Studio Ben Allen designs artichoke-shaped garden room

Green shingles cover the exterior of this octagonal, flatpack garden room in south west London, designed by Studio Ben Allen.

The design of A Room in the Garden was informed by the bizarre and playful 18th-century Dunmore Pineapple pavilion in Scotland, as well as the form and colour of an artichoke.

Inside, the space can be used as a study, lounge or bedroom, lit by a large window overlooking the garden and a central skylight.

Studio Ben Allen built it from flatpack kit of CNC-cut timber elements that are notched and pre-drilled.

The project is both easy to construct and deconstruct to re-build elsewhere, should the owners choose to move.

It took just 20 days to construct the project, with the only specialists required being an electrician and a spray insulation contractor.

Shades of green were chosen for the exterior to "surreally camouflage" the building, playing with the references to fruit and vegetables and picking up on the colours of the trees, grass and plants surrounding it.

"We were interested in trying to dematerialise the internal octagonal geometry on the outside with something more organic and visually complex, with the intent that at some point the surrounding planting would develop," said studio founder Ben Allen.

Double doors lead into the room, which can be pushed fully back to open the space into the garden during warmer months.

Inside, the space is defined by the timber columns of the structure, which meet at the top to create a latticed pattern around the skylight.

One side of the room is occupied by a desk and the other by a wooden bench, which can be opened out to create a bed in the centre of the space.

"The interior is designed to adapt with the seasons," said the studio.

"The exposed timber structure which rises to the ceiling converging and framing the skylight gives a central focal point and top-light, ideal when seeking a place to read or for quiet contemplation."

A datum of green-finished wood wraps around the lower half of the interior, with a two-tone tiled floor mirroring the angular geometry of the exterior.

Allen founded Studio Ben Allen in 2014, and has used similar methods of creating simple, geometric wooden forms for an office in Birmingham, as well as in the renovation of a flat in the Barbican Estate.

Architect Charles Holland also created a colourful pavilion inspired by historic follies. Polly is a nine-metre-high structure shaped with a parrot set in a National Trust garden in North Yorkshire.

Atelier SAD has designed a shingled pavilion that's shaped like a pinecone for children to use as a portable classroom.

Photography and film by Ben Tynegate.

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Project credits:

Architects: Studio Ben Allen
Team: Ben Allen, Omar Ghazal, Marco Nicastro, Arthur Wong, Massine Yallaoui
Client: Jonnie and Rachel Allen
Structural engineer: Format Engineers
Landscape design: Daniel Bell Landskip
Installer: Sullivan and Company
CNC cutting: Hub Workshop

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Dezeen named Editorial Brand of the Year

Dezeen has been named Editorial Brand of the Year at the International Building Press Awards 2019 for its "well-planned and original content". The trophy now has pride of place amongst our other cups.

Judges praised Dezeen for the quality of our content and drew particular attention to our Bauhaus 100 series, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the hugely influential design school.

"Dezeen taps into the zeitgeist, really understands its audience and has well-planned and original content," the judges said.

"There was a great deal of preparation for the Bauhaus anniversary, which paid off."

Journalist Nick Ferrari and Marley marketing manager Sarah Harding presented Dezeen with the Editorial Brand of the Year trophy

This is the first year that the International Building Press (IBP) has named an Editorial Brand of the Year at its annual awards for journalism about the built environment.

Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs received the trophy at a ceremony in London last night, which was hosted by journalist and radio presenter Nick Ferrari. Sarah Harding, marketing director of tile company Marley, which sponsored the category, presented the trophy to Fairs alongside Ferrari.

The win follows Dezeen being named Digital Service of the Year for the past two years.

The judges also noted the growth that Dezeen has seen on its site and across all of its social media channels. This March was the best month ever for traffic to Dezeen, with over three million people visiting the site during the month.

Earlier this year, Dezeen hit a social media milestone when we reached two million followers on Instagram. We currently have 2.2 million followers on the social media platform.

This year has also seen Dezeen exceed 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and one million followers on Pinterest. Dezeen Weekly, our regular newsletter,  also reached a milestone, hitting over 300,000 subscribers.

"The evidence is in the stats, particularly the growth on Instagram," said the IBP judges.

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Illustrator Tom Gauld and War Horse designer Paule Constable named among 2019 Royal Designers for Industry

The Royal Society of Arts has announced the six designers named as the 2019 Royal Designers for Industry. This year’s list includes illustrator Tom Gauld, Alexander McQueen fabric designer Kim Avella, War Horse lighting designer Paulo Constable, landscape architect Johanna Gibbons, structural engineer Adam Lowe and furniture designer Michael Marriott.

