UK studio Kirkland Fraser Moor has created a contemporary house named Ashraya in Hertfordshire, England, which is topped by a cross-laminated timber arch.
Built near the village of Aldbury, the home is set within the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. With a grass-topped, arched roof it was designed to be both contemporary and integrated into the landscape.
Ashraya stands next to a historic house and walled garden
"The primary concept was driven by a desire to integrate building and landscape seamlessly in order to ensure that the new dwelling 'emerges' from the land and context," said David Kirkland, co-founder of Kirkland Fraser Moor.
"The site is extremely visually sensitive and open countryside views are highly protected within the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty," he told Dezeen.
The house sits under a CLT arch
The distinctive two-storey house is positioned next to a historic walled garden and house that, along with the client's desire for large amounts of light, informed the home's design.
Set within a flint-walled, circular space, the dwelling is sunk into the ground and topped with an arch made from cross-laminated timber that is lower than the neighbouring wall.
It is sunken into the ground
"The building itself is a very simple rectangular form but set within a curved courtyard landscape to provide, together with the arched roof, an organic natural flowing form," explained Kirkland.
"The flint walls of the courtyard are designed to extend the existing flint walls that are of historic interest," he continued.
"The capping stone to these walls curve around the landscape and up and over the roof in a three-dimensional calligraphy aesthetic reminiscent of great land art and the powerful landforms of prehistory."
The kitchen and dining room looks out onto the courtyard
Under the cross-laminated timber (CLT) arch, the majority of the home's rooms are placed on the ground floor.
A large kitchen and dining room is divided from a living room by the home's stairs, with two bedrooms accessed from this space.
The principal bedroom and fourth bedroom, along with an office, are located on the mezzanine floor above.
A basement level contains a snooker room, playroom, den and art studio.
Internal walls were built from chalk blocks
To reduce the carbon footprint of the house, Kirkland Fraser Moor used natural materials for much of the home's structure and internal walls.
While the basement and mezzanine are made from precast concrete, the roof is constructed from CLT and the majority of the internal walls are built from chalk blocks.
The main bedroom suite is on the first floor
"The roof is constructed from cross-laminated timber to reduce the embodied carbon footprint and to create a warm contrast to the concrete," explained Kirkland.
"Much of what looks like concrete is in fact internal partition walls constructed from raw chalk block and clay plaster polished to resemble stone," he continued.
"These walls together with the concrete provide high levels of thermal mass which greatly contribute to comfort levels throughout all seasons."
The distinctive house was built under the Paragraph 80 planning regulation
After initial issues, the rural home was given planning permission under a part of UK planning laws known as Paragraph 80, which allows for houses of "exceptional quality" to be built in countryside locations.
"Paragraph 80 provides a small doorway into developing these types of projects but the process can be highly risky and potentially very contentious as the measure is very subjective," added Kirkland.
"The project was very well supported by the local community who helped overturn the initial planning rejections."
American artist Theaster Gates has unveiled his concept for this year's Serpentine Pavilion, which will take the form of a wooden pavilion that references Stoke-on-Trent's bottle kilns.
Named Black Chapel, the wooden pavilion will be designed by Gates with support from Adjaye Associates and have an oculus in its roof to help create the feeling of a sanctuary.
A church bell, rescued from Chicago's St Laurence Church, will be placed by the pavilion's entrance and used to announce performances and activities.
According to the Serpentine Gallery, the overall design is a homage to British craft and draws on "the significance of the great kilns of Stoke-on-Trent" that were used for firing pottery.
Black Chapel will be "space of deep reflection"
Gates hopes his design will become a space where people can find rest.
"The name Black Chapel is important because it reflects the invisible parts of my artistic practice," the artist said.
"It acknowledges the role that sacred music and the sacred arts have had on my practice, and the collective quality of these emotional and communal initiatives."
