PREVIEW Frame #143 NOV/DEC by Frame

THE P O

THE NEXT SPACE ISSUE 143 NOV — DEC 2021

O U S CAMPUS

GEN-Z BEAUTY RETAIL

BX €22.95 DE €22.95 IT €24.90 CHF 33.00 UK £19.95 JP ¥3,570 KR WON 40,000

WORK AT HOME HOME AT WORK MULTISENSORY SPAS DORIS SUNG

Photo Andrea Ferrari | Styling Studiopepe | Ad García Cumini

Portraits of me. Kitchen: Maxima 2.2 | Design: R&D Cesar Home Elements: Dressup | Design: García Cumini

Milano • New York • Paris cesar.it

CONTENTS

Antoine Doyen

10 REPORTING Harare and Tokyo

FROM

15 BUSINESS OF DESIGN From the renewed appeal of live-work units to the rise of on-air retail

39 52

Ben Anders

IN PRACTICE

30 INTRODUCING Paris-based creative studio Paf Atelier

39 THE CLIENT Nasim Köerting, TOG’s head of design

46 WHAT I’VE LEARNED Birsel + Seck cofounder Bibi Seck

Emanuel Hahn

52 INFLUENCER Doris Sung, founder

and principal of DOSU Frame 143

60 QEEBOO Embracing the quirky and the curious

65 SPACES Offices go undercover as

cosy homes, beauty retail’s experimental future, the professionalization of gaming space, and more

114 FLORIM A new level of resistance

for ceramic surfaces Dirk Weiblen, courtesy of Linehouse

119 LEARNING LAB 120 The present – and future – of

the porous campus 138 What’s next for open-to-all education?

Marc Goodwin, courtesy of Hopkins Architects

Jonathan Leijonhufvud, courtesy of Open Architecture

120 160 IN NUMBERS Fibers Unsorted in facts

156

Contents

Zhicheng, Laufen and more

and figures

Alessandro Sorci, courtesy of Mutina

147 MARKET The latest moves from Flos,

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Colophon

COMMUNITY COLLEGE Exactly a year ago, I introduced my children here. I described the extent to which the pandemic had turned their lives upside down. They had to trade school desks for beds and sofas, attend classes online via Zoom and Teams, and ration their contact with classmates and teachers. Now, in large parts of the world, the pandemic seems to be under control. Children’s lives are on track to get back to the ‘old normal’. But in (higher) education, things seem to have changed forever. Virtual learning has been added to the menu for good – along with in-person meetings that focus on interaction and collaboration. This allows universities to greatly expand their reach, and students to not have to look for an expensive room in the city where their educational institution is located. That’s a win-win situation. As a result, campuses will prove to be too big and their facilities underused. The parallels with work are strong. WFH is also here to stay. The control of time and place has shifted from employers to employees. The latter have realized that they can be just as productive at home as in the office, thus saving valuable commuting time. Employers have found that their interests have not suffered as a result of all that working from home – which offers opportunities to save on the costs of accommodation. They’re wrestling with the question of who should come to the office when, and what the consequences will turn out to be for the role that the office plays. It’s evident that in many cases it will prove to be too big. A growing group of both educational institutions and employers are looking for the solution to their surplus of often unused space in porosity.

They’re opening up to the neighbourhood. In this issue’s Lab, we’ve mapped out which strategies are being used for this and what the consequences are for architects and interior designers. For example, institutions are opening up their sports halls, auditoriums and libraries to third parties. Schools are starting to make their buildings smaller and to distribute them across the city. And they’re activating the space between buildings, especially gardens and parks. Because you can concentrate better outside amid the greenery than inside. A democratization of space and culture is underway. For students and neighbourhood communities, educational facilities are evolving from spaces of instruction to places in which to interact. It’s up to interior designers to provide richly varied spatial experiences that appeal to a wide variety of users in this democratic landscape. When they go offline, it needs to be into an environment in which they can thrive.

Robert Thiemann Editor in chief P.S. Have you designed or commissioned a groundbreaking space? Submit it to the only spatial design awards programme with monthly and annual winners: the Frame Awards. Or send an e-mail to jury@frameweb.com to apply to be a juror.

Editorial

the new lighting family by stefan diez

midgard.com

BUSINESS OF DESIGN

we need to think about designing ‘work-ready’ homes Are we witnessing the arrival of an urbanely farmed future? Why decades-old live-work units are back in demand. How radio is reinvigorating retail. Could office cafeterias be out the door? Why big hotel brands are going local.

Who’s driving the growth of the subsistence city?

