The coolest thing about the Living O’Pod is the fact that it rotates in a full circle, spinning on its base to change up the views whenever you feel like facing a different direction. Depending on where you put it, you could be gazing out at the forest by day and enjoying the moonlight glimmering on a body of water after dark. Though it looks like it a lack of insulation would make it hard to keep cool or heated in extreme weather, UN10 Design says the pod is equipped with a thermal insulating layer and heating system to ensure normal operation in winter.

The interiors are designed to be comfortable enough for two people, featuring a kitchen, bathroom, and living room on the lower level and a curving sculptural white staircase leading up to the mezzanine bedroom, which is itself large enough to include a desk and seating area. The entryway is a circular glass door that appears to be the only part of the pod’s shell that opens to the air. The interior elements are all made of plywood.

The Living O’Pod is hypothetically set within the Repovesi National Park in Finland, one of the country’s most popular parks featuring picturesque hilly landscapes and forests that are now recovering from heavy commercial timber production. It seems that the company hasn’t yet built an actual prototype, but they explain that all of the pod’s components, including the main steel frame, would be prefabricated in a factory and transported to be assembled onsite to ensure the precision of the spherical shape.

UN10 Design doesn’t get into the technical details, so it’s unclear whether this glass living pod is just a beautiful dream or a fully fleshed-out concept ready to hit the assembly line. In either case, it at least seems possible to achieve. Glass dome homes and houses that rotate on a spinning base both already exist, so why not put the two ideas together in a form as captivating as this one?

“Home should be a personal space where you feel secure, creative, and inspired,” says UN10 Design. “The next housing concept should nurture the habitant’s soul, mind, and also be resilient for upcoming social, environmental, and technological challenges. Minimal, decentralized but connected, smart, and functional spaces need to be considered instead of the conventional urban fabric. The Living O’Pod is a space where you can communicate with mountains, trees, the sky, and streams.”

The post Glass Living O’Pod Rotates 360 Degrees for Unmatched Views first appeared on Dornob.

Set back from a cliff overlooking the water, the old barn structure consisted of two parts: a taller volume with gabled ends, and a wide addition off one side with a sloping shed-style roofline. No doors, windows, or actual roofs remained – just holes where they used to be. Aiming to keep as much of the concrete structure in place as possible to preserve its aged and weathered character, the architects decided to insert a lightweight two-story timber structure into the original volume, mimicking its shape.

Preserving the crumbling concrete required some creativity. The old barn was made of thick and stable mass concrete, but most of its walls lacked foundations, and some were very fragile. They decided to retain only the perimeter walls, leaving them in a ruined state peppered with lichen and patchwork patterns of local pebbles. They also stabilized the existing structure and lined the barn floor with a reinforced concrete raft to ensure the home wouldn’t continue to deteriorate after the renovations were complete.

New openings were created sparingly to avoid compromising the structural integrity of the old concrete shell. One was added to let more light into the kitchen, and another adds a separate entrance to the art studio so the homeowners can move large artworks in and out. Both the new openings and the original ones were diamond-cut to a smooth surface that contrasts with the roughness of the outer facade. On the ground floor, Studio Bua placed a kitchen and dining space adjacent to the studio, giving them all a floor of polished concrete.

The client, an artist, had previous experience staining plywood and wanted to experiment with adding light washes of color to the birch walls. She and the architects collaborated on a palette inspired by the colors of the meadow as they shift from green in spring to yellow in winter and purple in late summer. On the second floor, the white stained pine boards and plywood surfaces are left in their natural color to complement the darkness of the concrete and stone. A plywood staircase leads from the ground floor dining room to a mezzanine sitting room overlooking a double-height space, with both rooms taking advantage of the massive amount of daylight emanating from a fully-glazed end facade.

Outside, the walled garden might just be the coolest part of this old-meets-modern renovation. Protected from both strong winds and hungry wildlife, the garden preserves the framed views of the original windows and doors, now open to the air, and uses the remains of the original interior walls as row dividers.

The architects also chose a number of materials that are uniquely Icelandic in character. They explain that “the cladding of the new volume is corrugated Aluzinc – a reflective material that takes the color of the sky and meadow around the house, changing with the seasons and weather embodying the lightness of the inserted volume. This allowed us to extend to a second story without overpowering the concrete barn. From our experience working in harsh climates, this rather industrial material is one of the few cladding options that can withstand the extremes of weather.”

“The corrugation is also a reference to a local building tradition. From the early 20th century corrugated steel has been used diffusely in Iceland in rural and urban settings for all typologies. Most dwellings and farm buildings in the area are partly or completely clad in this material.”

