Dezeen promotion: German lighting brand Tobias Grau has launched a lamp called Team Home, which is intended to improve people's productivity and wellbeing when working from home.
Team Home is Tobias Grau's first high-performance lamp created specifically for the home. The lightweight, structural light is designed to create a de-cluttered and calm workspace.
The light is intended to improve people's productivity and wellbeing when working from home
Team Home has a powder-coated matte surface and comes in two models: a desk standing model or a clamp model that can be attached to any surface. It features motion and light sensors, which adapt to the user's activities.
The light is designed to be a complete lighting solution for home offices, and aims to integrate all the power and flexibility of workplace lighting in "an elegant, minimalist form that fits readily and flexibly into the domestic space".
"A professional home office requires professional light," said Tobias Grau. "As companies around the globe continue to adapt and evolve their work-from-home flexibility, Tobias Grau's new Team Home desk lamp revolutionises the quality and efficiency of home office illumination."
The light is designed to be a "complete lighting solution" for home offices
The light includes Tobias Grau's Beam Lens technology, which is integrated within the lamp and provides consistent and glare-free light across home workspaces. This is also to ensure that the user's eyes are protected from strain and shadows.
"Featuring hundreds of LEDs behind angled lenses, this gridded system ensures smooth, consistent, and glare-free light across an entire working surface," the brand said.
The lamps's Beam Lens technology protects users eyes from strain
Users control the lamp via an app to create their ideal lighting levels.
"The lamp can also be controlled and configured with the Grau Control App, allowing users to define light scenes, groups of lamps, sensor settings, and human-centric lighting that adapts to your biological rhythm,"Tobias Grau said.
For manual control, the light is also equipped with a Smart Touch panel where users can manually control the light's brightness and colour temperature.
The light has a Smart Touch panel where users can control the light's brightness and colour temperature
The Team Home light is manufactured and designed in Germany, where all of its components are tested and optimised for workplace wellbeing.
To learn more about Team Home, visit the brand's website.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Tobias Grau as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
Dezeen Showroom: furniture brand Hessentia has produced a curving sofa with bold lines that was designed by Italian designer Luca Erba.
Gio intends to transform living areas into welcoming spaces. The sofa is available in two versions, a conventional style sofa with a straight, linear form and a V-shaped sofa that kinks slightly at its centre.
The Gio sofa has a curving bulbous form
The sofa has three bulbous, defined volumes which make up the seat, back and armrests.
The back is divided into two volumes which curve into the sofa's armrests while the seat stretches as one volume across the entire length of the sofa.
The sofa is available in a number of different finishes
Gio is available in a range of coloured fabrics, nubuck and leathers that allow the sofa to be customised and suited to a range of interiors while still preserving its curving character.
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A fragmented form finished in white lime render and contrasting terracotta-coloured tiles creates a variety of transitions between interior and exterior at the DM House in Valencia, Spain, designed by local architect Horma Studio.
Located close to the coast in Puerto de Sagunto, the dwelling combines a large open-plan living area with guest rooms above and leisure spaces below.
Horma Studio has created a white and terracotta-coloured house in Valencia
Horma Studio used contrasting sections of curved and rectangular walls to give DM House a distinctive shifting geometry.
A gabled white form overlooks a pool at one end of the home and intersects with a half-barrel vault containing a periscope-like skylight at the other.
It features a mix of curved and rectangular walls
"The proposal aims to articulate a wide domestic programme, fragmenting the scale both volumetrically and spatially," said the studio.
"The composition of different volumes and geometries, together with the dialogue between materials, makes it possible to reduce and control the relationship between the parts of the project, from their interior space to their external perception."
A gabled white form overlooks a pool at one end of the home
The ground floor of DM House is oriented based on the site and the sun. Its more exposed southern and eastern edges contain a large living, dining and kitchen area that opens onto a series of tiled patios.
To the north and west side, the bedrooms tuck into a more intimate half of the home that is shielded from overlooking by neighbouring properties and illuminated by high skylights.
A spiral staircase links a terrace to the basement
The lower section of the home contains further lounge spaces and small pools, with a long clerestory window giving glimpses into the terrace pool on the level above.
A metal spiral staircase finished in a reddish-brown to match the ceramic tiles connects this lower space directly to the ground-level terrace.
"The section qualifies and defines the interior rooms and links the different floors by skylights, visual connections and natural light fixtures from the roof to the lower level," explained the studio.
The terracotta and white tones of the exterior are combined in a terrazzo floor that runs throughout the ground floor, unifying the various different spaces.
White walls like the interiors of the home
Throughout DM House, maple and cherry wood fixings, furniture and flooring sit against crisp white walls and ceilings that reflect the home's variety of pitched and curved forms.
