ArchiExpo e-Magazine company News and Trends items

While it’s widely used for foundation work, architects and designers have been putting the material to the test in furniture design and facade construction. As sustainability and ecology become more important, we zoom in on concrete as an ecological material and its use in various sustainable projects. How great is it and can we find new ways to make it even better? I...

Inside one of them, Gravelli—a local brand with global reach—makes everything from furniture to washbasins to jewelry, all from concrete. It was six years ago in Prague when co-founders Ladislav Eberl and Jiří Peters met. At the time, they were both students. Eberl was studying dental hygiene; Peters was studying building structure in the Czech Technical University’s ...

Intersecting black lines on the white walls, floor and ceiling break up a symmetrical space to generate the illusion of irregularity. “In any major city, a post-industrial arts space is very understandable, so we wanted that familiarity and comfort, but also something that would linger in the memory,” said architect Peter Zuspan, a founding principal at Bureau V. “Whe...

“This is the only place where I go to reboot,” said Paul Bennett, chief creative officer at award-winning global design firm IDEO, during his talk entitled Feeling Our Future. The theme of this year’s DesignTalks during Iceland’s three-day DesignMarch event was Survival: save the planet and save ourselves. As agents of change, designers play an important role in deter...

The exhibit provided a resource for indoor, outdoor, industrial and specialty lighting, but most of the focus was on indoor designs for homes and public spaces. ArchiExpo caught up with several designers and editors to discuss how traditional materials and techniques continue to generate innovation, and how new technologies, and evolving safety and environmental regulat...

Indeed this year’s event sent steady vibes of positivity, and the streets of Milan once again welcomed international and local design seekers who could be nothing but enthusiastic. ArchiExpo e-Magazine toured the fair and the city to discover the latest goings-on. We spoke to the most celebrated Czech designers, discovered a number of young talents in the exhibition Salo...

But in recent years a quiet design revolution has swept across the country. Despite the fact that it has only been possible to study industrial design in Uruguay for a little over a decade, local designers are now taking home international awards and expanding beyond neighboring Brazil, its main market and into the rest of the world. Yet industrial design is almost an...

At home, my well-being is central. To an increasing extent, we are taking this premise of well-being at home and seeking it in different areas of our lives: from the workplace to healthcare, and retail to respite. The Oxford English dictionary defines well-being as “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.” Human nature is complex and many factors will impac...

What it says, why it matters and how we can best use it to our advantage. “Color has a tremendous influence on our mood; it’s a purely emotional theme. And an intuitive one. Most people can’t immediately put their finger on why one color makes them feel differently from another,” says Schaeffer, but research shows that it does. Soup in a red pot tastes spicier than so...

Although his point highlighted the space itself and not so much furniture, a lot can be said about textiles, materials and composition to make the most comfortable and sustainable beds, sofas and lounge chairs. Good sleep and relaxation makes all the difference, and each individual’s needs vary according to his or her specificities. Designers and manufacturers work to...

There is no place in the house that both technology and science are intersecting in such a revolutionary way—and that means robotic personal assistants, specialty tea brewed with precision temperature control, 3-D-printed healthy snacks, chillers that flash-freeze, drawers that seal sous-vide bags, sparkling water that flows directly out of the tap and high-tech counter ...

”It should make sense the product is for this specific company to manufacture.” When Austrian designer Rainer Mutsch creates for a company, he allows the qualities of the company and material it specializes in drive the design. Mutsch, who opened his Vienna design studio in 2008 after working as senior designer for Werner Aisslinger in Berlin, has created furniture fo...

Five design teams were invited to compete in this year’s competition under the complex theme Sinus-Milieus, a scientifically validated model which charts people’s changing values and everyday “lifeworlds,” revealing the common attitudes of each group. For the Sleep Set competition, five of the nine recently defined groups were selected: sensation-orientated, intellect...

The tables, lamps and chairs may sport labels from famous designers, but increasingly for many consumers, the signatures don’t add intrinsic value to mass-produced commodities. It often is unclear where a table was assembled and whether it is solid rosewood or pressed wood. Worst of all is that thanks to FedEx and Amazon, chances are that the seemingly rare vase or the r...

Beautiful espresso cups made of ground coffee beans, which would normally end up in the trash, got our attention, and from there we gathered information on several products to stir up some inspiration. With nearly 9 million bags of coffee exported in September 2016, it’s exciting to see new possibilities for coffee ground waste. The Kaffee Form espresso cups reveal a ...

These demonstrations attracted huge crowds as visitors got the opportunity to understand the benefits of using the product as well as try their hand at some of the products and machines. Here are some of the products and demonstrations that took place at Big5 Dubai. Featured image: Sculptor Lydia Jenkins Musco prepared to assemble a concrete sculpture. Image via Taj ...

During a speech in Milan last April, Tom Dixon said that designers LOVE materials, and it might come as no surprise, but “70% of all innovations are being based on new material,” Haute Innovation. No wonder then at this year’s exhibition, several objects made from surprising and natural materials caught viewers’ attention from their beautiful design. Coffee cups made ...

The resulting 390 sq. meter residence, “returning hut” uses materials that reflect the composition and color of rocks and trees on its hillside location outside Xiamen, China. The two-story house features bluestone, slate and solid wood walls and flooring with minimal decoration. Abundant glass outer walls invite the outdoors in, visually opening the bedrooms, bathroo...