One of the most enduring images of the first months of the pandemic was that of empty supermarket shelves, a moment that highlighted the vulnerability of the supply chains that keep our cities nourished. ‘The pandemic is exposing our food system’s fragility,’ argued an editorial in The Guardian in March 2020, ‘a crucial warning in a world where other shocks – notably from climate change – will be heading our way.’ Urban agriculture is being widely touted as one response, and the basic premise is clearly appealing: cities can become self-sustaining entities, where their residents can eat healthy food grown within metropolitan borders. This will, in theory, reduce the carbon footprint of food transportation and storage while lowering the amount of rural land used for agriculture. How we might arrive at this urbanely farmed future, however, is far from

clear. The term ‘urban agriculture’ itself refers to a huge variety of projects currently capturing the attention of designers, planners and omnivores alike. In the UK, city farms have typically been places to pet a goat or a donkey, and perhaps to learn a thing or two about ‘real’ farms out in the countryside. Today, a new wave of sites has emerged that are producing food on small scales while continuing that legacy of education and community growth. Completed in 2021 to a design by local architecture firm Avoid Obvious, K-farm in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town is run by an NGO and features an aquaponic pool, a vertical farm installation, a rain shelter, an organic farm and a handsome steel-framed dodecagonal greenhouse. With its neatly landscaped and compact waterfront design, K-farm appears more as a pocket park than what

K-farm in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town, designed by Avoid Obvious, features an aquaponic pool, a vertical farm installation, a rain shelter, an organic farm and a dodecagonal greenhouse.

one might typically imagine as a farm. In both cases, the farms serve more as a proposition than a productive site; their agricultural output is tiny but their value is in inspiring the generations of urban farmers to come. Elsewhere, small-scale farms run by start-ups are focusing on hyper-efficient production of greens for local delivery. This new generation of farms, with their LEDs, glass cases and vertically stacked crops, tend to look like a blend of spaceship and fashion boutique. They also represent an interesting new frontier in urban typologies – the farms need to be centrally located, but don’t need to be street-facing or even on ground level. Canadian company Lufa recently opened a 15,000-m2 greenhouse on a Montreal rooftop that produces more than 11,000 kg of food – mainly tomatoes and aubergines – per

Business of Design

Scott Brooks, Imagennix

Design by Stefan Diez

Discover

THE NEW ER A OF LIGHTING Merging light and materiality, Plusminus introduces masterful new ways to delineate space. Tracing anairy outline, the fabric belt creates acontained area within an open layout, serving as an illuminated perimeter and a minimal presence.

IN PRACTICE

designers all come together for a single star: the user Paf Atelier on balancing effect and economy in scenography. The Office Group on why hospitality + sustainability + wellness = workplace. Bibi Seck on popularizing design in Senegal. Doris Sung on the human side of smart materials.

PA F INTRODUCING

ATELIER

In Practice

11h45

Five years on the clock and five creatives on staff: Paris-based Paf Atelier uses its young character and small size to bend with – and beard – both industry shift and client needs. Founded by architect Christopher Dessus, the creative studio specializes in event and exhibition scenography, combining design and production like they are two inseparable entities.

Words Floor Kuitert Portrait Antoine Doyen

How did Paf Atelier come about? What inspired you to start your own practice?

CHRISTOPHER DESSUS: I founded the studio in 2017 following an experience working as an exhibition producer at Villa Noailles during the 33rd Festival de la Mode et du Design and the Design Parade Toulon. It was after I studied architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure d’architecture de Versailles (ENSA) and in Montreal. The experience taught me about the small economics of scenography design, the beauty of production support and, above all, the satisfaction of producing quality scenographies in the company of other talents. As a scenographer you have to be very attentive to needs and find a humble place next to someone’s work. Combining my experience as an architect and the idea of production, Paf Atelier evolved very naturally.

How have you developed your business over the past years?

PREVIOUS SPREAD Architect Christopher Dessus (right) founded Paf Atelier – now a team of five that includes interior designer Romeo Degre (left) – in 2017. OPPOSITE For Paris-based emerging fashion designer Louis-Gabriel Nouchi’s show for Chinese brand Joeone held on the forecourt of Palais de Tokyo in Paris last June, Paf Atelier clad the catwalk in a reflective material. The set was produced in collaboration with La Mode en Images.

It hasn’t always been easy since there is a lot of competition and traditionally, architecture is about credibility, about seniority. But as a young and small studio we have the flexibility to reinvent ourselves, whether that’s in size or organization structure. Our projects have always been varied, covering sectors ranging from retail to entertainment, culture and interior design. Today there are five of us working in the studio and everyone has different sensibilities, coming from complementary training in architecture, object design and graphic design. We value a porosity between disciplines made possible through collaborations with actors from various creative fields. The number of projects is increasing, but we will always continue to further develop a creative language that is both identifiable and unique.

Introducing

What have been the biggest struggles you faced in setting up your practice and how did you overcome them? Creating an atelier focused on scenography and interior architecture is not an easy choice. They are skills that tend to be seen as a project’s ‘annex’. Why call a scenographer at all? It’s thanks to clients who placed their trust in us that we were able to design spaces in which scenography plays an essential role. They prove the value of our profession and our way of looking at things.

Your studio aims to question the conditions of architectural practice, from creation to production. Can you explain in what way?

For each project, the story we want to convey is always the starting point, but what’s happening ‘on the ground’ plays an equally important role. We start talking about production design from the very start. We offer a complete service, adapted to the specific needs of each client. We take care of all stages of the process: from planning, research, interior, object and furniture design, to montage and construction. To work sustainably, we try to bring design and production more closely together, from the choice of materials to the way a project is assembled. It’s unthinkable to us to simply toss away a set after it’s been used and not think about its ‘afterlife’. We try to produce in more responsible ways by asking ourselves questions about reversibility and disassembly, but also by surrounding ourselves with people that have knowledge about the field of ecology. We attach great importance to the study of the context and the territory of a project by adopting a responsible, ethical and sustainable approach. Our recent projects exemplify this approach. We look at the sites

THE CLIENT

NASIM KÖERTING The Office Group

In Practice

David Vintiner

‘Workspace has become a desirable thing to design’ 39

Nasim Köerting, head of design at TOG, shares how design helps differentiate her company from other flex space providers, what she likes about working with stubborn creatives, and why all entrepreneurs should be looking to other genres of space for their cues.