"Matter, geometry and space work in harmony and, at the same time, their relationships vary, giving rise to very diverse spaces," said the studio.
The pool is visible from the basement where there are more leisure areas
Horma Studio is an architecture firm in Valencia, Spain, which was founded in 2012 by Nacho Juan and Clara Cantó.
It used a similar material palette to the DM House in its design for a salad bar in Valencia, which has a zigzagging seating plinth that also incorporates terracotta tiles.
We continue our review of 2021 with a roundup highlighting the top 10 staircases featured on Dezeen this year, including a stair informed by skate bowls and one designed by Kengo Kuma.
Located on the outskirts of Aarhus, this self-build house by Tommy Rand features a spiral staircase made using CNC-cut plywood.
At the entrance to the home, a full-height square window frames the large wooden spiral staircase. It was constructed using 630 pieces of plywood which were pieced and glued together by hand on-site.
The intricate detail and warmth of the staircase contrast with the home's concrete and minimalist interiors.
An off-white fibreglass staircase with red-hued steps is the focal point of this clothing store in Shanghai. It was designed by local studio AIM Architecture, taking inspiration from a suburban skate bowl.
Upon entering the store, visitors are greeted by the 4.2-metre-tall structure that wraps around concrete columns much like the form of a children's slide, leading customers on a red, winding path through the store.
Chinese architecture studio PIG Design built this showroom for the Memphis Milano furniture brand in Hangzhou, China.
A grey staircase with a gold-hued bannister leads visitors to the first-floor exhibition spaces, framed by sculptural geometric volumes which fill the interior.
This hostel building for girls by Zero Energy Design Lab has a concrete structure with a perforated facade characterised by angular meandering lines that frame an external staircase.
The staircase runs along the exterior of the hostel, appearing to bisect the building diagonally. At its landings, the staircase is adjoined to a number of external breakout spaces which the architects hoped would encourage socialising.
Designed by Danish architecture firm BIG, this viewing tower is formed wholly from a double-helix spiralling staircase.
The 25-metre-tower widens as it nears the top to form a viewing platform providing 360-degree views across the marshlands that give the structure its name. The platform is accessed by a 146-step climb – or via an elevator located at the core of the tower.
Interior designer Kelly Wearstler incorporated a white oak staircase in her design for the Austin Proper Hotel and Residences which doubles as a display area.
The stepped silhouette of the tread was continued along the balustrade and also cascaded to the surrounding areas with its volumes used as plinths to display pots and vessels.
Slotted between dramatic curving concrete walls, this helical staircase at a clothing boutique in Hangzhou, China was designed by Liang Architecture Studio.
The steel spiral staircase connects the store's two levels. On the ground floor, the staircase is footed by a circular carpet matching its rusty hue.
Dutch architecture firm OMA overhauled a US Postal Service building, transforming it into a multi-use cultural and retail venue connected by sculptural staircases.
One of the staircases located within POST Houston has a Piranesian quality, comprising two sets of mirrored concrete steps supported by a green under-structure. The two sets of stairs zigzag and dogleg throughout the atrium to create two X shapes when viewed from the front.
Canadian architecture studio Saia Barbarese Topouzanov added colourful spiral staircases to housing units in Montreal's Saint-Michael neighbourhood.
The spiral staircases were added to a brutalist-style housing complex built in the 1970s, providing balconies for the apartments. They were pigmented in seven different tones from pale yellow to brick red.
Turner Prize-nominated duo Cooking Sections is creating a series of architectural installations to draw attention to the impact food production and consumption has on the environment. In this interview, they explain their obsession with food.
Spatial practitioners Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe – who operate under the name Cooking Sections – told Dezeen that food impacts everyone.
"What's interesting about food is that it is an intersectional tool," said the designers. "The fact that it touches and moves through everybody."
Pascual and Schwabe founded Cooking Sections in 2013 after studying together at Goldsmiths' Centre for Research Architecture in London.
Salmon: Traces of Escapees is currently on show as part of the Turner Prize
The multidisciplinary designers collaborate with a diverse range of other practitioners and institutions – including scientists and museums – to create site-specific installations, videos and performances that investigate the environmental and social impact of food on the spaces we inhabit.
"Food is one of the main drivers and forces that is shaping the ecology of the planet, within and around us," the pair explained. In particular, they seek to drive home the relationship between what we eat and the world we live in.
Turner Prize-nominated work focusses on food and climate change
The duo's portfolio of work includes Climavore, an ongoing multifaceted project initiated in 2015 that investigates how humans can adapt their diets in response to climate change, for which Cooking Sections was nominated for this year's Turner Prize.
