“The opening of Air-One, backed by government funding, will revolutionize the way people and goods travel across the nation,” said Robert Courts, the UK’s minister for Aviation. “This step forward puts Britain at the vanguard of clean transport, bringing investment and high-skilled, green job opportunities to the nation.”

Urban-Air Port founder and executive chairman Ricky Sandhu agrees, adding: “The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment — the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier, and more connected than ever before.”

The airport was constructed in just 11 weeks across a 17,000-square-foot plot sectioned off into different zones. At its center is a 56-foot circular platform that can raise 19 feet into the air for vertical vehicle takeoff and landing. Surrounding that locus are zones for a vehicle hangar, a cargo and logistics base, a command center, a security screening area, a passenger lounge and café, and retail pop-up sites.

Even though this breakthrough airport is officially open, the aircraft to carry all the future loads of passengers and cargo aren’t quite ready for business. There are plenty of zero-emissions drones in the works and even some that are operational, but there is not yet a commercially viable eVTOL fleet.

While building the airport, Urban-Air Port also teamed up with Washington, D.C.-based Supernal, and has the company’s concept S-A1 eVTOL on display in the Air-One hangar. “The Coventry demonstration is an important first step forward to reimagining how people across the world will move, connect, and live,” says Supernal Chief Commercial Officer Mike Whitaker.

Coventry Air-One is currently more of a model, and the first of what the company intends to be a 200-site network of global air pads for eVTOL vehicles, including projects already underway in the U.S., Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia. It envisions these unmanned aircraft charging from off-grid hydrogen fuel cells as part of the “coming green air transportation revolution.”

Their versatility will also aid that trend, as the designs call for versions to be built on land, on water with inflatable pads, and even on top of skyscraper roofs. These tiny airports in otherwise inaccessible aircraft spaces can allow air traffic into more areas, potentially reducing automobile use along with its congestion and air-polluting emissions.

“Our patented technology allows for an ultra-compact but high-capacity infrastructure,” explains Sandhu. “Precisely what is required in complex, dense urban locations – where the demand lies, where our passengers and members work and live.

The company has also designed models for emergency or disaster management, as well as for military defense operations in remote regions.

Visitors to the Covington area can order tickets to visit Air-One and get a glimpse of the future of air traffic.

The post UK Opens the World’s First Airport for Flying Cars first appeared on Dornob.

Currently all eyes are on the airport’s main terminal, which is set to receive a major facelift at a tab of around $1.5 billion. Architecture firm ZGF recently unveiled plans for the redesign, which celebrates the surrounding landscape in both its external facade and interior spaces.

“We’re taking the airport that has served the region well for the past 80 years and updating and upgrading it,” explains PDXNext Chief Projects Officer Vince Granato. “While the space will look and feel different, we are keeping the heart and soul of the airport that Portlanders know and love – easy to navigate; bright, open spaces; and local shops and restaurants – it will still feel like home.”

Portland sits in the northern part of a state that features mountain ranges, a full coastline, and forests in every direction. In honoring the region’s varied topographies, designers will install a wood roof made entirely from local, sustainably-sourced materials. Skylights incorporated into the wood layout will also help create an aesthetic geometry in the space.

“The roof design was inspired by the forests of the Pacific Northwest and the feeling you get while walking through the woods, the experience of light filtering through the trees, and the protection of the tree canopy,” ZGF partner and lead interior designer for the PDX project Sharron van der Meulen said in an official statement.

Further bringing the outdoors inside, a slew of plants will line the new terminal’s corridors. In addition, the interior will feature ample space for public art — another trademark of the famously “weird” city. Similarly, the shops and restaurants one would expect to find in a traditional airport will here be made to resemble a street in downtown Portland, complete with a space that replicates the sidewalks where café tables and customers overflow businesses.

With an eye on the future, the airport will also feature earthquake-proof construction and provide plenty of room to grow and adapt along with technology and travel needs. And of course, planning a project this scale in a state known for environmental initiatives means that although the terminal will be doubling in size, it will actually be using half of the energy per-square-foot compared to now.

The new roof will “break ground” in 2022, with the entire project expected to reach completion during the spring of 2025.

