Tag Archives: Social Awareness

Bioclimatic dorms provide safe housing for young students in Peru

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The Santa Elena student residence is a new bioclimatic dormitory for students living in the rural areas of Peru’s central jungle.

For children living in the rural areas of Peru’s central jungle, a typical walk to school might consist of a two to five-hour commute that takes them down one of the area’s few access routes. Traversing rough terrain and dangerous obstacles to get to school, the students attending the area’s secondary school hail from 16 different neighboring communities.

Designer: Semillas

Community-built, makeshift dormitories provided children with a place to sleep but were built in breach of the minimum hygiene and safety conditions. Semillas, a nonprofit organization based in Lima, designed and constructed an expandable, bioclimatic student residence for children to have access to education and a comfortable place to live.

Merging with the secondary school’s existing living quarters, Semillas’ Santa Elena student residence remains minimalist by design. Defined by the OSB wood panels that divide the dorm’s living quarters and common spaces, the wood framing remains exposed inside and outside the building.

With the hope for future expansion, the new student residence is also modular and systemic. The modular makeup of the dormitories also allows for plenty of bioclimatic elements that keep students comfortable amidst changing seasons and weather. Fixed mosquito netting envelops the building to stave pesky bugs off. Then, cross ventilation is achieved through openings located on opposite ends of the building.

The new student residence is organized into three functional macro-areas: school, residential units, and outdoor spaces. The existing school hosts common spaces, encouraging collaboration between students. A multipurpose room is also housed in the school, which adapts to different needs throughout the day, transforming from a dining area to a recreation room.

The residential units meet the hygienic and safety guidelines for young students, equipped with sanitary facilities and sleeping areas. The sanitary facilities are operated by rainwater collection tanks positioned on the roof and septic tanks recycle water through underground pipeline systems. Students find their sleeping accommodations in eight-person dorms and teachers enjoy smaller two-person bedrooms.

Septic tanks and rainwater collection systems provide clean water for students. 

The transparent windows can be opened for natural-cross ventilation throughout the building. 

Underground tanks run beneath the residence to transfer water into an internal reservoir. 

The OSB wood panels provide a uniform, minimalist look.

The school combines common spaces with its hallways to encourage student collaboration. 

The post Bioclimatic dorms provide safe housing for young students in Peru first appeared on Yanko Design.

350 paper planes were floated from The Guggenheim’s top floor calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine

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On March 5, on a Saturday afternoon, a group of 15 artists and activists launched 350 paper planes from the top floor of The Guggenheim calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Deployed during peak visiting hours, the 350 paper planes floated from the museum’s top floor to the ground, between floors brimming with people. As Russian forces invaded Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had requested NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but the request was rejected by NATO for fear of bringing more countries into the conflict since they would have to shoot down any Russian aircraft flying over Ukraine.

So far NATO, led by the United States, has announced it would not intervene by air or land, rejecting the possibility of taking on Russian forces. The paper planes that flew through the Guggenheim had a clear message for citizens of the world,

It reads, “This jet is made of paper. But what if it were steel and carried bombs over the heads of the ones you love? Right now, Russia is making deliberate efforts to blow up the largest nuclear plant in Europe in order to wipe out the Ukrainian population. This would give Putin control over Ukrainian land. But that is not the end. Russia wants to move its nuclear arsenal to the Ukrainian-Polish border and push its army further west. Putin has openly said this many times. This is no longer a local conflict. Act now to save the world. Ask president Biden to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Protect the sky over Ukraine. Full embargo on Russia. Boycott Russian influence in cultural and political institutions.”

Upon entry to The Guggenheim, museum security guards barred two artists and activists from entering who were given the option to enter without the bag of flyers in tow. Artists Anton Varga, Bea Fremderman, V Pan, and Volk Lika were among the 15 organizers behind the act.

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This self-compressing chair is a therapeutic furniture designed for individuals with autism

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The Oto Chair, or Hugging Chair, is a piece of therapeutic furniture designed for autistic individuals with sensory integration disorders.

“As a designer,” Alexia Audrain says, “you have to be in contact with the user, their environment, their daily habits and always make tests before reaching a finished product.” Describing the process of creating a chair designed for users with autism and sensory integration disorders.

Designer: Alexia Audrain

Considering that 45% to 95% of people with autism have sensory integration disorders, designer Alexia Audrain produced a chair to help quell the effects of sensory overstimulation. The Oto Chair, or Hugging Chair, aims to actively recreate the soothing sensation that comes with being hugged or compressed for individuals with autism.

Putting “a sense of agency and dignity,” back into the design and build of therapeutic furniture was at the forefront of Audrain’s mind when creating the Oto Chair. Honing in on this aspect of its design, Audrain equipped the Oto Chair with a footrest and intuitive remote that grants control to the chair’s sitter. Outfitted with a resistance-foam cushion, sitters use the remote to activate the chair’s compression mode. To draw and construct the Oto Chair, Audrain turned to the community who would benefit most from its function.