The post Dilapidated Barn Ruins Transformed into a Remote Artist’s Studio in Iceland first appeared on Dornob.

Opinions are mixed on whether the real Cybertruck is a massive step forward in vehicle aesthetics or more akin to the vaguely car-shaped drawing your five-year-old might bring home from school. But one would imagine that when the Cybertruck is spotted on the road, it’ll look a little more pulled together than its hillbilly cousin. The Plybertruck is crudely assembled, its body covered in visible nails. But that’s all part of the fun.

Cromwell designed the car explicitly for the Gambler 500, a mostly off-road rally in which “cheap, impractical, and fun vehicles” roam through the countryside to pick up trash and remove abandoned vehicles and boats. Participants are supposed to spend no more than $500 on the vehicle they enter in the 500-mile rally, which began as a challenge to see how far cars that cheap could go. The first year had 14 participants, but since then, the event has spread all across the country, with thousands of attendees taking part. In 2018, enough “trail trash” was collected to fill three 40-foot containers.

The rally’s official website explains that “Gambler 500 started in Oregon 2014 by Tate Morgan and the OG Gamblers, a small group embracing cheap fun in all forms. Now dubbed ‘Gamblertown’ the original event in Oregon is the global meetup for what Gambler has evolved into as a brand encouraging people across the world to go have adventures using Gambler 500 as a call sign. We allow people to use the term ‘Gambler’ as long as it’s free and participants embrace the ideals of stewardship while having cheap fun in the outdoors.”

Unsurprisingly, the Plybertruck has gotten a lot of attention both on the road and on the internet, and now it even has its own Facebook page. The car underwent some upgrades this summer after the last Gambler event, including a new windshield, battery, and exhaust system, and it’ll hopefully be rejoining the fun when the next Gambler 500 happens in Oregon next June.

The Plybertruck certainly isn’t the first participant in the Gambler 500 to turn heads with its unusual looks, and it won’t be the last. Another notable entry this year was the “Double Trouble” Ford Ranger pickup by Gage Van, which is made of one red pickup and one purple, joined together cab-to-cab. In an interview with The Drive, Van explained that the project took just three days to complete. The newer red cab is the front, which powers the Frankentruck with a 4.0-liter V6 engine. It’s often accompanied on the road by an equally wild Chevy Suburban-based boat car.

The post Plybertruck: Low-Budget Cybertruck Spoof Designed for an Off-Road Competition first appeared on Dornob.

Designed in partnership between the two brands, the Pottery Barn Special Edition Travel Trailer is a 28-foot camper with a classic Airstream look on the outside and full-bore Pottery Barn catalog on the inside, including one of the most overstuffed couches you’ll ever see in an RV. You can choose between either a queen or twin bed floor plan to sleep up to five people, and both plans feature exclusive Pottery Barn bedding.

The design theme takes inspiration from the Pacific Coast Highway in California, featuring a soft palette of neutral textiles, pale plywood, gray cabinetry, Shaker details, and lush textures. The sofa is covered in boucle performance fabric made to stand up to kids, dogs, and the occasional spill, and it also offers a hidden airline-style table. The dining table is solid oak, inspired by Pottery Barn’s best-selling Benchwright Dining Collection. In the kitchen you’ll find a stainless steel apron sink with a walnut cutting board top, a pull-down faucet, a gas range with an oven, and a generously sized refrigerator.

Other features include a bathroom with shower, toilet, and sink made to feel as residential as possible, custom storage solutions like canvas baskets that slide under the bed, blackout curtains that wrap around the panoramic windows, and Airstream Smart Control Technology that lets you monitor and control onboard features like the lights, thermostat, and awning. Roll out that awning, set up the included Indio Outdoor Folding Table and Armchair Set, and hook the outdoor hanging table to the window for a cocktail bar on demand.

“Since launching two co-branded collections of home goods with Airstream, it’s become clear that fans of both brands understand the unique value of coming together,” says Marta Benson, President of Pottery Barn. “We were as excited as our customers to see how we could apply Pottery Barn’s design expertise to Airstream’s live anywhere mentality, and we couldn’t be more excited about the results.”

“It’s a match that makes sense in many ways,” says Airstream President and CEO Bob Wheeler. “Pottery Barn has this kind of magical ability to shape a space. You see it in their home interiors, where there’s a comfortable, functional beauty to even the smallest pieces. They understand how your home is this canvas where real life happens, and we love how they applied that to the Airstream lifestyle.”

The price for the Pottery Barn x Airstream travel trailer is steep, starting at $145,000, but plenty of #vanlifers end up spending that much on their conversions anyway, and this one’s all ready to hit the road. Since most Airstream interiors are built-in, it’s usually not a small project to customize one to your liking, and this one definitely has a feeling of home.