The post Portland International Airport’s $1.5 Billion Redesign Takes Flight first appeared on Dornob.

Led by chief architect Boris Voskoboynikov and creative department head Maria Akhremenkova, VOX produced an 11,200-square-foot, two-story lounge that includes a restaurant, bar, conference room, private meeting cubicles, and even a child’s play area.

Several statement pieces in the lounge point visitors towards the stars. The focal point of both levels is the floating staircase that orbits around an illuminated elevator. Stepping into the lift doors, visitors might picture themselves ascending a rocket silo.

Adorning one wall of the conference room is a statement-making relief of Gagarin’s helmeted face. Dozens of saucer pendant lights hang at various lengths over the table in this area, achieving the effect of a virtual asteroid belt. Plus, the reflective tabletop acts like the moon, reflecting light all around the chamber.

The designers adhered strictly to a blue and white color palette (with stainless steel accents) for this project — the hues Gagarin would have seen as he blasted off from the earth into the heavens for the first time. Alabaster and gray floor tiles are reminiscent of clouds, and much of the seating is upholstered in a deep, electric blue, mimicking the night sky. A gradient-printed glass hallway mirrors that sensation as patrons pass through. “The color reminds us of a rocket shooting into the mesosphere,” Akhremenkova says.

Large, flat circles of lighting in the meeting rooms simulate solar flares. Even the bathrooms hint at outer space with their hovering orb toilets and planet-like mirrors. Still, the lounge’s most overt nod to astronaut travel is an acrylic-lined “capsule,” an abstract version of Gagarin’s own transport into the cosmos, Vostok 1. While patrons relax inside the dark, circular booth, “it passes on this amazing story to a new generation,” Akhremenkova notes. “My seven-year-old daughter took part in the advertising shoot and still recalls the capsule with delight.”

The VOX team not only did a stellar job on the VIP lounge aesthetic, but they also paid thorough attention to the practical elements. “Apart from fulfillment of applicable mandatory requirements, it’s also essential … to create [a] comfortable atmosphere and the feeling that the company truly cares about every individual passenger,” said Akhremenkova in an interview with Design Mate. “In particular, when designing the premises interior, we carefully considered the availability and location of electric sockets, since Wi-Fi access and the ability to freely use the electronic gadgets are highly important for the passengers…When the interior is well-designed even in such small details, then you will probably feel yourself calm and comfortable in such an environment.”

According to the company’s website, Vox’s philosophy is that “architecture and interior design are exercise[s] in the structural arrangement of space and rewiring the mind.” The firm has already completed several other Russian priority lounges, including The Horizon in the Platov airport, and they all exhibit the idea the idea that true architectural value manifests itself in “abundant space, infinity, openness, and freedom as a lifestyle.”

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Artist Sarah Sze pulls this off with her fascinating photographic installations combining elements of collage, found objects, and kinetic sculpture. Her most recent work, “Shorter than the Day,” is a three-dimensional sphere consisting almost entirely of 1,000 photos of the New York sky. Sunrise, sunset, hazy clouds, and the full glare of the mid-afternoon sun hang above an atrium in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport, all fastened to an enormous steel frame weighing five tons.

The photographic installation creates a sort of exploded view of the sky, as if Sze took a display featuring every gradient of blue, white, red, orange, purple, and black imaginable and blew it up, sending its fragments scattering into the air. The printed images are attached to the frame with alligator clips, all facing slightly different directions so you have to walk a full circle around it and stand beneath it to take it all in. Seeing it in its completion is actually impossible, since you can’t hover overhead, so in that way, parts of it always remain a mystery.

The piece was commissioned by LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Public Art Fund and measures 48 feet high, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. The Public Art Fund describes it as “an intricate constellation” evoking the passage of time, charting “a cyclical journey” via the colors of the sky. As indicated by the title, “Shorter Than the Day” takes inspiration from the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name, which includes the line, “We passed the Setting Sun / Or rather — He passed us.”