As told to Riya Patel

NASIM KÖERTING: The pandemic has slowed things down a lot for businesses, and for us as well. Pre-pandemic we were looking at expanding quite quickly and now we’re being adventurously cautious. My personal view of what to look for in a new location is whether the market is vibrant. Are there a lot of small businesses, opportunities and larger corporations? Is there vibrancy, movement of business and growth? We’ve been looking at Ireland for example, which is an upcoming market. And at Paris and cities in the US. A lot of decision making is about how the city is performing. Then we strategically look at areas within a city. We’ll look at location, transport and other details to make sure that it’s the right commercial decision for us. When it comes to the building, we as a design team make sure there is an abundance of natural light because we know that is super important for wellbeing, and that’s what clients are asking us for. We also look for memorable architectural features. The quirks and lovely things that mean the bones of the building are good. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to make an impact where there are already beautiful architectural details and gestures. Sometimes we’ll go so far as to look at the history of the site. And read up on that to see what kind of story the building has. We match the designer to the building. We see it, analyse it and match up aesthetic styles. If it’s a classical building, we need a designer that can respect its heritage. For other buildings, we immediately have a designer in mind. Like Note Design Studio, which we know is going to push us and take us somewhere new. An acquisition of a building can take years. So, we can have a lot of time to think about it and research the right architect. But honestly other times we’ve had a couple of months. It’s so varied, but that’s the fun challenge of it as well. Ultimately, we want designers that are willing to push boundaries. That’s what we really look for. A key thing for me is attention to design detail. I’m looking for someone who will never stop. From the first sketch to when we’re styling the building together hand in hand. I want someone who’s just as passionate about every single process, almost like they’re stubborn – but in a good way. Every day we research new collaborators. It’s a huge part of my job and one I really love. Working with incredible thinkers from around the world and finding work we love and connect with. Recently we started working with Studio David Thulstrup, which is a dream come true for me. I also come from a design background,

I was an interior architect before. We also have an in-house design team, which works with these external designers. Holistically we understand the value of design and that’s why we’re able to produce such epic buildings. Designers like to work with us, they can be open with us and take risks. Workspace has become a desirable thing to design. Which is a nice space for us to be in. When we approach different studios, they can see we value design. We see design as a real differentiator between us and other flex space providers. Each one of our buildings is different. It’s our point of interest, it’s the reason people come to us. Sixteen years ago the founders were some of the first to use design and leverage it to show a different way of working. They took a lot of their inspiration from hospitality. They didn’t necessarily spend a lot of money but they saw the impact of good design and they were some of the first to do so in the flex space market. Prior to that it was more serviced offices, more cookie cutter, quite corporate. But they managed to tap into a market of people who wanted to do things differently and we haven’t stopped since. We’ve realized it’s a key differentiator, it’s super valuable, and we are just running with it. Staying competitive is a lot about research. When we look for inspiration, we don’t look at other workspaces. We look at hospitality and what people are doing in the fields of sustainability and wellness. That’s what will make us different among design-led office providers. You need to be looking at different genres of space, that’s where the spark of difference comes from. Hospitality moves so quickly and is experimenting all the time. Workplaces are a lot slower. I think everybody should be looking to other genres of space for their cues. Spaces that are inclusive and welcoming to all people. That’s what we’re studying and researching at the moment. We’re considering our shower rooms that could serve people with different hair types if they had adjustable showerheads rather than a rainfall one. Even things like air temperature, designing for different levels of comfort between men and women. Design has a huge part to play in this. It’s also about context. What kind of area is the building in, and what is important to that area? We very much design for the location. We understand a building in east London is going to look very different to a building in west London

In Practice

Ben Anders

For Brock House in London’s West End, TOG collaborated with Soda Studio to restore as many of the building’s original features as possible.

Bi Bi

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

SECK

In Practice

Bibi Seck, cofounder of studio Birsel + Seck and founder of Senegal studio-laboratory Dakar Next, explains how colonization has impacted the concept of design across Africa, what love affairs have in common with client relationships, and why design in general shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