The post The Airstream x Pottery Barn Travel Trailer Makes Camping Comfier Than Ever first appeared on Dornob.

Alphaville has long had a reputation for creating architecture that often appears to challenge the laws of physics, combining sharp angles and avant garde elements to create modern, sparse spaces that are oddly approachable despite their complexity. From “House Folded,” whose angular walls challenge the traditional notion of rectangular-shaped rooms, to the “Dig In The Sky House,” whose raised base reveals its dizzying arrangement of staircases and rooms, Alphaville’s projects are eclectic and diverse. However, common themes do echo throughout, including a heavy reliance on basic geometric shapes like squares and triangles, though these are always incorporated cleverly and used to accentuate, rather than define, the spaces they occupy. A great example is this family home in Osaka that stacks long, horizontal windows to create an appealing geometric facade.

Alphaville’s newest project continues the tradition of distorting conventional structures, creating a house that is deceivingly small and simple on the outside but spacious and complex on the inside, with its many right angles and sharp shapes reminding one of an M.C. Escher piece. Of course, in this case, the layout only appears to defy physics, as its complex form achieves a fluidity and flow that’s really more natural than fantastic.

Another amazing feature of the new Kyoto house that challenges traditional notions of building and architecture is its materials. The thin, 24-millimeter plywood walls give the impression that you could simply fold the whole house up and put it in your pocket, unfolding it later to seamlessly return it to its original condition.

The plywood was also incorporated to maintain a connection between the two separate areas of the house — a tenuous, fluid connection designed to separate, but not isolate, each. Both areas are open and filled with light, giving the illusion of more space, but also accentuating the contrast between the two. Team members Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto wanted their design to reflect the everyday things that people do when at home, while also creating “not small rooms with poor relation with circumstances, but two spaces with different relationships with circumstances.” This dynamic of separation is also reflected in the home’s exterior, in the way that its windows are open and public facing, while its interiors are private and cozy.

Alphaville architects’ new home in Kyoto is, like the team’s other designs, complex and angular, striking and innovative. From an interior that is, like Doctor Who’s blue police call box, much bigger and more complicated on the inside, to an exterior whose micro-design is already statement-making among the neighborhood’s larger properties, Alphaville has once again set the benchmark for alternative and quirky, yet functional and livable, architecture.

The post Alphaville Architects’ New Kyoto Tiny House Redefines Traditional Living Spaces first appeared on Dornob.

“The base material for plywood is birch, and we’re using basically just the same as you’d find in a hardware store or to make furniture,” Woodsat chief engineer Samuli Nymanm, who also happens to be the Arctic Astronautics co-founder, said in an official statement. “The main difference is that ordinary plywood is too humid for space uses, so we place our wood in a thermal vacuum chamber to dry it out. Then we also perform atomic layer deposition, adding a very thin aluminum oxide layer.”

Not only will that coating prevent the plywood from releasing any gases into the atmosphere, but it will also protect the satellite from corrosive atomic oxygen, which forms in the outer edges of Earth’s atmosphere when UV radiation from the sun splits normal oxygen molecules. Sections of the satellite will be coated with other varnishes and lacquers to see how they perform, as well.

The WISA Woodsat will be equipped with two cameras: one facing space, and another on a selfie stick so engineers can monitor changes to the plywood while the satellite is in orbit. It will also carry a set of sensors to monitor pressure in onboard cavities and an amateur radio so hobbyists can relay radio signals and images around the world. Nine small solar cells will keep it powered on its journey.

A test model of the WISA Woodsat made a successful stratospheric test flight on Saturday, June 12th from the Heureka Science Center in Vantaa, Finland. The satellite reached a maximum altitude of 31.2 km (about 19 miles) over the city of Mäntsälä during its 2-hour, 54-minute flight before descending using a parachute and landing safely into a forest. The onboard “selfie camera” took photos automatically every 30 seconds, capturing the exact moment when its support balloon burst during the descent.

Why use plywood? Because Earth-orbiting satellites often catch fire and break apart as they re-enter the atmosphere. The idea is that crafts made of plywood might burn up entirely in the process, leaving no toxic substances or debris to float around in space or fall back to Earth. Plywood is also a low-cost alternative to traditional materials like carbon fiber composites with the potential to perform just as well.

The WISA Woodsat isn’t the only wooden satellite in the works. In another part of the world, Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry has teamed up with Kyoto University to experiment with different types of wood in various extreme environments on Earth and beyond.

The post In Late 2021, This Tiny Satellite Made of Plywood Will Be Launched Into Space first appeared on Dornob.