Theaster Gates (above) is the designer of this year's Serpentine Pavilion (top image)
"Black Chapel also suggests that in these times there could be a space where one could rest from the pressures of the day and spend time in quietude," he added.
"I have always wanted to build spaces that consider the power of sound and music as a healing mechanism and emotive force and that allows people to enter a space of deep reflection and/or deep participation."
Structure to be built mainly from timber
Black Chapel takes its name from a project that Gates carried out in 2019, which involved overhauling the central atrium of the Haus Der Kunst museum in Munich, which was originally built for the Nazi regime.
In line with the Serpentine Gallery's sustainability policy, the pavilion will be designed to minimise its carbon footprint and environmental impact.
Mainly made from timber, it will be demountable and relocated to a permanent site after its time next to the Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens is up.
Black Chapel, which opens to the public on 10 June, will host a series of live performances over the summer.
Last year's Serpentine Gallery's summer pavilion was designed by South African studio Counterspace. The structure was built from cork and bricks made of recycled construction waste and referenced the experiences of London's migrant communities in its design.
British architecture studio Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has completed the polychromatic and modular Aile Est airport terminal in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of a consortium called RBI-T.
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has completed the Aile Est airport terminal in Geneva
Composed of two floors, Aile Est serves six existing aircraft stands at the international airport and comprises departures, arrivals and transfer facilities, alongside border controls and passenger lounges.
It accommodates approximately 2,800 passengers per hour on departure and 3,000 on arrival.
The terminal has a modular structure
The terminal is distinguished by its narrow, elongated form, described by RSHP as an "extruded parallelogram". It measures less than 20 metres in width.
This was designed in response to tight site constraints but it also helps to maximise daylight inside, reducing demand for artificial lighting.
The elongated building comprises six gates
Aile Est has a repetitive modular structure, with its six gates built from four 20-metre-long modules. Their structure is exposed externally and internally.
Designed as a kit of parts, this structure allows the building to be easily disassembled, recycled or extended in the future. It also helped to reduce waste during construction.
"There has been a long-standing approach at RSHP to articulate clearly and truthfully the elements that make up the building," explained the studio's associate partner Douglas Paul.
"The material and structural systems differ greatly on each project, but all have a structure that is carefully detailed and expressed," Paul told Dezeen.
"This is reflected in the expression of all building components but particularly structure and services."
Each gate's ceiling and seating is finished in a unique colour
Aile Est's design was led by the studio's senior design partner Graham Stirk after RBI-T won a competition to create it in 2010.
It was commissioned to replace a technically and environmentally outdated facility at the airport that was built for temporary use in the mid-1970s.
According to associate partner Paul, a key element of the design that led it to win the competition was its layout that maximises outward views.
Passengers are welcomed by large expanses of glass that look out at pilots preparing for departure and further over to the Jura mountains.
The colours are designed to differentiate each gate
"One of the key strategies that led to the RSHP design consortium RBI-T being chosen was the decision to move the arrivals passenger flow from the basement and place it on the airfield side of the building above the departing passengers," Paul said.
"The client had anticipated that passengers on arrival would descend underground to pass along a subterranean tunnel to the baggage hall," he continued. "By contrast, arriving passengers using the Aile Est today enjoy fantastic views across the airfield to the Jura mountains to the north."
Large expanses of glass line the terminal
The large windows that frame these views are also designed to maximise daylight, improve passenger and staff wellbeing and help occupants orient themselves.
Therefore, each of the modules is engineered to minimise the quantity of internal structural elements to ensure views are unobstructed.
Occupant orientation is also helped by the colourful baffle ceilings and seating, which break up the structural repetition of the structure and distinguish one gate from another.
This also brightens the building's natural stone flooring and exposed structure, of which the primary components are painted light grey and secondary structural elements dark grey.
Internal structural elements are minimised to maximise views
"An airport can be a stressful environment, particularly if one is unsure where the departure gate is or how long it will take to get there," said Paul.
"The Aile Est endeavours to make wayfinding as simple as possible."