As told to Polina Bachlakova Portraits Djibril Drame

BIBI SECK: I often say: what’s the difference between artists and designers? Artists solve problems for themselves. But designers solve problems for others. I’ve been a designer for over 20 years now, and I started in the automotive industry at Renault. You cannot imagine how beneficial this has been for me. I gained good experience in manufacturing products – ranging from a simple symbol in the dashboard to seats intended to be covered with various materials. And I learned to work in a team – which is essential for successful creations in the life of a designer. We all come together for a single star: the user. Throughout my career, I’ve also learned that when you fail, it’s because you didn’t understand the needs of the client in the first place. Thinking upstream is integral to solving problems; in other words, it’s necessary to integrate the client as early as possible when developing a project. When it comes to their expectations, clients always have a head start on designers. They master their subject and come to us with preliminary studies that are full of useful information. And remember: your client already knows that you know how to generate ideas. That’s why they hired you! So, you don’t need to show your client a thousand ideas. You need one good idea, and the best way to get there is to work closely with your client. That’s where empathy comes in. At Birsel + Seck – the design and innovation studio I cofounded with my wife, Ayse Birsel – part of our signature touch is having a keen sense of empathy for the user. We need to put ourselves in their shoes to understand what’s essential. Large companies are all interested in innovation and undeniably include it in their charters. But I learned that it is more difficult to move an elephant than a community of elephants. When you come up with an idea that’s completely brand new, your client may remain skeptical. That’s because they want to wait until their competitors get this idea, too. After all: if their opponents like this idea, then it must be a good one! But when your client is all alone and has to bet

What I’ve Learned

DO RIS SU NG

INFLUENCER

Moving matters

As environmental and social crises continue to rear their ugly heads, the calls for new approaches to sustainability and equity grow. The most effective solutions don’t all rely on the latest technological advances. Pulling from her training in biology, Los Angeles-based Doris Sung, founder and principal of DOSU Studio Architecture, has dedicated her career to finding architectural applications for self-sufficient smart materials that better respond to nature and human needs.

Words Adrian Madlener Portraits Emanuel Hahn

Talk about your background. How were you able to combine biology and architecture in establishing your studio?

DORIS SUNG: I initially decided to study biology to go into a pre-med programme, but over time realized I was more interested in the visual arts. I took architecture classes as a way to differentiate myself and mastered drafting, which gave me entry into the field. After graduating, I chose not to go to medical school and instead started working for a range of large and small firms. I learned the trade while on the job. Eventually, I decided to open my own practice, but with the turn of the 21st century, became obsessed with climate issues and began to shift gears. The more I tried to figure out how architecture could be sustainable, the more frustrated I got. The industry wasn’t playing the game yet. Looking at how automotive companies started developing hybrids and now electric cars, I realized that the crux of the problem was performance, not in the sense of speed, but rather in terms of efficiency. For architecture, this meant looking beyond the limited and outdated materials that were available. My goal was to explore how building products could change. My studio moved from a client-based model to a research-based practice in which I could fully dedicate myself to exploring this issue. Moving into teaching gave me the time and financial freedom to pursue this new focus.

My background in biology helped inform this new approach, especially as I began to uncover the inherent physiology and physics of smart materials. Architecture gave me the foundation to translate these investigations into new tangible solutions.

What led you to your discovery of thermal bimetals, the composite that has become the core of your practice with projects such as InVert Auto-Shading Windows, SelfShading and Self-Ventilating projects? Architecture is often too static. Even though our environment is constantly changing – our sun moves all day, wind patterns fluctuate, temperatures go up and down – our buildings remain exactly the same. We often construct them to withstand the worst-case scenarios but they end up over-performing when it comes to energy consumption and responding to nuances in the weather outside. A material like thermal bimetal contains properties that allow it to kinetically react to temperature change. It requires no additional energy or human interaction. This industrially produced, layered composite is normally used as thermostat coils that ensure an exact temperature reading. I thought it would be interesting to see how this material and its embodied chemical reaction could be harnessed as an exposed architectural surface. It was a big leap in terms of having to

In Practice

scale up the material. I began by seeing how smaller pieces could make up a larger whole. With my preliminary Self-Ventilating project, I realized how important it was to calibrate the right pattern of the cut-out shapes. Working with Los Angeles’s rich aerospace industry, I was able to use precise laser-cutting tools and determine how best to guide the material’s reaction to climate. InVert Auto-Shading Windows is the latest iteration of this exploration and demonstrates the progress we’ve made in achieving precision. This architectural element, which is already being installed as part of building façades in different construction projects, facilitates a more nuanced, natural and harmonious form of ventilation and shading. The cut-out motif curls up and down depending on different conditions.

These products don’t require any additional digital automation or controls. Why is this so advantageous? At DOSU Studio Architecture, we talk a lot about how we program the pieces simply by the shapes we choose to work with. We don’t insert a chip and connect it to an external remote or panel. For us, it’s about taming the material’s behaviour. We’ve figured out what specific compositions and geometries accommodate the best performance. Biological structures like fish scales, tentacles or skin are crucial reference points in this regard. Nature helps

Derek Greene

Made primarily out of a ‘smart’ thermobimetal and composed of 414 hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped stacked panels, Bloom is a suntracking instrument indexing time and temperature.

SPACES

buildings need to practise what they preach Why workplaces are replacing fun and flashy with cosy and comfortable. Gen Zers change the face of beauty retail. The rise in spaces for sustainability education. Multisensory spas reach new extremes. Gaming gets dragged out of the basement.