The biggest draw of the off-grid Gaia house is its price tag, which Pin-Up Houses estimates at $21,000. It’s also easy for novices to build in as little as three months. It’s definitely diminutive at a mere 20 x 8 feet, but it’s packed with just about everything the average person needs, including a bathroom with a shower and compost toilet, a kitchen with a refrigerator and propane-powered stove, a wood-burning stove for warmth, and plenty of storage space.

The light-colored plywood interior features a plethora of drawers and cabinets, with a sofa that folds down into a bed after dark. You can open both the double sliding glass doors and the huge side doors to open the interiors to fresh air and sunlight, and the outdoor terrace folds up and down using a winch to extend your living space in nice weather or protect the giant glass wall while on the road. Unlike a tiny house on wheels, you can’t just hook it up to a truck and motor down the highway to move it, but like all shipping containers, it can be transported on the back of a truck.

Since steel conducts a lot of heat and cold, one of the biggest issues with converting a shipping container to a home is insulation. The Gaia features spray insulation between the outer steel walls, wooden studs, and spruce plywood interior walls to create a cozy envelope. A 264-gallon water tank on the side of the unit services the home’s two sinks and shower, with a filter for potable water. The three 165-watt rooftop solar panels and 400W wind turbine supply plenty of power to the home’s battery system, which can be monitored using a dedicated app.

“It’s necessary to look for alternative forms of housing that will have a less negative impact on the environment, as well as complement traditional approaches to housing,” the company explains. “We have decided to repurpose a discarded shipping container and fit it out with the most available building materials and latest technology to design a unique independent housing unit.”

You really have to be a fan of the industrial aesthetic to enjoy the Gaia house, since there’s no disguising the look of the shipping container on the outside. But if you’re into the look and willing to put in the work to make it livable, it can offer an accessible way to gain a vacation house, income-generating rental, or backyard office, and it might work for some full-time off-gridders, too.

Pin-Up Houses has already built a prototype of the Gaia, and if the design generates enough interest from the public, they might consider manufacturing and selling more of them. In the meantime, you can buy a complete set of plans along with material lists, tool lists, and an eBook about building tiny houses for just $190 from the Pin-Up Houses website.

The post The Gaia Off-Grid Container House Costs Just $21,000 to Build first appeared on Dornob.

In Kyoto, the interior walls within an apartment on the fifth floor of a 40-year-old building failed to take advantage of both a prime corner location and beautiful views of the landscape outside. The small spaces along the exterior walls were the only rooms to see daylight, which made the rest of the unit feel dark and unwelcoming.

Japanese design studio YAP, led by architect Yamaguchi Akito, was tasked with updating the residence for the 21st century. The first thing they did was knock down the existing interior walls to prepare for a new layout. Once the partitions were gone, Akito was struck by views of the wooded hills across the street, which are full of temples and hot springs. “Isn’t it possible to create a space on a calm scale where you can feel this comfortable light and wind throughout the house instead of dividing it into rooms?,” he thought to himself.

His solution finds a compromise between distinct, enclosed spaces and a completely open studio. Instead of partition walls, he would define the various zones of the house using open plywood boxes as rooms-within-rooms. Filled with built-in furniture like benches, tables, counters, and bed platforms, these new spaces allow a clear view of the windows and balcony from even the innermost wall of the apartment.

The architects explain: “Considering the skeleton of a single room as a site, a porous ‘nest’ with a width of one and a half (2.7 m) and a depth of four (7.2 m) was constructed in the center of the house. It is a three-dimensional object made of 25-mm square steel pipes that connect the rigid and strong RC skeleton of the condominium and the furniture that creates the living scenery. A bedroom, piano space, and dining room are located inside. Light entering from three directions creates shades of brightness due to the presence of three-dimensional objects. This is a proposal for a renovation method that creates a place by building a ‘nest’ instead of creating a place by finishing the partition wall and surface.”

The use of budget-friendly plywood makes this concept easy to imitate, and with much of the wood left unfinished, it brings a new sense of warmth and connection to nature to a space that consists mostly of hard, cold concrete. The boxes can also be dismantled and removed in the future without requiring significant renovations or yielding much waste, in case the occupants decide they want a different layout. Private spaces and storage areas like bathrooms and closets are fully enclosed along the perimeter walls.

Akito’s design philosophy centers upon the question, “Who is architecture for?” Noting that our built environments have strayed further and further from nature in recent decades, he says there’s a disconnect between what people want and need from buildings and what architects, developers, and building managers tend to provide. “I want to share the opportunity to regain the lost trust of architecture,” he says.

The post Plywood Boxes Create New Spaces Within a Dated Kyoto Condo first appeared on Dornob.

