Framework develops modular laptop that users can fix and upgrade themselves

American technology company Framework has designed a laptop with modular components that can be repaired and replaced to increase the product's lifespan while reducing e-waste.

The Framework laptop is available in either a preassembled or a DIY version that customers can assemble themselves. It comes with a screwdriver and spudger to allow owners to easily customise, upgrade and repair their device.

Individual components such as the motherboard can be repurchased, reused or broken down and recycled, to help facilitate a more circular economic system.

The modular Framework laptop is designed to be disassembled

Framework CEO Nirav Patel said the company's ultimate aim is to tackle the mounting problem of electronic waste.

"We've gone from 44.4 million tonnes of e-waste per year in 2014 to 53.6 million tonnes in 2019," he told Dezeen. "As an industry, we can't keep moving in this direction."

Rather than just focusing on recycling, Framework hopes to combat this issue by helping consumers to generate less waste and making products that last longer than traditional mass-market devices, which Patel describes as "disposable one-offs".

Each component has a QR code directing users to instructions and replacement parts

The lightweight laptop, which is the brand's debut product, features a 16-millimetre-thick, 13.5-inch screen housed inside a casing made from 50 per cent post-consumer recycled (PCR) aluminium.

Framework's Expansion Card system allows buyers to customise the laptop with their choice of ports, from USB to HDMI, which can sit on either side.

By loosening five small screws on the underside of the laptop, the keyboard section can be removed to reveal the device's insides.

The keyboard is removed to reveal the laptop's insides

The laptop's 55-watt-hour battery and motherboard can then be taken out and repaired. Alternatively, the motherboard can be replaced and reused as a single-board computer (SBC) for other DIY projects.

Each component is emblazoned with a QR code that directs users to step-by-step instructions for repair or replacement, as well as a webpage where they can order the spare part from Framework's marketplace.

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Currently on display as part of the Waste Age exhibition at London's Design Museum, the laptop is one of a growing cohort of devices, including the modular Fairphone, that recognise consumers' "right to repair".

"We believe each consumer should have the fundamental right and ability to repair any product they purchase," Patel explained.

"We all have that drawer of shame of devices that are broken or have dead batteries or couldn't get that latest software update. None of us want that, and the right to repair is an essential part of solving it."

Users can choose between four different exchangeable ports

Both the European Union and the United Kingdom have passed some version of the right to repair into law, but laptops and smartphones have so far been excluded from this kind of regulation.

As a result, Patel says major technology companies have gotten away with doing the bare minimum.

The laptop just became available for pre-order in the UK

"We are seeing consumer demand and regulatory pressure starting to push some of the lowest hanging improvements, like Apple's recent announcement of making some replacement parts available to repair shops and end consumers," he explained.

"Big companies aren't in the habit of making changes to their products that risk reducing revenue. So realistically, deeper modularity requires business model transformation to align the incentives around product longevity."

All photographs are courtesy of Framework.

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The Whale apartment in Paris riffs on art deco design

Mirror, brass and simple geometries feature inside this Parisian apartment by local architect Clément Lesnoff-Rocard, which offers an understated take on art deco.

The 65-square-metre flat, nicknamed The Whale, is tucked away in the basement of a residential building in the city's 16th arrondissement.

The Whale apartment is located in the basement of an art deco building in Paris

According to Lesnoff-Rocard, the apartment had undergone a renovation in recent years, leaving it with "perfectly tasteless" interiors that were a pastiche of the building's original art deco style.

Most of the rooms also seemed dark and cramped, the architect explained, with unsightly plasterboard used to conceal the home's technical systems.

Knocking through a false ceiling revealed the apartment's concrete framework

Given carte blanche by the client, Lesnoff-Rocard completely stripped back the apartment by rendering a majority of its surfaces white and tearing down its false ceiling, revealing a network of unexpectedly chunky concrete beams.

"The disproportion between the enormous size of these structural elements and the smallness of this apartment sent the space to a much larger dimension," he explained.

"It's like we were hidden inside a much larger, surreal animal."