“Since the late 1990s, Sze has used a wide variety of media to explore the intersection of information, technology, materiality, and time,” writes the Art Fund. “In her sculptures, she engineers elaborate assemblages from everyday objects held together in a delicate balance, as though perpetually on the cusp of metamorphosis. Sze’s works are a study in contrasts — plane and volume, stillness and movement, organization and chaos — whose simultaneous opposition and attraction create a sense of magnetic tension.”

“Though precisely constructed, her large-scale installations express an organic, kinetic feel, emerging like an evocative gesture across an expanse of space. Shorter Than the Day is Sze’s largest and most structurally complex sculpture to date. The work subtly conflates the ephemeral and the immutable while revealing traces of the fabrication process: the deckle-edged photographs themselves and the numbered fragments of yellow tape that demarcate their placement are both durable powder-coated metal facsimiles. In this way, Sze’s sculpture both considers the fluid nature of time and functions as a capsule of the work’s own creation. Sze lives and works in New York, NY.”

Check out more of Sarah Sze’s work at her website and the hashtag #SarahSze on Instagram.

The post Spherical Sculpture Made of Nearly 1,000 Photos of the New York Sky first appeared on Dornob.

New York City-based architecture and design firm Stonehill Taylor aims to bring that feeling back at the TWA Hotel. The only in-airport hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the TWA makes use of the head house of the TWA Flight Center airline terminal, designed in 1962 by renowned architect Eero Saarinen. The terminal was preciously declared a city landmark in 1994, which protected it from demolition even as other parts of the airport were knocked down and renovated around it.

The building itself already had the iconic look of air travel from yesteryear. Stonehill Taylor was brought in to infuse the guest rooms, Sunken Lounge, Connie cocktail lounge, and other public spaces with that same flair, simultaneously updating them for modern sensibilities. The design team took inspiration from the year 1962, the first time an American was able to circle the Earth and a time when aviation was “the promise of the future” signifying the beginning of a new era.

Outfitted in period-appropriate furnishings, the guest rooms enjoy views of the tarmac. There’s definitely something Mad Men about them, but you’re not entering a time warp. The vintage details that accent each space feel tasteful rather than forced, and the inclusion of TWA-branded toiletries in the bathrooms is fun.

But the standout is definitely the cocktail lounge set in the vintage Lockheed Constellation “Connie” L-1649A Starliner, which features refurbished vintage airplane seats in cherry red, banquette seating, and what the architects describe as a “reveal moment,” when guests can see the plane’s original interior frame encased in glass. The cockpit is also visible, restored with authentic controls and switches.

The firm explains that “by offering a modern refuge with a thoughtful, strong sense of design and space, the rooms are meant to make guests feel the same appreciation and excitement for aviation that travelers once felt during the rise of the industry.”

“Set back on either side of Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA Flight Center, two newly built wings designed by architects Beyer Blinder Belle and Lubrano Ciavarra house the 512 guest rooms. Sixties-inspired elements include select Saarinen-designed Knoll furnishings, a martini bar, a vintage rotary phone, and gleaming terrazzo tiles in the bathroom with Hollywood-style vanities. The rooms have a crisp white palette accented with warm walnut elements and brushed brass.”

They add that “custom furnishings and lighting, like the wood trim, which follows along the ceiling edge and softly illuminates the room, [reference] midcentury design. In many of the rooms, beds are positioned to let guests enjoy the exciting rhythm of the runway or the glory of Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center.”

The TWA Hotel officially opened in May 2019, and rates are quite reasonable, currently running between $160 and $200 per night.

The post Stonehill Taylor Designs Retro Air Travel-Inspired Interiors for the TWA Hotel first appeared on Dornob.

When you’re in an airport terminal looking for something to eat before a flight, you don’t always have the best selections available to you, making the choice more difficult than it would normally be out on the street. With McDonalds in the Sky, the laminated yellow glass acts as a beacon for all to see. Similar to the lights on a runway, the bright color of the box is powerful and captures the eye. And since it’s so specific to one company, it also evokes a sentiment of familiarity for the brand, even before the arches themselves are seen camouflaged on the glass.

Those who don’t like the brand probably won’t appreciate that glowing aesthetic, but in an airport terminal full of signs and symbols, it only makes sense that McDonald’s in the Sky would try to outshine them all. It draws attention to itself and stirs brand recognition by design, and not by a logo.