There is a method behind the magic of a backyard tree house – and while it is not all fun and games, the construction process can be a participatory educational experience for children as well as an engaging do-it-yourself project for adults. Building a treehouse for kids is a rewarding project that can help refine your DIY skills.

Free from direct attachment to trees, this variant is simple, sustainable and versatile – a plywood-framed box and a set of wooden stilts. It can thus be built and deconstructed as needed, adding safety, too, over a tree-tied version.

Imminently practical (and replicable), Ravnikar Potokar Arhitekturni used standard-sized beams, boards and sheets as well as easy-to-pour concrete footings with off-the-shelf steel anchors for simplicity and stability.

Essential saws and basic carpentry skills make it easy enough for a few (safety-conscious) people to put the whole thing together from scratch, while these plan and section drawings show the basics required to make it all work.

The catch is in the erecting of the prefabricated-on-the-ground framework – one would assume, though, that the stilt supports could be put up first then cross-braces added once they were vertical.

The result: a cool little all-weather reading-room villa, four-season club house cottage and/or lofted play space lodge that is weatherproof, well-lit, modern in style but traditional in materials.

Something based on these specs would make a great little flexible addition to a front or back lawn, garden or forest space, complete with framed views on the front plexiglass facade and little operable hinged-plywood window boxes on all sides.

More from the architects

“The Tree House, designed by Robert Potokar of Robert Potokar Architecture Office and co-designer Janez Brežnik, is a wooden play structure that is elevated without requiring nearby trees to support its weight. The concept, originally designed in February 2008 as since been realized three times. The freestanding, self-supporting house-by-a-tree is a playhouse designed with contemporary design principles, deviating from precedents that model real houses or garden sheds. Instead, the design was guided by the goal of creating interesting and different spatial experiences for children that inspire new forms of play.”

The post Modern Magic: Building a Treehouse for Kids [Plans & Pics] first appeared on Dornob.

“The days of the bleary-eyed slacker stoner are behind us,” the brand declares, “and we’re proud to be part of this shift towards a place of normalization and appreciation of this enigmatic plant and its many healing properties.”

Offering a line of modern furniture with built-in lockable storage developed specifically with marijuana in mind, Forti Goods aims to bring cannabis out of the shadows and into the living room. Each piece is discreet and quietly elegant, from small blue-black herb storage jars to stately credenzas with translucent glass doors. The idea is to give cannabis the same consideration you might give to other legal substances in your home, like alcoholic beverages, but with a little extra security.

The furniture includes coffee tables, nightstands, buffet tables, and cabinets, all featuring app-controlled locks that “keep curious hands out” while making it easy to access your stash. Charged via USB, the electronic locks were chosen because the company considers them more secure than standard locks and keys. The drawers also have replaceable carbon filters to reduce the tell-tale scent and preserve the potency of the product. Each piece is made from FSC-certified veneered plywood and solid wood, featuring water-based stains and paints in a range of colors.

Fitting seamlessly within the drawers of each piece are a selection of storage accessories that keep everything organized and aesthetically pleasing. The glass jars fit neatly within “flower blocks.” Wooden pre-roll blocks lovingly cradle your joints. Cartridges and vape components slot into the holes in the cartridge blocks, and other wooden boxes hold all the other tools and add-ons you use.

For people who may have partaken before it was legalized, this high-end (pun fully intended) bourgeois take on cannabis can feel a little surreal, or at least eye-roll-inducing, especially considering the price. The tiny storage components start around $45 each, the small side tables start at $2,150, and the “Geraldine” cabinet will set you back a whopping $4,050. But the items are well-made, and if you’re a cannabis user who’s buying expensive modern furniture for your home anyway, you can probably see the appeal — especially if you have kids.

Forti Goods founder and CEO Sharon Kevil is a self-taught furniture designer committed to sustainable sourcing. In an interview with Furniture Today, she says the brand’s biggest hurdle is the fact that it’s still hard to advertise cannabis-related items. The company’s launch was delayed when its website was categorized as “drug paraphernalia” and shut down, and cannabis still isn’t legal in the company’s home state of Wisconsin.

Cannabis is, however, currently legal for medical use in 22 states, and legal for both medical and recreational use in 14 states, with many more likely to follow in the near future. In the meantime, Forti Goods will continue plans to market its products nationwide, including in-person events once the risk of COVID fades in the U.S.

The post Forti Goods: Sophisticated Cannabis Storage Solutions for the Modern Smoker first appeared on Dornob.