Audrain says, “It was important for me to work with people who truly understand the condition, so I spent time with people who have autism, with specialized educators and psychometricians studying sensory processing disorders to understand their needs and their daily life.”

When designing the Oto Chair, Audrain also leaned on her cabinetmaking skills in conjunction with insight she gained from experts in the field of therapeutic furniture. Unlike other therapeutic furniture that’s made from plastic, the Oto Chair maintains a classic, beechwood build that gives it a sturdy and warm personality. Defined by a cocoon silhouette, the Oto Chair couples its unique shape with plush upholstery that absorbs sound and encourages sitters to “concentrate on their senses,” as Audrain describes.

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This self-sufficient architecture outfitted with smart technology provides a solution for our future cities!

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Ripple is a smart urban structure with integrated technology and self-sufficiency systems to offer a solution for the cities of tomorrow.

Taking place in Wuppertal, Germany, 2021’s Solar Decathalon Europe (SDE21) focuses on urbanization and the development of urban areas through technical and sustainable innovation. Contestant designs spanned ten categories, from social awareness to architecture. One student team from the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, VIRTUe designed a self-sufficient housing model called Ripple.

Competing against 17 different teams, VIRTUe developed Ripple as one possible “[solution] for the cities of tomorrow,” 2021’s theme for SDE. The solutions produced for this year’s SDE range everywhere from renovations for pre-existing buildings in Wuppertal, standalone structures built to fill the gaps of urban fabrics, and building extensions that service to sustainably increase urban density.

Falling into the final category, Ripple is a self-sufficient apartment structure made from repurposed wood and outfitted with a solar roof that supplies power for the structure’s integrated smart technology. Modular by design, the solar roof can change orientations depending on the best angle to capture the most amount of sunlight. Designed with integrated walking space along the perimeter of the roof, the photovoltaic panels capture sunlight to create a microclimate that sustains a small collection of the region’s biodiversity.

Connecting two apartments together, a communal space functions as the structure’s stationary technical core. There, residents will find the living room and kitchen along with a digital interface that controls all of the structure’s integrated smart technology. While the technical stationary core works as the structure’s main hub, residents can configure the different room modules to fit their needs. In addition to its modular structure, Ripple saves space through furniture with built-in hidden storage compartments that free up the home’s available living space.

Elsewhere, the home’s self-sufficiency systems provide solar power for a hot water system, heat pump, ventilation mechanics, and the main smart home system EQUI. Ensuring the energy is aptly used and spread out throughout the day, EQUI uses weather forecast statistics to approximate how much energy needs to be stored for the system to operate soundly. Finally, an accompanying app Recapp connects similar smart homes with urban facilities via digital maps.

Designer: VIRTUe

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This inclusive computer mouse redefines the gadget’s design by working using the wrist, no fingers needed!

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Allin is an inclusive, barrier-free mouse that was designed to be ergonomic specifically catering to the needs of amputees and those who struggle to use computer mouses.

Most of us are working on our laptops or desktops for the entire workday, but not without consequence. From our eyes to our wrists, from our posture to our bums, we go through physical strain every day just by sitting at our desks and staring at our computer screens while endlessly typing.

Providing their own solution to one part of this daily struggle, Designer Dot conceptualized Allin, an ergonomic mouse designed specifically for amputees and others who have trouble operating desktop and laptop mouses.

Constructed with a curved design, Allin features a soft impression where users can place their wrists to access the mouse’s control functions. Replacing the right and left click buttons with right and left tilt buttons, users simply lean their wrists to one side or the other to click links on their computer screens.

The mouse tilt buttons are positioned at different angles to ensure that the intended button is clicked. The left tilt button clicks at approximately 45 degrees while the right tilt button can be clicked at 20 degrees. Wireless by design, Allin comes with an accompanying magnetic charger that provides the mouse with enough charge to last through the workday.

Primarily designed for amputees and for those who struggle to use computer desktop and laptop mouses, Allin is ergonomically designed to fit every human’s natural wrist movement. Allin is a supplemental computer accessory that can be partnered with any laptop or desktop computer to ease the physical strain that comes with working at a keyboard all day.

Designer: Designer Dot

The magnetic charger provides Allin with the battery necessary for its wireless function.

Embedded technology reconceptualizes the inner workings of traditional computer mouses.

With a minimal outer surface, Allin can adapt to any brand of computer or laptop.

Allin is envisioned in matte black, off-white, blush pink, and lemon yellow.

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Village welcomes 310 new micro-homes to its community designed and built for formerly unhoused people!

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Community First! Village’s Tiny Victories 2.0 rollout welcomes 310 new micro-homes to the bustling community designed and constructed for unhoused individuals.