Beyond the glass, you’ll see an example of efficiency that, even if you aren’t eating there, is fascinating by itself. Meals are prepared in this location as in any other location, but rather than have an employee walk a few feet to bring the meal to the register, a conveyor belt brings each meal down in an orchestrated fashion.

One by one, like watching planes take off and land, purposely timed so as to not mix up the order, each meal comes down. The conveyor belt takes each meal up the to ceiling of the preparation area within the yellow box and loops them around before descending to the exposed service area on the floor, where staff members collect the meals to hand them over to customers. If the staff misses a meal in the event of a sudden rush at the registers, the conveyor belt simply pulls the meal back up to the preparation area, where it loops around to come down seconds later for another try.

Together, the stark color of the restaurant and the efficiency of the process are part of the theater that is McDonald’s In The Sky. In most of locations for the brand, you can see meals being made, but in this location they really feel on display. To observe the staff scurrying on both levels, with the conveyor belt acting as the link between the two, is undeniably impressive — even for someone who isn’t necessarily “lovin’ it.”

The post McDonald’s In The Sky: The Sydney Airport’s Theater of Fast Food first appeared on Dornob.

The TWA Flight Center was the late 20th-century equivalent of Ellis Island, a first point of reference for many immigrants entering the U.S. through New York. When it originally opened in 1962, the expressive concrete structure was seen as the future of airport terminals. That prediction ended up being partially true. As commercial aircrafts became larger, the terminal struggled to service the influx in new passengers, eventually closing its doors in 2001 (the same year TWA was bought by American Airlines). It then served as a retail space for a small time, but even that failed to last.

Although the original TWA Terminal did not survive as a great gateway of air transportation for JFK Airport, it would seem that New York City is not quite done with it yet. On May 15^th, this iconic piece of modern American architecture will begin its third life as the lobby for a luxury hotel.

Behind the building’s sculptural form are two new extensions containing 512 guest rooms. The lobby will include a whopping 40,000 square feet of event space, as well as a dedicated food and beverage area, shops, and a 10,000-square-foot fitness center. There will also be a small museum dedicated to mid-century air travel design on site, showcasing over 2,000 pieces like the vintage furniture from TWA’s former headquarters and old flight attendant uniforms.

The hotel’s wing-shaped rooftop features an infinity pool and observation deck with broad views of ongoing take-offs, landings, and other airport activities. The architecture firms behind this redesign are Lubrano Ciavarra Architects and Beyer Blinder Belle, though INC was responsible for bringing the event spaces to life and Stonehill Taylor was the exclusive interior designer for the guest rooms.

Each guest room offers a quiet respite from the roaring of jet engines and the constant flow of ground traffic. Between the weary traveler laying their head on the pillow and the noise that comes from being in the middle of one of the busiest airports in America stand seven panes of four-and-a-half-inch thick glass — the second thickest curtain wall in the world, behind the one inside the U.S. Embassy in London.

Inside each room, the decor is a mix of midcentury modern and contemporary elements. There’s an upholstered red fabric Saarinen Womb Chair next to a Saarinen Pedestal tulip side table, with a 1950s Western Electric 500 rotary phone on top. The bed’s custom quilted leather headboard doubles as the front of a walnut, brass, and glass desk with outlets for several devices. Behind this desk is another Saarinen chair (this one a tan leather Executive model) in front of a tambour accent wall. Around the ceiling is a walnut trim and cove lighting.

Above all else, the TWA Hotel respects the architectural integrity of Eero Saarinen’s original terminal. Even in the interior, the legacy of Saarinen and TWA remains intact, making each stay a kind of a trip back in time.

Ready to book your stay?

The post The TWA Hotel Gives an Old Architectural Icon New Wings first appeared on Dornob.

It’s certainly striking, thanks in no small part to its dramatic vaulted ceilings pierced with a pattern of triangular skylights and an air traffic control tower in the shape of a tulip (Turkey’s national flower). The architects drew inspiration from ornamental baths, domes, mosques, and other classic Turkish constructions for a result that will never be mistaken for any other airport in the world.