The Originals series includes a stool, chair, bench, and tree tables made of birch plywood panels that simply clip together using heavy-duty steel clips normally used to hold together plywood shipping crates. In other words, these fasteners mean serious business. If they can be trusted by the commercial packaging industry to move billions of dollars worth of merchandise every year, they can be trusted to hold your dining set steady.

The QIK clips come from manufacturer Clip-Lok SimPak. As detailed in an interview over at Dezeen, FUZL Studio founder Oliver Theobald chose the clips because they use spring tension capable of absorbing “un-holy levels of industrial abuse,” able to withstand forklift trucks, tons of dynamic forces, and drop tests. That also means they don’t need to be tightened regularly.

It’s hard not to think about a certain Swedish mega-retailer and the oft-lampooned difficulty of assembling its furniture when viewing the refreshing simplicity of the Originals system. That was on Theobald’s mind while designing this series, too. When flat pack furniture was first introduced, it felt revolutionary because it made it so easy to transport. It shouldn’t be so difficult to put together that we have to hire help (not to mention comically disposable).

With the Originals series, Theobald hopes to demonstrate that flat-pack furniture can last a lifetime, look cool, and make moving the easiest it’s ever been. The collection uses the same exact clip to put together each piece of furniture, so as long as you don’t mix up the flat-pack components from different items, you should have no problem taking them apart for transport or storage and then putting them together again.

The Originals furniture may be simple, but it’s not boring. The pieces have interesting lines and shapes, and the FSC-rated timber sourced from responsibly managed forests is hand-finished in a range of VOC-free, food-safe colorful oils and pigments including burnt orange, olive green, vivid chartreuse, black, and cream. Plus, when you get your box of parts, you won’t find a mass of styrofoam, paper, and little plastic baggies inside.

“We’ve kept our designs ‘tool free’ so there are no nuts and bolts involved — so no more of those small plastic bags with fixings that all have to be produced, and similarly no synthetic glues or varnishings,” says Fuzl Studio. “And we’ve done away with printed assembly instructions in favor of online assembly instructions. We’ve also developed 100-percent recyclable protective packaging for our products. We use only biodegradable paper tape and origami folding and fixing methods, using recycled cardboard that is ‘cut to order’ meaning there is no unnecessary waste. This means no bubblewrap, no plastics — just 100-percent easily recyclable materials.”

The pieces start at £150 (about $200 USD) and can be purchased online directly from FUZL Studio.

The post Flat-Pack Furniture System by FUZL Studio Held Together by Metal Clips first appeared on Dornob.

In Barcelona’s Eixample district, architects Anna and Eugeni Bach turned a beautiful but highly challenging apartment into a cozy live/work residence where everything has its place. The corner flat has an unusual floor plan featuring four diagonally angled rooms, including a trapezoidal kitchen. There’s minimal square footage to work with, but the historic building features some absolutely stunning architectural details, like tray ceilings, a marble fireplace, and ornate wooden doors.

The owners want to use the apartment as a study for the next 15 years, at which point they’ll retire and live there. That means it has to be both multifunctional and comfortable to live in, while also offering the possibility of hosting their future grandchildren. The living room, entryway, and bedroom extend from the back wall at a 45-degree angle that’s known as “chamfered,” a layout that’s not uncommon in Barcelona’s older neighborhoods.

The biggest and most successful intervention is the plywood built-in cabinetry extending along the flat’s one straight exterior wall, from the kitchen into the living room. The architects envisioned it as a home for all of the apartment’s “services,” including the kitchen cabinets and appliances, bookcases, closets, bathroom, and even a set of built-in stairs leading up to the uppermost level of storage space. Made of smooth, pale plywood and devoid of most visible hardware, this cabinet brings a contemporary feel to the home and unifies its two main rooms.

At the same time, dynamic new flooring subtly separates each space from the next while maintaining a cohesive look. In the kitchen, marble tiles follow the angle of the built-in cabinet, butting up against the straight line of the patterned hallway flooring. The living room, bedroom, and entryway all have their own unique colors and patterns, too, contrasting the clean feeling of the white walls and wooden accents.

“The rest of the house is left practically intact,” say the architects. “The floors, ceilings, and carpentry that were kept in good condition are recovered to establish a careful contrast with the service furniture. A contrast that brings together both the two directions of the chamfer, and the two times of intervention in the history of the house.”

Even if the stairs of the cabinet don’t exactly lead anywhere, since there’s no loft, they still add an interesting graphic element to the design, as does their minimalist ceiling-mounted railing. The cabinet doesn’t just disguise all the little things that would otherwise create too much visual clutter, it anchors the whole apartment. Little design details like the leather pull on the bathroom door and ornate brackets on the mirror above the fireplace are just icing on the cake.