To prevent overheating and solar glare from the large expanses of glass, the services and stair cores are designed to self-shade the building in tandem with fixed louvres.
The windows are also triple-glazed and have colourless coatings that help to maximise daylight while reducing solar gain.
Stair cores help to self-shade the building
According to RSHP, the terminal is designed to produce more energy than it consumes using on-site renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic panels and geothermal piles. From 2024, Aile Est will also link up to GeniLac – a network that uses water from Lake Geneva to reduce the cooling loads for buildings.
There will also be facilities to support the recovery and use of rainwater throughout the building.
RSHP was founded by the late architect and high-tech architecture pioneer Richard Rogers in 1977 who passed away in December aged 88. The studio was known as Richard Rogers Partnership until 2007 but was renamed to reflect the contributions of the studio's partners Stirk and Ivan Harbour.
Elsewhere, RSHP is also currently designing an airport terminal in Shenzhen, China, which will be arranged around a large covered garden.
Taking tourists on day trips to look down on Earth will lead to people "connecting deeply with our planet", says Space Perspective co-founder Jane Poynter in this exclusive interview.
Tourism firm Space Perspective is promising to offer comfortable, environmentally conscious trips to the brink of the atmosphere by the end of 2024.
Co-founder, CEO and chief experience officer Poynter claims its approach "will have a huge positive impact on our society".
Poynter heads up tourism firm Space Perspective
Space Perspective is one of numerous enterprises racing to make the sci-fi notion of space tourism a reality, alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic – although the Florida-based company is doing things differently.
Unlike traditional space vehicles which use rocket power to blast their way into the sky, Space Perspective plans to lift tourists gently through the atmosphere in ships tethered to hydrogen balloons.
The ride will be so gentle that passengers will be able to enjoy drinks at the bar, though alcohol servings will be limited due to mass constraints.
"Our core mission is to take people to space to have this mind-blowing experience of seeing Earth in space and connecting deeply with our planet, and then, hopefully, some of them coming back and doing something amazing with that energy," explained the 59 year-old when she sat down with Dezeen in central London.
"And so now if you can image tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions of people, having that experience, it will completely change how humanity thinks about itself."
The company's spaceship consists of a small pressurised capsule connected to a giant hydrogen balloon
An Amercanised Brit, Poynter co-founded Space Perspective with her husband in 2019 after a career in space tech stretching back to the early 1990s.
The company's Spaceship Neptune vessel is made up of a small, pressurised capsule with capacity for eight passengers plus a pilot, connected by a tendrilous "reserve descent system" (a pre-deployed parachute) to a gigantic hydrogen-filled balloon. In total, the vehicle is around 210 metres tall.
Using the buoyancy of the hydrogen, the spaceship will off from the ground at dawn and ascend 30 kilometres to beyond 99 per cent of the atmosphere – high enough, in Poynter's words, that "you get that complete blackness of sky, where you really see the curvature of the Earth".
Tickets for the six-hour Space Perspective trip currently cost £115,000
This method is "essentially zero-emission" she adds. Space Perspective says it will take the hydrogen from renewable sources and is still in the process of selecting a supplier. At the end of a flight, the capsule will be reused while the balloon will be recycled.
It also purchases carbon offsets against the rest of its operations, having previously used offsetting provider The Good Traveler.
"You get into a capsule that's incredibly comfortable," Poynter said. "And the design of it is such that as you lift off from the ground, it's completely smooth. So the seats that you're sitting in are super comfy and afford you this insane view of the planet."
The whole thing takes six hours; two to go up, two spent looking down on the rest of humankind and two to come back down again.
"We've really reimagined spaceflight completely"
All essential amenities will be provided in the capsule, including a loo and, of course, a bar, where the pilot will be mixing the drinks.
"We like to joke that every self-respecting spaceship should have a bar," quipped Poynter. "And we talk about that because you really can't do that on a rocket-based flight. It just is emblematic of how gentle it is that you can actually have a bar where people will be able to stand at and have a drink, and cheers."