“The ever-changing hues and tones of Istanbul inspire the interior, where a slatted roof is layered to reveal a play of light, a subtle range of blue colors, and a discreet geometric pattern,” says iGA, the company responsible for building and managing the airport.

All that natural light, combined with hundreds of full-sized trees, strips of vivid green grass, and the petal-like shapes created by the soaring canopies, gives the airport an airy, welcoming feel. It’s also comprised of 22 LEED-certified buildings made from environmentally friendly materials that consume 21 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than average.

As if all that weren’t enough, the airport has also been equipped with brand new technology like augmented reality (to assist with wayfinding and other customer service needs) and biometric smart kiosks. Even the baggage conveyer belt spans an incredible 26 miles (42 kilometers) in length. Passengers will be able to choose from hundreds of shops and restaurants in between flights, and families can enjoy seven generously-sized play areas spread throughout the terminals. Lush, garden-like outdoor spaces and oversized screens displaying travel scenes aim to reduce a bit of the stress that comes with air travel.

The staggering size of Istanbul New Airport owes to the sheer number of travelers that pass through the city each day, which is still growing rapidly. Just one of three terminals has opened so far, with the rest still under construction. Over the next few years, that terminal will accommodate around 90 million passengers annually. By the time the airport is fully complete between 2025 and 2027, that figure is expected to reach a whopping 200 million.

In terms of more basic infrastructure, the airport features six runways, 500 check-in counters, and 143 boarding bridges across 77 gates, allowing as many as 114 planes to be docked at the same time. The most expensive public works project in Turkey’s history, it cost $11 billion to build, with the first three phases of construction being completed in just three and a half years. At the end of 2018, all planes and equipment from Istanbul’s now-obsolete Ataturk International Airport will be transferred to the new facility.

“We have completed this project, and we are officially launching the first stage,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the opening ceremony on October 29th. “We did not build the Istanbul Airport for our country. It is a great service to the region and the world.”

The post Istanbul’s Stunning New Airport is Larger Than Manhattan first appeared on Dornob.

Hadid’s eponymous firm, which continues to produce projects in the architect’s signature style after her death, describes the structural arrangement as “flowing parabolic folds” under a vaulted roof, each of which reaches to the ground to provide support while also allowing natural light inside. This unusual layout draws inspiration from a traditional Chinese architectural principle in which interconnected spaces are always organized around a central courtyard.

Whereas most airport layouts tend to be frustratingly sprawling, often requiring passengers to walk or sprint long distances from one terminal to another just to catch a connecting flight, Hadid’s is intentionally compact. Arranging the gates around the building’s long outstretched arms minimizes the distance between them, and the central courtyard offers passengers a convenient place to seek out services and purchase amenities.

Renderings reveal lots of gleaming white curvilinear surfaces throughout the terminal’s interiors, a psychologically interesting design choice that seems like it could help soothe some of the tensions and anxieties that come with traveling. Harsh lines and shapes are completely avoided, and even the terminal’s staircases and escalators have a fluidity to their silhouettes. Hadid has previously been called “Queen of the Curve” for her devotion to parametric design styling with organic shapes that are often compared to seashells, snakes, and other wild creatures.

The design “guides all passengers seamlessly through the relevant departure, arrival, or transfer zones towards the grand courtyard at its center — a multi-layered meeting space at the very heart of the terminal,” says the firm. “Housing many aircraft gates in one terminal with a single passenger handling center — rather than many smaller terminals and continuous inter-terminal shuttle trains — significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the airport throughout its construction and operational lifetime; helping to achieve the airport’s high targets of environmental management and sustainability.”

Zaha Hadid Architects won an international competition to design the terminal back in 2011. Still, this addition won’t be replacing the Beijing International Capital Airport, which is about 41 miles away. Instead, it will augment it to relieve congestion issues. The existing airport is currently over capacity, having served about 86 million passengers in 2014 alone.

The new terminal will exclusively serve China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, diverting 40 percent of the existing airport’s passengers, or about 72 million people per year, and making the entire complex feel less crowded. When completed in 2019, the terminal will measure approximately 3.4 million square feet and offer rail connections to both the Beijing Capital International Airport and the city center.