In East Austin, Texas, the Community First! Village is comprised of 230 micro-homes designed, constructed, and priced for unhoused individuals. Developed and run by Texas nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Community First! Village started welcoming 310 new micro-homes designed and built by award-winning architecture firm Chioco Design. Created for unhoused individuals to find security and comfort in the community, the rollout of new micro-homes, also called Tiny Victories 2.0, is the start of a new community.

Tiny Victories 2.0, orchestrated by Chioco architects, rolls out 200-square-foot micro-homes that strike the perfect balance of privacy, functionality, and personality. One of Community First! Village’s residents, Sheila, collaborated with Chioco Design to build her micro-home with all three aforementioned elements in mind. To incorporate enough privacy into the small living space, the architects purposefully offset the home’s interior construction to achieve privacy through wall partitions and interior design elements.

Exposed framing walls are perhaps the most distinctive interior design element in the home, adding built-in storage options for momentos like family photographs and heirlooms. Shelving units are built into the exposed framing walls throughout the micro-home to create storage space without compromising the tiny living space. Outside, Sheila can find privacy in the micro-homes small front porch or screened-in patio.

The exterior of the micro-homes that make up Tiny Victories 2.0 find low-maintenance and long-lasting siding in stucco and corrugated metal facades, giving each home a modern profile. Each tiny home also comes with two entrances for micro-homes that are replicated and positioned in opposing solar orientations.

Jamie Chioco, a founding architect at the firm, says of the offset layout, “We created separate living and sleeping areas by offsetting the plan elements in hopes of fostering a greater sense of privacy with multiple rooms.” Like many residents of Community First! Village, Sheila is eager to pass on the sense of community and support offered by Chioco Design and Mobile Loaves & Fishes.

Designers: Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Chioco Design

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This bamboo pavilion is an interactive design that transforms a rural landscape into a social hub!

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Bamboo Pavilion by LIN Architecture is a rural construction project in Chongming that transformed an empty grassy landscape into a dynamic interactive hub in hopes of promoting socialization between visitors and residents alike.

Every big city has its quiet, eclectic, rural counterpart. Brooklynites take short train rides upstate to Hudson, where they visit flea markets for handcrafted goods and knitwear. Then, Los Angelenos drive east to find their zen and a few grassy hikes in Ojai.

In Shanghai, tourists and local residents escape the city heat for Chongming, a low-lying island brimming with sweeping nature preserves and thriving forests. Settling on one of several rural spaces in Chongming, the team from LIN Architecture developed an architectural structure called Bamboo Pavilion designed as a social hub for the island’s residents and visitors.

Relying on one of the strongest construction materials available, Bamboo Pavilion was realized by the architects from LIN, along with designers and students from across the globe, reinstating the Pavilion’s main purpose of bringing people from all walks of life together to share a moment interacting with artfully architectural spaces.

During the day, the Bamboo Pavilion reflects sunlight off its naturally glazed coat. Then, come dark, the Bamboo Pavilion glimmers with golden light from the inside, out, implying a sort of lantern in the night that shines for and attracts tourists filled with wanderlust.

Much of what makes rural construction projects so intriguing for designers and guests comes with the transformation of ‘empty’ space into ‘active’ space. LIN’s Bamboo Pavilion in Chongming turns to free-flowing shapes and lively jungle gym-like architecture to morph the island’s grassland into a hub of social activity and curiosity.

Turning a rural lot’s available space into an interactive architectural pavilion allows visitors to understand familiar landscapes in exciting, new ways. As the designers behind LIN put it, “Interactions between family members or strangers are realized by the space enticing people to break boundaries. People spend their time resting, talking, and transiting around this installation.”

Designer: LIN Architecture

LIN’s architectural vision was realized with the help of designers and students from across the globe!

During the day, the Bamboo Pavilion creates changing light blocks and shadows for a reflective, dynamic display.

From above, the Bamboo Pavilion evokes curiosity and wonder. 

Children and tourists alike can enjoy interacting with this rural landscape in new ways while socializing with one another. 

The post This bamboo pavilion is an interactive design that transforms a rural landscape into a social hub! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Dyson-inspired inclusive ticket machine adjusts its height, increasing convenience for its users!

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Coinvenience is an inclusive ticket machine design that incorporates adaptive light fixtures and a hydraulic rail system that adjusts the machine’s height to meet users where they are.

We don’t know how inconvenient ticket machines can be until we have to use one. In parking garages, when we don’t pull up close enough, ticket machines are impossibly out of reach and the glare of sunlight makes reading the screen on outdoor ticket machines hopeless. With a few random clicks, all we can do is hope we pressed the right buttons to avoid a ticket. Making it more convenient for everyone’s use, Coinvenience is a new ticket machine designed to adapt to changing daylight and heights to meet people where they are.