This contrast in scale is what ultimately gave the project its name, The Whale.

Marble, mirror and brass are used across the apartment's standout features

Lesnoff-Rocard used brass, mirrors, coloured marble and geometric shapes to subtly incorporate the building's art deco beginnings into the interior.

"My first intuition was obviously to work from the DNA of art deco, not by literally copying it like the previous renovation had done but by questioning it in today's context," he explained.

Read:

The Island is a nature-inspired Paris home designed around a courtyard garden

The doors that lead through to the sleeping quarters are clad in mirrored panels while storage cabinets are crafted from reflective brass and one of the structural columns has been replaced with a block of pale blue marble.

In the living room, spherical pendant lights with half white, half black shades have been suspended from wires strung across the ceiling.

The kitchen can be found behind gridded partitions

Behind graphic gridded partitions lies the kitchen, where the same blue marble has been used to create a breakfast island.

A number of features in the apartment also nod back to the project's name. Among them is a circular shuttered window connecting two of the rooms, which can be opened and closed to "blink" like a huge whale's eye.

A shuttered circular opening is meant to resemble a whale's eye

Clément Lesnoff-Rocard established his eponymous studio in 2015.

Other projects by the architect include The Island, a double-height home in the Parisian neighbourhood of La Défense that is arranged around a central courtyard.

The photography is by Simone Bossi. 

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Apparata designs affordable housing development A House for Artists in London

London-based architecture studio Apparata has completed a community-oriented housing development for artists with a playful design and a facade punctured by geometrically-shaped openings.

First announced in 2017, A House for Artists is located in Barking, east London, and was designed to provide low-cost housing and workspace for 12 artists and their families.

A House for Artists is a community-oriented affordable housing model

The five-storey concrete structure contains 12 apartments, as well as artist studio workspaces, a community space and a shared working yard that can be opened to the public.

Its design, which Apparata described as "playful," is comprised of a collection of stacked shapes, volumes and openings that are connected by terraces.

A two-storey triangular volume across the upper levels of the building adds variation to the facade, while circular windows and openings similarly contribute to the design.

Twelve artists were selected from an open call to live in the building

"The building is surrounded by several different typologies and scales. We wanted the building to connect to its surroundings but still hold its own and have a presence, as the near future context will be many tall towers." Apparata co-founder Astrid Smitham told Dezeen.

"The overall volume connects to the surrounding blocks and towers, but the triangular roof shapes connects the building to the smaller pitched roof terraces. The stacks of shapes signal a different kind of typologies and apartment and uses."

It aims to provide London with a replicable model for affordable housing

A House for Artists' public and domestic areas are clearly defined, with the ground floor boasting floor-to-ceiling windows that aim to attract passers-by. Meanwhile, apartments on the upper levels are set back behind balconies and terraces that provide its residents with privacy.

Each floor can house up to three apartments and was designed to give residents the opportunity to freely change and adapt the floor plan over time.

The apartments are void of the hallways typically found in traditional housing models. Instead, they have an open-plan arrangement, with bedrooms lined across the southeastern edge of the apartment and living areas running parallel across the northwestern edge.

Tenants will give back to the community by running workshops

"Contemporary apartment design is still largely based on the nuclear family when this model doesn’t reflect the diverse configuration of people’s lives today," said Smitham.

"New kinds of arrangements are needed: the possibility of an elderly parent to live with you temporarily, to share childcare with another household, or to grow a meaningful connection with neighbours."

Read:

Grayson Perry and Apparata team up to create A House for Artists in east London

"The apartments are designed for artists in the first instance, so we had in mind high ceilings, large windows, a larger multi-use main room, and robust finishes," Smitham added.

"But we also wanted to design apartments that fulfil needs for housing more generally, in terms of providing for different configurations of living, and to be able to adapt to changes in peoples lives over time."

The apartments can be adapted and changed to suit the tenants' needs. Photo is by David Grandorge

Walls can be removed to suit the needs of the resident, while one floor of apartments was fitted with double partitional doors that allow tenants to merge apartments with those adjoining for potential co-living scenarios.