It will be, she adds, "a real bar", not just "a little shelf", while food will also be served on the flight. There will, however, be a limit to how much alcohol the vessel can carry.
Other details have also been designed into the Neptune to correspond with this "human-centric" approach.
Space Perspective says its vessel has been specially designed to put "humans at the centre" of space travel
The windows are very tall and wide, with only vertical divides between them so as not to minimise the impact on the view. The bottom of the capsule is cone-shaped to attenuate splashdown, for the gentlest landing possible.
"When you think about space travel you think of discomfort; of uncomfortable camping," said Poynter. "So we put the human experience at the centre of it. You know, when you think about it, we've really reimagined spaceflight completely."
Space Perspective is now beginning to work with an interior designer ahead of its first crewed test flight, scheduled for 2023. The first commercial flight is slated for 2024, with tickets set at £115,000 each.
In the long-term, the aim is to bring that price down closer to £40,000. Part of this will involve increasing capacity, both in terms of the capsule size and number of flights, with the company planning to branch out from Florida to new locations, including in Europe.
Space Perspective says it is eager to work with scientists and artists to make the most of its trips out to the cosmos, by designing research-gathering instruments to fit onto the vehicle, for example.
For its Neptune One uncrewed test flight in June 2021, the company collaborated with art collective Beyond Earth to produce Living Light, transforming the huge balloon into a giant installation.
Space Perspective founded in Biosphere Two
Poynter is clearly personally infatuated with the heady notion of space travel. As a child growing up on the Isle of Wight off the English coast, she was fascinated by Star Trek and the writings of Isaac Asimov.
For decades, she says, she has been convinced that humans are "a multiplanetary species".
Her career in space properly began in 1991, when she was one of eight people selected to enter Biosphere Two, the world's first attempt at an entirely man-made environment – the first biosphere being Earth itself.
This sealed three-acre glass-and-steel science Big Brother house in the Arizonan mountains was essentially a prototype space base, with inhabitants instructed to recycle their air and water and grow their food.
Poynter was one of eight people to enter the world's first man-made biosphere. Photo is by Johndedios via Wikimedia Commons
It was later the basis for Bio-Dome, a 1996 stoner comedy despised by critics, and was the subject of the 2020 documentary Spaceship Earth.
The experiment was scientifically controversial and mired in difficulties, but for Poynter personally, it bore significant fruit.
While inside the sphere, she co-founded a company called Paragon Space Development Corporation with a fellow inhabitant Taber MacCallum, who is now her husband and co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective.
And she traces the company's philosophy back to her experience in Biosphere Two.
"I knew moment-to-moment that the plants around me were providing me with my oxygen, that I would breathe out the CO2 that would grow the food," she explained.
"We were completely interdependent. So it gave me this profound connection to this life system, which is extensible to Planet Earth – we all live in this planetary biosphere," she continued.
"Well, it turns out that when astronauts see Earth from space, they have this tremendous connection with Planet Earth, and with the singular human family that inhabit it."
This phenomenon is where the company gets its name – Space Perspective.
Poynter dismisses the suggestion that there may be rather different societal implications between astronauts going to space and those wealthy enough to spend a six-figure sum on a day trip.
"I completely disagree 150 per cent," she shot back instantly. "Like, 1,000 per cent. Because I've seen what happens when people go."
Space Perspective positions itself very differently to the macho world of unfathomably rich men with a penchant for tight shirts penetrating the atmosphere in phallus-shaped vessels.
But Poynter is not critical of Musk, Bezos and Branson.
"We're all pushing hard to get up out of the gravity well and go further and farther, so I feel, yeah, they're billionaires, yes they choose to spend their money in this way, but for me it's about humanity going further than Earth," she said.
"We're at the very beginning of this industry. When airplanes were first flown we had a very limited view of what they were going to be used for. They were for wealthy people to fly across the country.