The post Intricate Framework of Zaha Hadid’s Airport Terminal Taking Shape in Beijing first appeared on Dornob.

What better way to welcome visitors to a place known for its clever integration of architecture and plant life than a jaw-dropping feature like this? Imagine stepping off of a plane feeling parched and haggard after a long international flight and walking right into a temperate jungle with a 131-foot waterfall at its center, streaming out of a massive hole in the ceiling like something from a sci-fi movie. Conceived of by water feature design firm WET in collaboration with Safdie Architects, the cataract will stand as the centerpiece of ‘”Forest Valley,” the airport’s new indoor garden.

Set beneath a massive glass dome, the forest will be planted in a series of tiers to resemble a hilly landscape. In the space of 1.4 million square feet, this sprawling urban park will house a series of elevated walkways, hiking trails, and rest areas alongside its retail, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment facilities. To better blend in with the aesthetic, the dome will be supported by tree-like structural columns. After dark, the central waterfall will light up, cycling through an array of vivid colors as part of a choreographed LED light show.

“The project redefines and reinvents what airports are all about,” says architect Moshe Safdie. “Our goal was to bring together the duality of a vibrant marketplace and a great urban park side-by-side in a singular and immersive experience. The component of the traditional mall is combined with the experience of nature, culture, education and recreation, aiming to provide an uplifting experience. By drawing both visitors and local residents alike, we aim to create a place where the people of Singapore interact with the people of the world.”

You might be thinking that this whole thing looks like a colossal waste of natural resources or that the humidity created by the waterfall would fog the dome’s glass up, but Forest Valley’s designers and engineers have already thought those potential kinks through. To maintain the waterfall and its surrounding vegetation, the Jewel Changi will be equipped a rainwater harvesting system. After conducting a series of airflow studies, the architects were able to come up with a design for the dome that prevents humid air from accumulating around the cascade. The airport extension is currently under construction and is expected to reach completion in 2019.

Surely, any layovers or delays you experience at this airport will be some of the best you’ve ever had to endure. Maybe one day, people will even start going to the airport for fun.

The post Forest Valley: World’s Largest Indoor Waterfall Coming to Singapore Airport first appeared on Dornob.

That balance is currently on display at Bed and Boarding (nicknamed BenBo) in Naples, Italy. Located in the city’s Capodichino International Airport, this new “fast and cheap” lodging option boasts a set of ultra-compact private rooms that measure just 43 square feet in size. Despite their tiny proportions, these rooms still provide guests with the comfort of being able to stand up and move around. In total, 42 compartments are available at the hotel, which is open for check-in seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

BenBo is the first hotel in Italy that allows travelers to sleep inside of an airport and costs just €25 Euros, or around $28 dollars, for a nine-hour night. Those who require less time can choose to pay €8 for the first hour and €7 for each additional hour. Each capsule includes a bed, luggage stall, television, and fold-down desk surface for eating and working. The TV is conveniently equipped with a special channel for checking flight statuses — a useful feature for anyone with an early departure time.

Guests also have access to some amenities that you’d only expect to find in larger hotels, such as soundproof walls, automatic doors, a shoe rack, a complimentary courtesy kit, free Wi-Fi, and access to a hall full of private bathrooms with showers. The beds are firm and comfortable Brera models, and the pillows were designed to be “highly resistant, long-lasting, anatomically supportive, and crush-proof,” which is more than you can say for most hotel pillows.

The hotel itself is pretty cute, too. The exterior of each pod has been colorfully painted and set inside of a larger space to create an ultramodern look. BenBo is full of plants, flooded with natural daylight from the airport windows just beyond its glass wall, and displays a living citrus tree in its common area, where guests can sit down and work on their laptops or just enjoy a cup of coffee.

All in all, Bed and Boarding offers an incredible deal that can’t be beat in terms of cost-effectiveness. Hourly room rentals are great for travelers who just want to shower or take a nap, especially those on a layover or experiencing unexpected flight delays. Who wants to sleep on an airport floor, anyway? Considering the amount of money they could make, it’s a wonder that more airports don’t already have similar accommodations in place. However, now that BenBo has set an example, perhaps this idea will blossom into an international trend.