The post Plywood Built-Ins Transform a Tiny Barcelona Studio Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

Now, South African firm Rooi Design has created what might be the least wasteful pavilion ever made. Designed for the Shanghai International Furniture Fair 2019, “Furniture Pavilion S and its Afterlife” takes ordinary materials and shows off what they’re capable of, from their raw, uncut state to their final forms. Each plywood piece used to build the pavilion can be recycled “endlessly,” too — not just into new furniture-showcasing pavilions, but into pretty much any piece of furniture you could want.

All 821 segments of the pavilion are market standard-size (1.22 x 1.22 meter) plywood, the most efficient size for common furniture making applications. Inserted into a steel framework, they form a tall modular structure with nearly 200 open display cubes built into the walls. These openings allow a glimpse into the inside of the pavilion.

“Pavilion S is not just a furniture showroom either, it is a place where one can relax and rest during the exhibition,” say the architects. “The facade of the building uses two different cubes, and the four facades have become window-like in order to display the furniture, giving audiences different views from various angles. The furniture display can be clearly seen, and the transparent facade captures plenty of sunlight, while the 1.22-meter-deep window prevents the sun from shining directly into the showroom.”

“The main structure adopts the mixed-use of a wood and steel structure, while the roof is designed as a hyperboloid (positive and negative arch-beam steel structure roof). The whole building space does not have a column, presenting the whole exhibition hall in a clean, sleek manner. [We believe] that the complexity should be left in the design and technique of the building process while giving the audience an impression that’s clear and easy to understand, bright, and eco-friendly to the city.”

Even more impressive is what the pavilion becomes after it’s disassembled. The architects recycled the entire thing into 410 sets of tables and chairs with almost zero material waste, creating either one hexagonal table or three rectangular chairs from each piece. The tables and chairs can become their own little constellations of seating, joined together in virtually infinite configurations.

Both the end result of the furniture and the process by which it’s directly transformed have especially significant value in the rural Chinese community of Fuqing, where Rooi Design is now located. There, the furniture is set outside the Comprehensive Cultural Service Center for communal use, and the public is given the freedom to rearrange it however they like. In this way, the community gets a direct say in how their public spaces are used, and the process of putting it together makes friends out of total strangers.

The post This Plywood Pavilion Can Be Endlessly Recycled Into New Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

First and foremost, there’s the jagged silhouette with its massive triangular planes, the sharp ridge of the roof smoothly transitioning into the walls on all sides. Its sheer aerodynamic angularity makes it stand out from the crowd. When working with such a small space, most designers choose headroom over visual flair, but with the Base Cabin, it’s hard to deny just how cool the sacrifice of that space can ultimately look.

Then there’s the choice of stark matte black for the entire exterior, punctuated by a handful of well-placed windows and double-width folding glass doors. The black rubber stretched across the cabin’s lightweight steel frame produces an overall effect of abstracted mountains, and it makes the whole structure easy to tow.

Inside, marine plywood lines the floors and ceiling for a feel that’s clean, modern, and only about a million times more pleasant than the average plastic camper. That’s exactly the point for the Victoria, Australia-based Base Cabin Building Company, who hired Studio Edwards to come up with a “considered, functional, and flexible space that provides a fresh design approach to the micro-home typology.”

As you can see, the resulting product is a camper for lovers of architecture and design — and one that many people would be proud to travel with. The only downside might be all the curious onlookers who will want to ask questions about your highly unusual cargo.

It’s remarkable just how much Melbourne-based British architect Ben Edwards managed to fit within this “cocoon,” including a bathroom and storage space. The built-in window seat with bookshelves underneath is a particularly nice touch, situated beside a rear window that opens completely to the outdoors. Unlike many tiny houses, there’s no loft in the Base Cabin, but its high ceilings negate the claustrophobic feeling that can come with smaller campers.

“The design is inspired by the A-Frame cabin and iconic airstream trailer,” says Edwards, adding that “the A-frame is structurally efficient and uses less material than conventional portal framed buildings. [The Base Cabin] is mute in its appearance and clad in black rubber to blend into its surroundings.”

“A cozy sleeping space sits below the A-frame roof, with triangular windows framing views [of the outside world. The cabin comes] complete with a central bathroom and shower bathed in light from the roof-light above. A kitchenette to the rear of the cabin provides kitchen functionality, with a window seat and fold-out table adjacent to a large operable glazed facade.”

Naturally, sleek modern architecture on wheels also costs a bit more than the average camper. The price of this cabin starts at $99,000 AUS, and only three have been built so far. If you’re intrigued, check out Base Cabin’s website for contact information, or follow the brand on Instagram.

