designing this three-level family residence near Park City, Utah.

The studio designed Maple Haus for a site just outside of Park City, a ski town on the eastern front of Utah's Wasatch Mountains.

Maple Haus by Klima Architecture — Maple Haus is located in Utah's Wasatch Mountains

The project was designed by Klima Architecture, which was founded in 2010 as Park City Design + Build and took on a new name last year.

The house was initially designed by to be a home for the studio's founder Chris Price. But due to the area's favourable real estate market, he ended up selling the home to new owners who use it as a full-time residence.

View from Maple Haus — The house sits in a forested community

The house sits within a forested community with an eclectic mix of abodes, from older cabins to contemporary dwellings. Price has lived in the neighbourhood for over a decade and has designed four homes there, including the Meadows Haus and Tree Haus.

"I gravitated here because historically you could get really cheap lots, and there is the utmost advantage of not having an overarching homeowner's association with design guidelines," said Price.

Cube-like external structure — A property called the Cube House informed the dwelling's design

He added that many Park City neighbourhoods have adopted restrictive guidelines, resulting in an "uninspiring built landscape."

While designing Maple Haus, Price took inspiration from an adjacent property – the Cube House, designed by the late architect John Sugden, who had apprenticed under Mies van der Rohe.

Corten steel facade — Klima wrapped the house's upper levels in Corten steel

"In true Mies/German efficiency, the house was built around a rigid grid of steel and glass, all on a concrete plinth," said Price.

"I wanted to take a notch out of this philosophy and design this house with the same rigour, but with modern materials and Passive House detailing."

Black kitchen cabinets by Klima — Kitchen counters are topped with black granite

Approximately rectangular in plan, the Maple Haus rises three levels on a sloped site. The house measures 60 by 24 feet (18 by 7.3 metres) and is laid out on a 12-foot (3.7-metre) grid.

"This helped minimise material waste when framing, and allowed us to work faster," said Price.

Wooden walls inside — Wood clads the property's interior walls

Creating an air-tight building envelope was a key concern. The architect used double-stud construction to form super thick walls filled with insulation. Triple-pane windows help lock in heat.

The base has a concrete exterior, while the upper levels are wrapped in Corten steel – a low-maintenance material that holds up well against fire, bugs and sunlight.

"On top of the steel siding is a second solar screen made of steel angle iron," said Price. "This functions solely on the southwest and northwest sides of the home, blocking around 30 per cent of that harsh western light."

Within the home, the team created light-filled spaces with crisp detailing.

Central staircase — A staircase with wood-veneer treads connects the three levels

The lowest level holds two bedrooms, while the middle floor contains a garage and guest quarters. The top level encompasses the main suite and an open-concept kitchen, dining area and living room.

All three levels are connected by a staircase made of black-painted steel with wood-veneer treads. Price and his father built all of the home's steelwork.

Maple wood features in the house — Klima used various earthy woods were used in the design

Earthy materials help tie the home to its natural setting. Hem fir was used for walls and ceilings, while maple was used for floors. Counters are topped with black granite.

Rooms were initially dressed with furniture from the Italian brand Poliform.

Bathroom with large glass windows — Large windows connect occupants to their outside surroundings

Large stretches of glass help occupants feel connected to the scenic landscape – a high desert, alpine ecosystem with pine and oak trees. An operable, triple-pane skylight brings in light from above while also allowing hot air to escape.

The roof is designed to allow for photovoltaic panels and a roof terrace in the future.

The house is located just outside of Park City, a ski town

Once a mining area, Park City is now a beloved destination for skiers and nature enthusiasts. Other projects in the mountain town include a residence by Imbue Design that consist of wood-clad, rectilinear volumes that are positioned around a central courtyard.

The photography is by Kerri Fukui and Lauren Kerr.

The post Klima wraps Maple Haus in the Utah mountains in weathering steel appeared first on Dezeen.

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