Its suspended LED ring lights up a translucent fiberglass shade. The slogan for TOOaPICNIC by TootheZoo, “Work was never so beautiful,” is honest marketing as the product received runner-up. The picnic-style desk was Designed by Jules Vreeswijk (TOOtheZOO) and Joost Waltjen (Waltjen Design). Voters selected their favorites and ARCIPELAGO by NARBUTAS received the ultim...

Bringing together architects and lighting designers, Light Space will feature more than 40 exhibitors, including top Italian lighting brand Reggiani with their Lux Award-shortlisted Cells range, Indian lighting frontrunner Corvi and industrial design company Lumenpulse. More artificial skylight innovation from CoeLux will also be on display. A full schedule of Expert ...

ArchiExpo caught up with some of them in Moscow and St. Petersburg to chat about their latest projects and the trends they follow or shun. Talk to any designer or design school professor in Russia, and you will be reminded that the word “design” was banned in Soviet Russia until the very end of 1980s. Before that, it was called artistic engineering or technical aesthe...

The company’s director, Kotaro Watanabe, began the talk by describing how his team employs “pendulum thinking” to switch between the perspective of designer and user, “learning about the boundary between the two sides and how those borders change.” One Title at a Time Founder Kinya Tagawa elaborated on that idea, presenting a project for an organization that employ...

Kennedy began his career as an architect, but then shifted his focus to photography, with now more than 15 years of experience. He has been commissioned to photograph works for architectural firms, networks and publications including The BBC, Sheppard Robson Architects, Rivington Street Studio, Haptic Architects, Coup de Ville Architects, Architecture Today, Building Des...

Dubai Design Week’s popular exhibition Abwab showcased entirely new work from designers and studios from Algeria, Bahrain, India, Iraq, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates; an excellent starting point. Rawan Kashkoush, Creative Director of Abwab stated in a press release: “The Abwab pavilions are a microcosm of diversity each year, showcasing design in a format tha...

We began our first week walking through the tree-lined pathways of Nicanor Garcia Street in the busy district of Makati City, where we met budding designer Joseph Rastrullo at Le Coude Rouge and veteran designer Vito Selma. A further walk down the street brought us to the sprawling white modern showroom of internationally renowned interior design expert, Ito Kish, whe...

The annual celebration of the best, brightest and future of contemporary Japanese art, architecture, and design—was struck by tragedy this year, when a fire at one of the exhibitions on the penultimate day of the two-week event sadly claimed the life of a five-year-old boy and injured several others. Naturally, the final day of the event, which was planned as two six-d...

“Where design today focuses on physical products, design of the future will be about data-driven products and experience. Where innovation today is about creating new products, innovation of the future will be focused around designing adaptive products that are constantly delighting the customer. And where technology today might be core to a company but an afterthought t...

At home she was used to controlling the lights with her voice using Amazon Echo so she shouted: “Alexa, lights off!” The waiter was perplexed as to why a girl would talk to the lights, but it made Taylor and his wife laugh. To their daughter, all lights inherently would respond to her voice commands. “It made me realize that the connected home is already here,” ...

Among some of the major highlights of this year’s fair, Italian company Scavolini participated, for the first time, by unveiling its bathroom and kitchen Ki collection, designed by Studio Nendo. Visitors also gathered for an inspiring talk from both architects Norman Foster and Solano Benitez. Brain-cozy Creative Power The 85-year-old Lord Norman Robert Foster took...

Expo organizers aim to make it the most inclusive world exhibition of all time, inviting people and organizations of diverse backgrounds to take part. The theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” reflects the importance in today’s world of extreme connectedness to work together towards architectural, technological and scientific innovation. From October 20, 2020 ...

ArchiExpo highlights two of the Gold Winners in the single house category: Haus in Riehen and House R. Haus in Riehen by Switzerland-based Reuter Raeber is a contemporary house built in glass, concrete, wood and metal, showcasing unique contrasting interplays between heavy and light, load and support. House R. by Berlin-based architecture firm Modersohn & Freiesleb...

Inspiration, innovation and human connection all play a part in the system here. We later phoned Alexandre Peutin, head of the materials library, to better understand how they work and what’s coming up. ArchiExpo e-Mag: How would you describe the materials library? Alexandre Peutin: It’s a place for research and study dedicated to materials and a link between profe...

You can see it in the obsession with glass shower stalls and in the eschewal of ornamentation, and the emphasis on function in domestic spaces. Indeed, after 50 years, designers still are finding more to say on the matter. Case in point is the Infinity Kitchen, a glass assemblage of kitchen cabinets, stove and disposal pipes that debuted at the 2016 Venice Architectur...

According to Atema, more than 700 cities have “major poop problems” because they depend upon antiquated combined sewer systems, which mix sewage with storm water. Atema’s topic was apt for a conference about the future of cities, because combined sewer overflows (CSOs) constitute one of the biggest environmental threats to metropolitan areas like New York. As little a...

The Rehberger-Weg is a 5-kilometer cross-border path linking one of the world’s finest modern art museums Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland and the equally inspiring design mecca Vitra Campus in Germany. Listen to the sounds of the bell at Fondation Beyeler, the running water of the fountain behind and the tram pulling away. This is the first or the last stop depending...

In a 2013 Ted Talk, Wikihouses founder Alastair Parvin asks, “Who are the people that make cities?” Around the same time, resourceful citizens began DIYing unique projects such as Jono Williams’ Skysphere, entirely self-crafted and solar-powered, and Kodasema’s movable concrete house Koda. Architects across the globe are taking the future of shelter into their own han...