LOOK BOOK

work

In each issue we identify a key aesthetic trend evident in our archive of recent projects and challenge semiotics agency Axis Mundi to unpack its design codes. Here, we look at how the intimate atmosphere of home and hotel-like environments is being adopted by workspaces. 66

Words Colette Sensier and Rosamund Picton Spaces

Dirk Weiblen

home

José Hevia

Stefan Wolf Lucks

Spaces

After months of remote working – and in the wake of the subsequent Great Resignation – workspaces face an intensifying need for knowledge workers to actively choose to inhabit them. Already evolved past Office Space’s conforming cubicles and fluorescent, blinding clarity, these spaces are also shedding the maximalist, Google-style ‘fun’ aesthetic framing workers as excitable children or artists. Now, the dominant metaphor equating knowledge workers with labourers or artisans has been hollowed out by flexible, distributed, digital remote work. Third-space signifiers such as communal benches, exposed infrastructure and faux-industrial cues feel increasingly quaint. Instead, new workspaces resemble the pandemic’s true sites of knowledge work: the ‘domestic cosy’ of a comfortable home, and intuitive, welcoming online interfaces. Workers are tempted by human welcome, not identity affirmation. With muted but rich elemental tones, diverse textures and generous plant presence, this aesthetic speaks to the atavistic definition of home as a site of social shelter. As in UX design’s movement from hyperactive hypermodernity into tactile naturality, we see in these spaces papery pastels and skin-like surfaces, rounded button-like shapes, microinteraction opportunities, anthropomorphic shapes and distorted or translucent textures mirroring glassmorphic design. Cosy rugs bearing rounded chairs or barstools also make the physical sites of screen-work into places of ambient organic protection. Curved corridors leading into circular spaces echo the soft radiance and friendly serif fonts of recent DTC brands. Mouth-shaped curvilinear forms in burgundy leather or Millennial-pink vinyl recall the vulnerabilities and potentialities of human permeability.

Hints of a home’s kitchens and bathrooms appear in tiled or half-tiled walls and tiled desks, meeting-room sinks, delicate blinds, pot plants and Miesian latticed walls that cue onsen-style relaxation. ‘Oxygen rooms’ powered by diaphanous plant life suggest an everlasting, symbiotic energy. These references to diverse activity, both in nature and in a human’s daily experience, promise in the face of the climate crisis that all of Earth’s elements, including water, are welcome, acceptable, and survivable here. Rough-stained paintwork and retained and reusable materials offer evidence of the building as a living, ageing thing. There is still work to be done here, worlds to be rebuilt. The textures of carpet fabric, stained wood and home appliance-style sheets of metal suggest a home’s collection over time, providing a variability that lets workers navigate and recall the phenomenology of distinct spaces as intuitively as they explore the metaverse or the mountains. Stripes, squiggles and interrupted trails, frenzied unpatternable marble surfaces, distorting glass walls, and curved or sharply angular dividers suggest non-linear development based on desire and curiosity rather than efficiency. These workspaces are neither new nor final: unafraid to show that they occupy a temporal position within the buildings’ narratives of use. Shedding the inelasticity of the built environment in favour of natural-digital yielding and manipulability, they provide a flexible, empathetic shelter in an unstable world, where humans can explore lateral and potentially surprising futures.• axis-mundi.co

OPPOSTIE Sony Music headquarters by Studio Karhard in Berlin, Germany. PREVIOUS SPREAD LEFT Bestseller office by Linehouse in Shanghai, China. PREVIOUS SPREAD RIGHT SVD headquarters by A.P.O in Barcelona, Spain.

Look Book

Feng Shao

RETAIL

gen

z beauty Gen Zers – or ‘Zoomers’ – are changing the face of beauty retail, seeking experimentation, experience and education when they visit cosmetics and skincare stores.

The retro-futuristic Hangzhou location of independent skincare brand Formoral takes the shape of a ‘desert planet’ – a.k.a. an otherworldly space by Lialawlab.

Born between 1996 and 2008, the ‘Zoomer’ generation has lived through countless beauty trends (Sharpie eyebrows and mega-contoured faces to name a few), with unlimited access to tutorials and selfie inspiration from socialmedia influencers. Both, undoubtedly, are factors that contribute to their willingness to experiment. And that readiness to try new ways of self-representation is what Marina Mansour, head of beauty partnerships at Gen-Z media company Kyra, calls a main driver of beauty purchases for the group. Where does that leave spatial design in this retail sector, when e-commerce is so threatening the physical shop? Bright-lit aisles of lipsticks in every colour, perfumes in every scent and foundations in every shade simply won’t do anymore. Getting consumer loyalty from the young beauty shopper today – at least in the brick-and-mortar world – requires much more than an abundance of products alone. According to Allied Market Research, the global beauty market is expected to reach a value of $463.5 billion by 2027. Kyra’s 2021 Gen Z State of Beauty report notes that it is rapid growth largely steered by the generation’s purchasing power. It’s why the past two years have seen an influx in experiential beauty stores that prioritize consumer learning. For the generation,

there is increased awareness and care about ingredient efficacy, supply-chain transparency and inclusive marketing and manufacturing. With TikTok, Instagram and YouTube at their disposal, the Gen Zer has myriad ways to vet products, making sure they meet these standards. As Lucie Greene, founder of consultancy Light Years, told The New York Times: ‘Their intellectual take on beauty is divorced from the millennial idea, which is Instagram filter, having the perfect lip and looking like an idealized beauty.’ Brands need to acknowledge the death of this ‘one-size-fits-all beauty ideal’, as communications agency Wunderman Thompson dubs it. And stores should reflect the ‘skinclusivity’ shift: breakout areas that accommodate the need for product knowledge and tailored advice for all users convey a retailer’s investment in the idea. Wunderman Thompson has reported on brands like Unilever and Bend Beauty, which are dropping the terms ‘normal’ and ‘anti-aging’ to make customers feel more comfortable in their own skin. This thinking, naturally, has to trickle down into the design – merchandising, signage and visual campaigns often play a central role in the spaces of big-box retailers. But what good is a well-designed store if consumers don’t feel welcome there?