Each home also has access to shared outdoor communal spaces.

"In the UK, adaptability that allows you to scale up or create more rooms is usually only possible if you own a house," Smitham explained. "We wanted to create some of that flexibility within an apartment plan, to allow for a social sustainability, so people can meet their changing needs without moving out."

Apparata incorporated playful shapes and volumes across the building

Apparata originally planned to construct A House for Artists using pigmented precast concrete, but chose in-situ concrete to better aid the building's structural integrity, acoustic and thermal performance, as well as fire and weather protection.

It was built using a single skin of 50 per cent Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) concrete, in which half the cement is substituted with a by-product of the steel industry.

The building was constructed using a single concrete skin

"The concrete has 50 per cent GGBS substitution above ground and 70 per cent GGBS below ground. This significantly reduces the carbon footprint," said Smitham.

"By making the concrete do several jobs: structure, facade skin, fire resistance, thermal mass, acoustic separation, the material build-ups in the building are actually very lean, so the building exceeds the RIBA 2030 climate challenge with more than 20 per cent less carbon."

Raw material finishes run through the interiors

The tenants at A House for Artists, whose ages range from the twenties to seventies, were selected by a panel that included artist Grayson Perry and will pay 65 per cent of market rent. In exchange for the lower rent, they will contribute to a community-oriented arts programme that will be run on the ground floor of the building.

Arts charity Create, which commissioned the project, will work with the tenants for the first two years of the public community programme, after which the resident group will be self-organised.

The building has decorative circular openings

Elsewhere in London, Peter Barber Architects created a terrace of social housing in Greenwich on an "undevelopable" site.

In Puglia, Alvisi Kirimoto designed an affordable housing complex with perforated balconies.

Photography is by Ståle Eriksen unless stated otherwise. The top image is by Johan Dehlin.

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Glass and steel form rooftop Cascada House apartment in Mexico City

Architects Ana Nuño de Buen and Luis Young have used a green metallic frame to form the structure of an airy apartment built atop an existing building in Mexico City.

The Cascada House was designed by Mexican architects Nuño de Buen and Young to provide a standalone unit atop a concrete building from the 1950s. It is located in the Pedregal de San Ángel neighbourhood, a sought-after area in the south of the city.

Cascada House is topped with two sloping roofs

The apartment encompasses 140 square metres, and connects to the existing home below via an open stairwell.

Its profile is defined by two roof slopes, which drain towards a central gutter running along the main axis of the addition. These rooflines open up the interior spaces to views of the surrounding treetops.

Exposed green steel beams run throughout the apartment

Nuño de Buen and Young placed the small home's services at the lowest point of the roofline, to allow for taller and brighter living areas at the front and back of the property.

"The structure itself defines the architectural program," said the architects.

Kitchen cabinetry matches the structural colour scheme

On one side is an open-concept living and dining room, with a small kitchenette. This opens to a generous patio via sliding glass doors.

"Through large glass panels that open widely, the house integrates with the ambient vegetation, dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior," they explained.

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On the other side, the living room extends to form a secondary seating area. This space is set up with a desk and a pair of armchairs, and can be used as an office or for meetings.

The unit's sole bedroom is accessible via a discreet corridor, and is separated from the lounge by two bathrooms built back-to-back. One of these is private to the bedroom, while the other is accessible from the living area.

An open-plan dining area connects to a patio via sliding glass

A simple palette of materials run throughout the extension, primarily featuring the home's distinctive green colour.

It is used for the steel structure, which is left exposed, and for cabinets, railings, and window frames.

The apartment was built on top of an existing concrete building

Wide-plank wooden floors are used across the interiors, and the furniture is by Taller Nacional, a design agency in Mexico City.

Ana Nuño de Buen and Luis Young met at Mexico City's Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) architecture school, and have been collaborating professionally since 2017.

Other projects in Mexico City include an apartment renovation in the renowned CUPA tower by local firm Escobedo Soliz, and a courtyard block with a "secret garden" at its centre, by CPDA Arquitectos.