"I think the same is true with space flight. We cannot imagine now how human space flight is going be used in the future, how business is going to use it, and how it is going to impact society, our lives, into the future."
Images are courtesy of Space Perspective unless otherwise stated.
The four leading architects and designers will be joined by Jeremy Offer and Martina Wierzbicki from Arrival and Marcus Fairs and Cajsa Carlson from Dezeen to form the judging panel, which will assess the competition entries and select the winners.
The Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival calls for radical mobility solutions
Launched last month, the Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival is a global design contest for ideas that reimagine the future of transportation.
Contestants are tasked with identifying problems with mobility in their city, or a city they are familiar with, and proposing solutions that will improve how people move around their environment.
The contest is open for entries until 14 April 2022 and features total prize money of $85,000 with a top prize of $25,000.
Kunlé Adeyemi is the founder of architecture practice NLÉ
Adeyemi is an award-winning architect, professor and development strategist and the founder and principal of architecture, design and urbanism studio NLÉ.
Alongside his professional practice, Adeyemi is an international speaker and thought leader. He is a member of UNDP's Africa in Development Supergroup and is currently an adjunct visiting professor at the University of Lagos, following previous appointments at universities including Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia.
Elizabeth Diller is a partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Her cross-genre work has been distinguished with inclusion in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list and the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture. She is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives and is a professor of architectural design at Princeton University.
Yves Béhar is the founder of Fuseproject
Béhar is a designer, entrepreneur and the founder of the design and innovation studio Fuseproject.
Béhar has pioneered design as a force for positive social and environmental change and has been at the forefront of entrepreneurial venture design, co-founding brands including FORME Life, August and Canopy, as well as partnering with numerous start-ups.
Daniel Simon is the founder of Cosmic Motors
Simon is a designer best known for his contributions to feature films such as Tron: Legacy, Oblivion and Star Wars VIII, in addition to his collaboration with Singer Vehicle Design and the books Cosmic Motors and The Timeless Racer.
He studied car design in Pforzheim, Germany, before working for Volkswagen Advanced Design between 2000 and 2005 and then becoming an independent designer, consulting for various Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Jeremy Offer is senior vice president of industrial design at Arrival
Offer is senior vice president of industrial design at Arrival, where he leads a team of multi-disciplinary designers.
With a background in industrial and service design consulting, Jeremy is the recipient of multiple design awards across a 35-year career, which he achieved working across design disciplines at the leading edge of technology, including artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles.
Martina Wierzbicki is climate action lead at Arrival
Wierzbicki is Arrival's climate action lead, focusing on delivering the company's ambitious sustainability goals. Prior to this, she was part of Jaguar Land Rover's sustainability team.
Martina recently completed a master's at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership, writing her dissertation on the challenges automotive businesses face when implementing responsible metals and minerals supply chains.
Marcus Fairs is Dezeen's editor-in-chief
Fairs is the founder and editor-in-chief of Dezeen. A 3D design graduate, Fairs began his journalism career writing for architecture title Building Design and later for Building, where he rose to deputy editor.
Fairs launched Dezeen at the end of November 2006 and the site has grown rapidly ever since, now attracting over three million unique visitors every month.
Cajsa Carlson is Dezeen's deputy editor
Carlson is the deputy editor of Dezeen, which she joined in 2020.
She was previously the architecture and design editor at Culture Trip and the editor of Houzz Sweden, and has worked for publications including Cool Hunting and Design Week.
Enter the competition by 14 April
The Future Mobility Competition powered by Arrival closes for entries at midnight on 14 April 2022.
The judging panel will select ten finalists, which will be announced and published on Dezeen over two weeks in June 2022. Of these finalists, the judges will select a winner as well as a runner-up and third place.
The winner will win the top prize of $25,000, while the runner-up will receive $15,000 and the third-placed entrant will receive $10,000. Each of the seven remaining finalists will receive prize money of $5,000.