LEARNING

Marc Goodwin

environmental education

As the climate crisis compounds, spaces for learning about sustainability are appearing outside of the traditional education sphere, with their messages built into their bones.

Inspired by urchin exoskeletons, the pods that form the Khor Kalba Turtle and Wildlife Sanctuary in UAE are made from pre-fabricated concrete to minimize disruption to the existing terrain.

In August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its sixth climate change assessment, a report eight years in the making, and major newspaper headlines attempted to convey the severity of the findings with terms like ‘irreversible’, ‘code red’ and ‘urgency’. But a sense of urgency surrounding educating the wider public on the topic is reportedly lacking. According to the results of two NPR/ Ipsos polls, the vast majority of teachers in the US support the teaching of climate change in schools but aren’t actually teaching it. The most common answer to why was ‘because it’s outside their subject area’. It’s clear that more educational touchpoints for climate change-related topics

are needed – not just in schools, where curriculums are prescribed, nor just for children, but everywhere and for all. Quality Education is not only one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – but contributes to many of the 17, from educating food suppliers about more sustainable agriculture (Goal 2: Zero Hunger) to teaching designers, engineers, urban planners and developers how to build resilient infrastructure (Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). The relationship between education and the SDGs – and the importance of adult education in contributing to a more sustainable future in general – is outlined in an April 2021 publication by the

WALK THE SUSTAINABILITY TALK It’s nonsensical for institutions espousing environmental education to disregard the environment themselves. From their design to production process and beyond, such spaces should take as many sustainability avenues as possible, potentially even experimenting with new methods and materials.

Alongside aquariums, the Khor Kalba Turtle and Wildlife Sanctuary includes exhibition areas, veterinary facilities, classrooms and a café.

European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA). ‘Non-formal learning can empower adults and equip them with the knowledge and confidence to connect citizenship with sustainability and social justice with climate justice,’ writes the publication’s author, Jana Ahlers. ‘A mature and well-informed and educated citizenry is at the core of sustainable development, whatever shape it takes.’ Sustainability-related educational content and the buildings for delivering it can take many shapes, too. Learning spaces are cropping up in China, the UAE and beyond to cover topics such as wildlife conservation, green energy production, agricultural robotics and indoor vertical farming. That last subject became newly important and appealing during lockdowns – particularly in urban environments, where outdoor space is limited – when food supply chains became disrupted (see p. 16). Spaces for environmental education are also rethinking what learning environments can be: not walled institutions filled with formal classrooms, but open, inclusive and welcoming places that just happen to have a key educational purpose. When it comes to

Spaces

design, these qualities are often expressed through interiors that are filled with natural light and/or maintain strong visual connections with their exterior surroundings – which, particularly in conservation-related education spaces, may just be the area of immediate concern. (There’s something incredibly powerful about actually seeing what you’re trying to protect, a factor strikingly expressed by Snøhetta in Under, a submarine restaurant on the Norwegian coastline that doubles as a marine-life research centre.) The metaphorical transparency expected of such facilities is often translated literally, too, with translucent or open-grid façades. Most importantly, buildings built for this purpose need to practise what they preach. In other words, they have to be sustainable themselves, whether through soft-touch architecture that doesn’t disturb the land, fully recyclable materials or the incorporation of passive-design principles. Here we showcase three learning spaces championing sustainability through both their message and makeup. TI

Wildlife conservation

Perched on the water’s edge in one of the Gulf ’s most biodiverse nature reserves, the UAE’s Khor Kalba Turtle and Wildlife Sanctuary has an added function as an educational facility to increase environmental awareness and engagement with conservation programmes. Hopkins Architects designed seven prefabricated concrete structures to minimize the building’s impact on the sensitive site. To protect the interiors from the desert’s high temperatures and reduce the overall operational energy required, passive design principles were employed during the construction process. hopkins.co.uk

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space

Charlie Xia, courtesy of Planet One and Coordination Asia

gaming

Casting off its association with dark basements and clunky consoles, gaming has evolved into a global phenomenon that earns more than the film and music industries combined. In response, designers and brands are transforming spaces for gaming into lifestyle hubs that blur the line between digital and physical.