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Acts of Natural Magik presents Pokémon landscape photography in the post-Giovanni era

Using the Nintendo 64 game Pokémon Snap, empty landscapes of the dystopian future of Pokémon Island are reimagined in this tongue-in-cheek project.

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Four technologies tackling the problem of plastic pollution in rivers

Most ocean plastic starts off in rivers. From bubble curtains to googly-eyed trash wheels, here are four technologies designed to intercept river plastic before it gets to the sea.

Last month The Ocean Cleanup turned its attention to river plastic and launched the Interceptor, a floating device it claims can harvest up to 100,000 kilograms of plastic waste per day.

"To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and close the tap, preventing more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place," said Boyan Slat, founder of the organisation that has until now focused on trying to remove plastic already in the oceans.

However many experts believe that extracting plastic from the ocean is the wrong approach. "To be very honest, I don't believe that we're going to clean up the oceans," said Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans, in an interview with Dezeen earlier this year.

Of the 300 million tonnes of plastic produced every year, up to eight million tonnes ends up in the ocean.

A 2017 report published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal revealed that 88 to 95 per cent of the plastic waste transported to the ocean via rivers comes from just ten rivers. These include the Nile, the Yellow River and the Ganges.

An estimated 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year. Circular-economy charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans.

Here are four projects attempting to stop plastic from reaching the ocean:

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Interceptor, by The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup's attempt at cleaning up ocean plastic has gotten off to a rocky start. The floating barrier designed to catch plastic from the sea has suffered setbacks with damage from wind and waves. While the project is still going ahead, the organisation has also turned its attention to river plastic.

"Combining our ocean cleanup technology with the Interceptor, the solutions now exist to address both sides of the equation," said Slat, the organisation's founder.

The Interceptor is an autonomous solar-powered device that uses a barrier stretching across a river to collect plastic. Rubbish is funnelled towards a floating processing plant that resembles a barge. The trash is passed up a conveyor belt and deposited into bins, which signal to the system when they are full so that a boat can come and pick them up for recycling.

Currently there are Interceptors operating in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, with more planned for the Dominican Republic and the USA.

Read more about the Interceptor ›

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The Bubble Barrier, by The Great Bubble Barrier and Waternet

Waternet, which manages Amsterdam's waterways, deploys five garbage boats that fish out 42,000 kilograms of plastic every year. Earlier this year Waternet also deployed a barrier of bubbles to tackle plastic waste in the city's canals.

"Plastic in our water is becoming an increasing problem," said Sander Mage, executive member of Amsterdam's water board. "It has profound effects on the quality of our water and therefore on everything that lives in or near the water."

The Bubble Barrier is a perforated tube laid across the bottom of the canal with compressed air pushed through it. It runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, forming a screen that catches floating debris.

Plastic pieces are caught by the bubbles and pushed to the surface, where they are carried by the current to a catchment pool.

Waste collected by the Bubble Barrier will be tested by the Plastic Soup Foundation to measure how much plastic is caught, what kind of objects they are, and what the most common brands are.

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Mr Trash Wheel, by Clearwater Mills and the Waterfront Partnership

Mr Trash Wheel, an anthropomorphic trash interceptor with googly eyes and his own Twitter account, has been scooping rubbish out of the Jones Fall River in Baltimore since 2014.

In 2016 he was joined by the female-gendered Professor Trash Wheel, with the gender neutral Captain Trash Wheel launched in 2018. The fleet of trash-collecting vessels has collected a total 907 tonnes of rubbish.

The vessels are powered by waterwheels and the river's current, with solar panels for backup on slower days. Debris is collected by floating barriers and the wheels power a conveyor belt that transfers the rubbish out of the water and into a bin.

As well as stopping plastic reaching the ocean, the wheels are contributing to the goal of making the harbour swimmable by 2020.

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Floating boom, by CLAIM and New Naval

As one of the five Cleaning Litter by Developing and Applying Innovative Methods in European Seas (CLAIM) projects run by the EU, a floating boom has been installed at the mouth of the Kifissos River in Athens, Greece.

The floating boom is called the Tactical Recovery System Hellas, or TRASH, and was manufactured by New Naval.

Using technology New Naval developed for responding to oil spills, the mesh barriers collect river plastic and channels it towards a floating cage. This is used to lift the plastic up to the level of the harbour wall so it can be removed.

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