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Now, with the global coronavirus pandemic affecting construction, there’s a real need for creative, innovative ideas. One proposal uses robotic fabrication to create timber blocks that can be easily assembled to convert existing buildings into multi-functional spaces, or even multifamily housing.

Created by Design Computation Lab, a research laboratory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, “Automated Living System (ALIS)” is a housing prototype built specifically in response to the global housing crisis. Its usage of robotic labor is merely coincidental, but fitting for these times, and it enables safe manufacturing that doesn’t put large groups of workers together in the same space.

Based on a single building block that can be prefabricated using CNC technology and assembled by two industrial robots, the modular system was used to create a prototype of a home office. But it could just as easily be used to create indoor play rooms, co-working spaces, art studios, pop-up cafés, and flexible rooms with the potential to serve several different purposes. Plus, the reversible connections on the blocks make the whole thing easy to quickly disassemble and put back together whenever you feel like making a change.

That potentially puts the power to pull off all kinds of interior renovations into the hands of renters and homeowners, more cheaply and easily than ever before. Imagine getting a kit of these to divide up a single open-plan apartment, for instance, or to create more separation for people who have to live together in the same space.

In the future, the same technology could potentially build entire houses, apartment buildings, and even cities.

A description of the system by the Building Centre UK explains that “inefficient housing, scarce and expensive land have been identified as core contributing factors to this crisis, and ALIS (an automated living system) aims to address these by proposing spaces that do not have fixed functions, contents, or ownership. Powered by an app, individuals can select the time and function (bedroom, office, café) of the spaces they need, 24/7. A system of robots changes the configuration of the walls and utilities, and personal items are stored in an automated storage system for whenever they are needed next. ALIS is not to be interpreted as a final solution to the housing crisis, but as a tool to question assumed ‘truths’ about how we live — the home, ownership, and social habits.”

“ALIS is the work of The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Design Computation Lab (DCL), which focuses on the development of automated architectural design and production technologies for the built environment. DCL’s work comments on a wide range of prescient issues, from the global housing crisis to the future of work and limitations of material resources, proposing that automation can bring about positive change for the future. DCL’s housing prototype ALIS will be installed in the Building Centre for February 2020 and used as a working space for debate and public engagement around the future of automation and housing.”

The post These Automated Prefab Plywood Volumes Adapt to Any Purpose You Need first appeared on Dornob.

These carpenters are said to be descended from Maya, son of the “divine engineer” deity Vishwakarma. For millennia, they’ve handcrafted everything from utensils to chariots to ships, organizing into guilds where fathers passed on their techniques as master craftsmen to their children. More impressive still, every family, religion, and region has its own style.

But, as the designers note, “traditions cannot outlive time,” and there are concerns that the Sutradhar art may not survive things like mass deforestation, the increasing cost of wood, and the amount of labor required to complete each piece. The government has even suggested that the craftspeople start using plywood in place of timber.

Occupying the first floor of a retail shop in a market complex, “Timber Rhyme” invites visitors to walk through and experience the piece in full and contemplate how the artform must evolve to remain relevant and accessible in the modern world. It’s made of digitally fabricated plywood ribs that are connected in a waffle-like pattern to achieve unique curvatures.

Once assembled, they’re almost self-supporting, with black metal bars connecting them to the ceiling in some areas and transparent acrylic supports holding them aloft in others. The design is reminiscent of the “Superdesk” created for an office by Clive Wilkinson Architects, but the possibility of functional use is far less important here — almost an afterthought.

The architects explain: “Represented through the ribbon that pours itself into space, ‘variety in a unified continuum’ nourishes our concepts. The ribbon is envisioned to blur the boundaries between the static, the movable, and the art both in and on these components of the built space. [The] role of static elements like partition screens is obfuscated with that of movable furniture. Propounding as a functional art space, a series of ‘wooden ribbons’ twist and turn to form the display shelves, sitting spaces, meeting tables, and other design elements each flowing into the other. This transcends the interior into an art-landscape.”

“This amalgamation of technology for cost, time, and ease of making with an advantage of old craft is a win-win situation for all stakeholders of the project. The retail shop becomes a setting befitting for a dialogue between the carpenter, the end-user, and the retailer, [thereby] deepening social engagement. As plywood-carpentry meets its entropic spiral, ‘Timber Rhyme’ hopes to create an opportunity to re-imagine [the] craft of the traditional curves as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the next generation of torchbearers of intricate carvings.”

Photos show the piece before it was put into use in its retail context, but it would be nice to see it in use, too. In any case, it’s a thought-provoking meditation on the resiliency of craft and tradition in a rapidly changing world.

The post Timber Rhyme: A Flowing Wooden Desk Inspired by Ribbons first appeared on Dornob.