Over the past few years, the gaming industry has flourished. Expected to grow by 9.64 per cent annually over the next five years, it will be worth a whopping $314.4 billion by 2026. How did we get here? On the one hand, gaming has smoothly merged with consumer technology. We increasingly expect apps and experiences to be gamified, whether we’re seeing the latest VR film or amassing badges on language learning apps. On the other hand, brands from prestige industries have recognized that if you get a foot in the gaming door, a juicy reward awaits in terms of a target market. JWT Intelligence calls them the ‘unreachables’: digitally savvy Gen Zers and millennials with a decent income and an aversion to traditional advertising and media channels. In a move that’s logical for an entertainment company, Netflix recently announced an extension into video games. And even fashion has its eye on the industry. In December 2020, Balenciaga launched its fall 2021 collection via ‘Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow’, a videogram set in 2031, while in 2021 Gucci debuted Gucci Garden, a virtual exhibition that lives inside gaming platform Roblox. But perhaps the biggest tipping point for gaming comes from the meteoric rise of esports: multiplayer video games played competitively by pro gamers and streamed for fans around the world to watch. By the end of 2020, 495 million people had tuned in to watch gamers battle it out. Since 1998, the number of professional esports athletes has grown by over 40 per cent annually. The earnings match, if not exceed, what professional athletes earn in some of the world’s biggest sports industries: To date, the world’s top 100 esports players have each earned over $1 million playing competitively. Esports were born from internet-café culture. In the late 1990s, players would convene in little shops that provided them with dark rooms, an endless flow of coffee and ultra-

high-speed internet connections to satisfy their streaming needs. But now that esports have gone professional, players’ spaces must move in the same direction. Players need amenities that will enable them to perform at their best: to maintain their stamina, connect with fans and train in spaces that nurture their skills and razor-sharp focus. With that in mind, how will spaces for professional gaming transform to fluidly meet gamers’ physical and mental needs? How will brands hungry for a slice of the gaming pie stake a presence in these spaces? And how will spatial design transform to reflect gamers’ increasingly influential role in mainstream culture – and vice versa? In Moscow, architecture bureau Arch(e)type offers a glimpse at a stylish and functional future for professional gaming spaces with InvasionUniverse, a 500-m2 gaming lounge composed of three distinct zones. There’s a gaming room for the players, a room where VIP guests can watch, and a lounge where players and their friends can spend some downtime. The three areas have rather unique names: stage, auditorium and lobby, terminology that comes from the theatre world. ‘In our research phase, we realized that the esports experience is very similar to that in a theatre,’ says Daria Belyakova, Arch(e)type’s CEO. ‘In esports, there are performers on stage, too, and people watching them. Thus, the theatre became our overall concept.’ InvasionUniverse also nods to the quiet luxury and symbolism of the theatre through colour – deep red, black and grey – and design details. The lobby, for example, features thin, tall panels that flank the windows to add a dramatic element to what’s apparently a popular Russian gamer pastime: vaping. ‘That way, the clouds of smoke that gamers exhale become divided by sharp beams of light.’ The stage includes more details that elevate the gaming experience into a mature and stylish statement. Take the gaming computers: instead of leaving them as they are – transparent boxes »

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FRAME LAB

schoolyard fences are coming down in cities As the relevance of physical campuses in education is called into question, their role in the urban fabric is being redefined. Filled with facilities that can benefit more than just the student body, they can assume a more prominent and meaningful role in their surrounding communities. Over the following pages, we explore the present – and future – of the porous campus. Learning

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POROUS CAMPUS

Jonathan Leijonhufvud, courtesy of Open Architecture and the Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School

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In recent years, we’ve reported on several workspaces becoming – or attempting to become – more porous, opening up to the wider community of non-staffers through events, communal areas, F&B offerings and more. Some are trying to dismantle their selfconstructed ivory towers, others are sharing resources to split costs, and still others are adding another level of dynamism and energy to their establishments in a bid to answer the modern-day quandary: If you can work from anywhere, why come to a physical workspace? Why are we talking about workspaces in an education special? Because the typologies are experiencing many of the same predicaments. Why go to a classroom when you can study online? What’s the role of the physical campus in an increasingly digital world? We’re therefore not surprised to see education projects follow the porous-office suit. No longer closed-off campuses for students alone, many are unlocking their gates to welcome the surrounding community. They’re also looking to promote more porosity across campus, reducing the silo effect that results from discretely classifying disciplines and age groups. These moves prompt new questions: How can education facilities best serve their students and the greater public? How can design help to create connections in porous campuses? Here, we examine the porous campus from three angles to highlight how fostering community, prioritizing flexibility and looking in between interiors will be crucial to the concept going forward.

Words Tracey Ingram

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Wu Qingshan

At the Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School by Open Architecture, the gym is just one of the facilities accessible to a wider public after hours.

community for After a period of extreme distance, it’s encouraging to see a renewed focus on sharing and togetherness on campuses. 122