The photography is by Luis Young.

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Project credits:

Contractor: Ricardo Villa
Structural engineering: CAFEL Ingeniería
Furniture: Taller Nacional

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Educan is a multicoloured school "for dogs, humans and other species"

Dogs aren't the only animals to get special treatment in this colourful canine training centre near Madrid, which also includes homes for birds and bats.

Educan is a building designed by two Spanish architects, Eeestudio founder Enrique Espinosa and Lys Villalba, with biodiversity in mind.

Educan is a training centre for dogs and dog trainers

The building is referred to as "a school for dogs, humans and other species".

It primarily offers training for both dogs and dog trainers, but also accommodates various "companion species" that support the natural ecosystem of the local area.

Small birds and bats feed on insects such as mosquitoes, which can carry canine diseases, while also contributing to local pollination cycles. Meanwhile birds of prey help to keep rodent populations under control.

The building also includes habitats for bird and bats, to help boost local biodiversity

Villalba said the aim was to create a building that helps nature to thrive.

"Sitting amongst fields, in a rural environment transformed over recent decades by urban development and intensive pesticide-reliant agriculture, Educan is trialling ways to recover the conditions of the ecosystem," she said.

The building includes training areas, a classroom and a reception area

Constructed from extra-large shipping containers, the 300-square-metre Educan has warehouse-like proportions.

Organised over one storey, it is divided up into three spaces that include a training area that can be easily subdivided, a classroom and a reception area containing a kitchen and toilet facilities.

The building is constructed from reused shipping containers

The clients, Eva Alda Cano and Marcos González, share the building with two German Shepherds, Bicho and Bomba. It is currently also occupied by 20 sparrows, six kestrel families, five swift families and a barn owl named Harris.

The building's design offers facilities for all of these different users.

Sliding glass doors allows the facade to open, while rolling louvres offer shade

The flooring is a concrete aggregate that incorporates river pebbles, to make it better suitable for dog paws, while rolls of synthetic turf can be laid down in the training rooms.

Pyramid foam insulation creates a layer of soundproofing against loud barks, while windows are positioned at heights that suit both dogs and trainers.

Nesting areas for bird and bats are integrated into the building

"The average eye height drops from over a metre and a half, to just half a metre," said Villalba.

"Interior openings are raised to heights of more than one metre to avoid doggy distractions, while louvred window shutters shade the south facade, leaving enough space below for dog traffic to the outside," she said.

Rainwater is diverted into troughs for the animals

High ceilings create plenty of perches for the building's bird residents, and each species also has its own dedicated nesting area.

Nests for bats are located in a more surprising location.

Read:

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They are located within the six chunky letters that spell out Educan on the building's facade.

The building also integrates rainwater harvesting, providing water-filled troughs for the use of all animal species.

The building is coloured in vibrant shades of red, yellow, blue and mint green

Educan is brought to life by a vibrant colour palette that includes shades of red, yellow, blue and mint green.

These colours help to bring homogeneity to a highly textured palette of industrial materials, which includes corrugated metal, steel beams, exposed service ducts and pyramid-shaped foam insulation.

Custom made plywood furniture provides seating for the classroom

Bespoke details riff on these elements, for instance, the wiggle-edge plywood seating and the large circular windows.

"Educan is an experiment that demonstrates how agricultural architecture can also be a place of exploration and architectural innovation," added Villalba.

Other recent buildings designed with dogs in mind include the Canine and Feline Hotel in Portugal and the Ohio office of dog toy brand and treats brand Bark.

The photography is by Javier de Paz García and José Hevia, as indicated.

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Project credits

Architects: Enrique Espinosa (Eeestudio), Lys Villalba.
Client: Adiestramiento Educan
Construction company: Servicios Integrales Alji / Construcciones Metálicas Miguel Torrejón
Building engineer: Javier Reñones Marín
Structural engineer: Mecanismo
Building services engineer: Alberto Espinosa
Technical consultant: Jorge López Hidalgo
Collaborators: Maria Paola Marciano, Irene Domínguez

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