Climavore features an audio and film installation called Salmon: Traces of Escapees, which explores the environmental impact of salmon farming. It is currently on show at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry alongside other finalists for the prestigious art prize, including recently announced winners Array Collective.
On Tidal Zones was used as a communal dining table
The Climavore project began with On Tidal Zones, a metal installation that was until recently positioned on the shoreline of Scotland's Isle of Skye.
It served as both a communal dining table at low tide and a habitat for oysters and other bivalves during the hours when the installation was underwater. These organisms act as "crucial filter feeders that maintain robust and healthy intertidal ecosystems," Cooking Sections said.
Salmon: A Red Herring was an installation about salmon farming on show at Tate Britain. The photo is by Lucy Dawkins
The duo invited people to this performative table to eat what they define as sustainable "Climavore meals" made from regenerative coastal ingredients such as seaweed.
A number of restaurants on Skye and Raasay, another Scottish island, and food outlets in museums including the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), have since chosen to "become Climavore." This means that the establishments have replaced the salmon on their menus with ingredients that come from regenerative aquacultures.
Pascual and Schwabe want to draw attention to how salmon is artificially coloured. The photo is by Lucy Dawkins
In particular, the Tate Britain was prompted to do so after exhibiting a Cooking Sections project at the museum called Salmon: A Red Herring – a one-room installation featuring sculptures of animals such as polar bears and flamingos that are illuminated over a period of time in various shades of pink and red.
As well as site-specific installations such as On Tidal Zones, Climavore includes long-term community schemes such as cooking apprenticeships that train young people to prepare sustainable meals in food establishments on Skye and Raasay.
"Architecture has very long-lasting effects on the environment"
Communicating the effects of climate change is intrinsic to much of Cooking Sections' work, and Pascual and Schwabe say they take this into consideration when creating site-specific projects.
That challenge has seen them tackle questions that will be familiar to architects, such as the impact architecture and landscape design has on its surroundings.
Becoming Xerophile highlighted how desert plants can live without water in arid cities
One example is Becoming Xerophile, an installation by the pair that was part of last year's Sharjah Architecture Triennial exploring how desert plants could be used in place of water-dependent greenery in arid cities.
"Architecture is a discipline that has very, very long-lasting effects on the environment," said the designers.
The project was on show at Sharjah's 2020 Architecture Triennial
"We have to ask ourselves how we can ensure that projects last over a long period of time because when one commits themselves to environmental questions, the time it takes to support some kind of ecological transition isn't often something that can be done or assessed in the period of say, an exhibition at a museum," the duo added.
"First, let's understand the multiple problems involved in something, and then see how to move forward. That might take 50 years or 100 years. So it's about taking it step by step, and seeing how to be proactive with responding to the circumstances," explained Pascual and Schwabe.
"We move between different disciplines"
Cooking Sections' interdisciplinary method of working, which connects art with architecture and wider issues such as food supply chains, is reflected in its name. "There are many layers to it," said the designers.
"'One of our main concerns is the construction of space," the duo added. "So 'sections' stands for this invisible plane that you can never actually see, but it's fundamental in every kind of construction."
"For example, without sections, a building cannot be built. And cooking is the act of bringing things together and making something out of them. We move between different disciplines in the way we develop projects."
An aerial view of On Tidal Zones
When the pair met at Goldsmiths, Pascual already had an extensive background in architecture, while Schwabe had experience in architecture, theatre and performance.
"There was something very enriching in our encounter, in the way that there was a space for not knowing things, and for sharing information and knowledge and experience" explained the duo.
"It's important for us to bring together different backgrounds."
Work examines how we "use food to understand much larger kinds of structures"
Pascual and Schwabe say that collaborating with people working across diverse industries is essential to their practice, as "we kind of develop new methodologies or formats according to each iteration of the projects we do."
"It's important for us to bring together different kinds of backgrounds and skillsets in order to understand different spatial conflicts because they are usually quite a complex entanglement of many factors and phenomena," said the designers.
Pascual and Schwabe met while studying Research Architecture at Goldsmiths
Cooking Sections was nominated for the Turner Prize in the first year in the award's history that saw only collectives shortlisted, rather than individual artists.
Pascual and Schwabe expressed their interest in continued collaboration for future projects, rather than working only as solo practitioners.
"It's almost the opposite. We think we need to bring even more people on board, because the questions that we are trying to answer become more and more complicated, so we need more allies," they said.
"In a sense, it's quite simple. At the end of the day, our work is not about food, per se. It's about how we use it for infrastructure, and to understand much larger kinds of structures."
The images are courtesy of Cooking Sections unless otherwise stated.
The Turner Prize is on show at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until 12 January. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