The post New Capsule Hotel Brings Cheap Micro-Lodging to Italy first appeared on Dornob.

The post Folding Geometric Floor Mat Enables Semi-Private Napping first appeared on Dornob.

A seat that loops over the head of the sitter provides a sense of enclosure and privacy in busy public environments like airports and hotel lobbies, or simply reduces distractions at home. ‘Windowseat Lounge’ by San Francisco design studio Mike & Maaike simply extends three ‘walls’ to create a room within a room.

Incorporating these architectural elements makes it easier for the sitter to shut out the hustle and bustle of the room just beyond their safe little refuge. The back is left open so you can easily lean back and peek out, maintaining a connection.

This unusual chair design would also fit right into offices with open plans, where it’s easy to feel very exposed. Closing yourself off in a private space to think or make a phone call is as easy as sitting down. The walls of the Windowseat Lounge muffle ambient noise.

Made of a steel frame upholstered in wool, Windowseat Lounge is available in four colors from the Haworth Collection.

“Where does architecture stop and furniture begin? Suitable for both public and private spaces, the Windowseat is designed as a comfortable refuge from the hustle and bustle of lobbies, airports or open office environments.”

“Windowseat is produced by Haworth as part of the Haworth Collection. –By taking architectural elements (walls and ceiling) and applying them to a chair, we are exploring the idea of sub-architectural space, creating a room-within-a-room complete with its own unique perspective. Full upholstery over a foam-padded rigid steel frame. Swivelling steel base with return-to-center. Offered in both open and closed versions with or without ottoman.”

About the designers, Mike & Maaike:

“Mike & Maaike is a progressive industrial design studio led by Mike Simonian and Maaike Evers. Formed as a design laboratory, the San Francisco studio works both independently and with clients to create new opportunities through products, technology, furniture, environments and transportation. Maaike Evers is Dutch, Mike Simonian, Californian. These distinct backgrounds inform a diverse body of work marked by experimentation, substance and strong conceptual narratives.”

The post Windowseat Lounge Provides Privacy in Public Places first appeared on Dornob.

Building a residence in the flight path of a nearby airport would be intimidating to a lot of families, but one couple trusted just such a project to East Hampton, NY-based Maziar Behrooz Architecture.

The Arc House plays on the lot’s proximity to the airport by using industrial building techniques. The visually striking sloped roof resembles an airplane hangar and houses all of the home’s public areas.

The living, dining and kitchen areas are all snugly contained beneath the curved roof, making each area feel far roomier than one might expect from such an intimate space.

Air circulation was a particular concern in all parts of the home, so ample windows allow for both sunlight and air to permeate every room. The arc shape of the home and the materials used to create it all significantly cut down on the energy used, making it a beautifully eco-friendly abode.

Just beneath the kitchen and living areas, the lower level contains an office, home gym, sitting area, garage and private courtyard. The suspended staircase leading down to the lower level is one of the showcases of this impressive abode.

A long hallway connects the public area of the house to the bedrooms, which are in an adjacent flat-roofed structure. The architects used materials that would leave open the option to add on extra bedrooms if the couple so desires in the future.

“To allow the client to be able to increase the number of bedrooms, we decided to house them in a flat roofed section, in the rear, made of structural insulated panels; the bedrooms are accessed through a connecting bridge. The lay out is simple and efficient and can easily accommodate horizontal additions. Geothermal and high-efficiency HVAC, glazing u-values down to .12, SIP paneling, and a green roof contribute to the lowering of energy costs. “

The post Industrial Materials for a Low-Impact “Arc House” first appeared on Dornob.

A tilted keyboard platform and monitor-mounting surface is also a bit limiting – it does not exactly lend itself to various uses or comfortable long-term sitting or working, but perhaps that is not the point if these are made mainly to be arrayed in airport lounges or corporate hallways.

Bonus points, regardless, for there being an actual prototype showing it can be built and is stable despite its thin profile.

The post Beware of Falling Books!? Shelved All-in-One Workstation first appeared on Dornob.