Inspired by the Dyson Tower Fan’s ingenious bladeless build, Coinvenience encases its ticket machine inside of a multifunctional metal shroud. Addressing the conventional ticket machine’s lack of adaptive lighting fixtures, Coinvenience is wrapped in a metal shroud that blocks sun glare from obstructing the machine’s main control display.

Additionally, the metal shroud features a toplight that turns on at night to ensure the ticket machine and display panel are always visible no matter the lack of daylight. Another key feature of Coinvenience is its adjustable height. The same metal shroud that protects the machine from sunlight glare keeps a hydraulic rail system that moves the ticket machine on a vertical plane to reach different heights.

Primarily designed as a project for Loughborough University, Coinvenience was designed by Harry Rigler, Katy Finch, Reuben Williams, Omar Alqasem, and Bianca Tartaglia who each shared the same vision of creating a ticket machine with its users at the heart of it. Following the university’s guidelines that required the design to operate on a strictly coin-based payment system and feature a non-touchscreen display panel, the team of student designers looked to inclusivity to give Coinvenience the edge it needed.

Designers: Harry Rigler, Katy Finch, Reuben Williams, Omar Alqasem, and Bianca Tartaglia

An introvert-friendly semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair that doubles as a private resting area for public spaces!

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‘Esc.’ is a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair designed to double as a resting space in public to get away from overpowering outdoor stimuli.

Nowadays, the world is at our fingertips–it can be hard to get away from it all, even for only a minute. Distractions come in the form of digital timelines, midday traffic, lunch rushes, and our own smartphones. Our minds and mental health could benefit from a moment’s rest. Realizing the need for a piece of furniture that could double as a place of respite in public spaces, student designer Toine Baert of Two One Design created ‘Esc.,’ a semi-enclosed chaise lounge chair.

Designed to provide people with a secluded resting area, ‘Esc.’ is essentially a chaise lounge chair that’s partly wrapped in an overhead umbrella-like awning. Baert felt inspired to create a private nook for the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) to look forward to when the stimuli of everyday life become too much. The overhead awning buffers any noise coming from outside to offer an acoustically, visually, and emotionally quiet hideaway inside. The awning can even be adjusted to varying positions to tread the spectrum between enclosed and semi-enclosed, offering anything between an open bench to a dark zone for sleeping. Made from 100% recycled PET felt and durable wood, ‘Esc.’ was made responsibly and built to last.

With upcoming generations giving more credence to the needs and stressors of mental health, design-focused industries are following suit. ‘Esc.’ was developed in part to showcase the ways that furniture can work as a conduit for change within the field of design, creating solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s obstacles.

Designer: Toine Baert x Two One Design

IKEA’s latest Paris project is a fleet of bike-driven sleeping capsules for people to nap in!

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Photo by Twitter user @tomsDlu

La Sieste is an outreach project from IKEA that makes up a fleet of cargo bikes that carry sleeping capsules for people to take naps in while cyclists cart them around the streets of Paris.

We could all use a nap. The pandemic has changed our relationship with sleep and many across the globe experience sleeping issues as a result of the quarantine. According to a SleepStandards study, 98% of people in the US have developed new sleep problems post-lockdown. Thankfully, we can always nap and IKEA’s got our back. Hitting the streets of Paris from August 30 to September 3, IKEA launched La Sieste, a fleet of cargo bikes that cart sleeping capsules with beds around the city where people can take power naps in before returning to work.

In the midst of semi-returning to the office, we’re tired. Today’s workspaces have moved to the home and the lack of certainty around when we’ll be fully returning to the office is hanging us in an exhausting limbo. This newfound lack of sleep across the globe seems to be both a cause and effect of lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic. Part-marketing strategy, part-wellness boost–IKEA’s La Sieste bike fleet will comprise of sleeping capsules outfitted with IKEA furnishings, such as a mattress, cushions, sheets, duvets, curtains, pillows, and bed frame. Nappers will have the option of blacking out their IKEA La Sieste capsule with heavy curtains or leaving the curtains pulled back for a brief, 30-minute micro-tour of the avenues in Paris.

When the itch for a nap comes, don’t yawn it away–take a trip around Paris in one of IKEA’s La Sieste sleeping capsules. Nappers will only have to post to their socials by mentioning @IKEAfrance on Instagram or tweeting @IKEA_france on Twitter with the hashtag #lasiesteIKEA. From there, a cyclist will slide into your DMs and confirm your nap before picking you up to catch some Zs.

Designer: IKEA

La Sieste will hit the streets of Paris on August 30 where they’ll remain until September 3.

Nappers will Catch be limited to 30-minute sleeping journeys.

Catch some Zs by tweeting @IKEA_france or mentioning @IKEAfrance on Instagram.