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One thing we realized from taking part in the world’s largest isolation trial? Human beings are inherently social creatures. The ongoing question of why students should pay often bank-breaking fees to attend colossal campuses when they can learn from anywhere was all the more pertinent during the pandemic, when students still had to pay said fees while unable to visit campuses at all. It turns out some things are priceless, and physically being part of a community is one of them. ‘While transitioning to virtual learning has proven successful for some students and for some types of course material, hands-on learning, soft skills, and connection to classmates and course material have been more difficult to translate to learning at home,’ write Meghan Webster, Patricia Nobre, Mark Thaler and Nathan Kim in an article for Gensler. ‘Many schools and institutions saw the pandemic actually elevate the importance of human interaction, further underscoring place and community as a core value proposition. Central to the campus experience, the value-add of place and community will evolve in a post-pandemic world.’ Much of the discussion surrounding community-building on campuses is limited to students. Perhaps rightly so. But what if forging better connections with the locals beyond classroom doors could be mutually beneficial? After all, education isn’t a solitary, siloed endeavour. ‘As the members of communities enrich themselves with knowledge, they apply it to their daily lives, transforming their environments and benefiting the community around them. In this way learning facilities are intrinsically connected to their communities whether they aim to be or not,’ says Bernardo Quinzaños, CEO and design principal of Mexico-based Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica (CCA), whose interest in porous architecture has led to the design of spaces that catalyse connection in underprivileged areas. ‘When learning facilities actively try to strengthen their bond with their communities,

they can unleash a greater potential – which is why education spaces must be connected to their communities by design.’ Although closed-off campuses have been on the way out for decades in places like Denmark, there’s now a more conscious shift in this direction. ‘Lately, we have become less afraid of breaking down barriers in a school context in a very literal way,’ says Eva Ravnborg, partner and project director at Henning Larsen. ‘Schoolyard fences are coming down

‘When learning facilities actively try to strengthen their bond with their communities, they can unleash a greater potential’

in cities to make room for shared space.’ Connecting to the wider community isn’t as simple as flinging open the doors, however. For security reasons, many institutions are closed to the public when school is in session, making after hours the only option to play the porosity card. In such cases, evenings, weekends and term breaks become opportunities for campuses to offer their services to the public – and to presumably generate some extra income in the process, which can be reinvested in the campus and its students. Li Hu, founding partner of Open Architecture, likens the approach to a timeshare between the school and the city. This way of thinking – which makes more efficient use of public resources and contributes to the community at large – is a better future model for campus design, believes Hu. Open’s recently completed Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School, a facility for 2,000 students aged from 3 to 15, concretizes these ideas with a library, theatre, pool and gym that are accessible to a wider public after hours. »

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MARKET

emotion is important in the virtual sphere Flos pays homage to history. Zhicheng taps into e-commerce to bring better rest to the world. Laufen takes the bathroom space online. Imat revolutionizes recycled yarns with a mixedfibre solution.

ANDREU WORLD ADELA REX Philippe Starck’s first collaboration with Andreu World, the sculptural Adela Rex arm- and lounge chairs are crafted utilizing a special mould. Rendered in oak and walnut plywood, the pieces have a low carbon footprint and each component can be recycled after use. To personalize the seats, clients can select from a wide range of fabric and leather upholstery.

Salva Lopez

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ARPER KATA Displaying a marriage of traditional handicraft and ‘soft’ technology, Kata is the first-ever solid-wood lounge chair offered by Arper. The sustainabilityminded Altherr Désile Park-designed seat takes reference from artisanal wood and woven straw chairs, reworking their timeless silhouettes through contemporary, eco-friendly methods. Kata sports an oak and black locust, FSC-certified wooden frame, and tailor-made 3D-knit textile upholstery. arper.com

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ECOBIRDY RICHARD Part of the RoGuiltlessPlastic exhibition curated by Rossana Orlandi during Milan Design Week, the Richard armchair by EcoBirdy raises awareness about plastic waste originating from household trash. Design duo Vanessa Yuan and Joris Vanbriel envisaged a set suited for indoor or outdoor and private or public use – Richard is accompanied by Judy, a side table. ecobirdy.com

Arne Jennard

VIBIA PLUSMINUS Dissect the name of Stefan Diez and Vibia’s latest collaboration and you’ll find synonyms for addition and subtraction, referring to the way the product’s various light sources can be easily attached or removed from the customizable system. Plusminus’s support structure and electrical conductivity are both hidden in a specially developed fabric strap, to which users can intuitively clip lamps to achieve the desired effect. vibia.com

MARSET IHANA Ihana, a lighting collection designed by Finnish architect Joanna Laajisto for Marset, comprises a series of opal-blown glass diffusers. These curvaceous forms contrast with the linear metal structures they stem from – each of the supports can be extended to incorporate up to 14 luminaires, and different sizes are available. Ihana also boasts dim-to-warm technology for adjusting lighting to any scenario. marset.com

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IN RECYCLE MODE Due to the impurity of typical

clothing materials – most garments are made from fibre blends of different qualities – only a small percentage can be reused. Together with a group of partners, Imat decided to tackle the issue. Whereas recycled yarns are typically made after sorting fibres into their respective types – wool or polyester, for instance – Imat’s is made of mixed fibres. To launch the yarn, the development and engineering company tapped Envisions to suggest possible applications for its use. Words Tracey Ingram

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kilograms of carbon can be saved by producing 1 kilogram of recycled yarn compared with the equivalent of virgin polyester or cotton yarn

4 Ronald Smits

per million tonnes of textile waste are created every year, only 12 per cent of which is reused

25,000

R&D hours are behind the development of Imat’s mixed-fibre yarn

30+

textile experiments were created by Envisions to explore the beauty of the yarn’s grey colour

fields – automotive, furniture, interiors and fashion – offer suitable applications for Fibers Unsorted textiles imat-uve.de envisions.nl

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In Numbers