Art Architecture Dezign

Italian studio Westway Architects has completed the modernisation of a winery near Venice, which combines wine-coloured zinc-titanium cladding with windows to view the production process.

The renovation of the Santa Margherita vineyard complex has been ongoing since 2008 and has involved multiple phases, with the final stage involving the construction of new bottling facilities.

The firm founded by Luca Aureggi and Maurizio Condoluci in 2005 oversaw the entire project, which involved upgrading existing facilities and introducing buildings to create a coherent visual language across the complex.

The process also aimed to improve the working environment for employees and create an architectural design that encapsulates the values of modernity and innovation behind the Santa Margherita brand.

The final phase of the regeneration project involved the conversion of several 1930s industrial buildings into a new bottling plant and storage facility.

The new building comprises four units distinguished by the addition of bays on the south-east facade. These volumes feature glazed sections alongside opaque surfaces that pivot outwards to shield the interior from excessive direct sunlight.

"The design creates a strong visual relationship with the existing buildings and preserves the original shape," the architects pointed out, "appearing as a series of facades designed at the top by the lines of the roof pitches."

The cladding used for the bottling plant is the same red zinc titanium applied during the earlier phases of the project, which helps to create consistency throughout the facility.

The bottling plant is situated opposite the Cantina Santa Margherita complex, which contains the offices, production facilities and warehouses.

A cantilevered roof extending along the front of this building creates a sheltered walkway that unifies the various converted and upgraded structures.

A row of six-metre-tall trusses projects from the side of the building, forming a plaza next to the storage area that is large enough for vehicles to enter.

Other openings in the main facade include a large window framed by steel columns that provides a view of the vats inside the production space. These voids interrupt the otherwise solid elevation, which is wrapped in horizontal panels of the metal cladding.

At the corner where the productions building meets the offices, a recessed void forms a portico leading towards the entrance. This end wall incorporates a window offering a view of shelves aligned with the cladding, which support a backlit display of 2,000 wine bottles.

The office building features a facade separated into two sections that are distinguished by contrasting red and grey cladding, with the upper portion topped with a sequence of pitched roofs that mirror the form of the bottling plant.

Last year Olson Kundig embedded a gravity-flow winery into British Columbia hillside, while Kleinewelt Architekten built a winery in southern Russia with stark concrete walls and full-height glazing.

Photography is by Moreno Maggi.

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Russian artist Alexander Shtanuk has launched a crowdfunding campaign to turn NASA's metallic emergency blankets into an enormous artwork at this year's Burning Man festival.

Shtanuk has established a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo to raise $17,500 (£13,335) to bring the Blanket installation to Burning Man, taking place in the Nevada desert from 26 August to 4 September 2018.

His proposal involves joining together a series of NASA's space sheets, which the US space agency developed in 1964 from a reflective material that provides insulation.

Measuring 2.1 by 1.6 metres, they are intended to be used to warm people up in emergency situations, and today are commonly given to runners following races.

Shtanuk plans to use reinforced tape to form a huge square version that spans 100 metres each side. It would be allowed to billow in the wind, casting a shadow over a large section of the desert so visitors could rest in the shade. Alternatively, it could be laid on the sand and used as a seating area.

"The Blanket will be constantly changing its silhouette by the power of wind, taking different surreal forms – waves, mountains or some giant fantastic sculptures," said the statement on the project's fundraising page.

"During the hot daytime room under the Blanket will be used as a comfy and refreshing rest area, where anyone can relax, chill, have a nap or dance."

At night time, the artist plans for the installation to take on an entirely different function. He imagines participants dressed in suits featuring electroluminescent wire – also known as el-wire, and created by coating copper wire a glow-in-the-dark phosphor.

They would then crawl underneath the blanket, "creating an effect of oceanic bioluminescent plankton or moving waves of equaliser".

Funds for the project will go towards materials, renting a space to assemble the piece, transporting it from Russia to Burning Man, as well as equipment rental.

In return for backing the project, contributors are offered a "dusty piece of the blanket" in five different sizes depending on the donation, with amounts ranging from $15 to $10,000 (£12 to £7,629). So far, a total of $720 (£549) has been raised by 28 backers.

BIG architects Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange are also raising money to build a huge, inflatable mirrored sphere at this year's festival, and have raised 35 per cent of the total so far.

Burning Man attracts 70,000 visitors annually, and its community is responsible for building an array of elaborate structures around the temporary settlement known as Black Rock City.

The festival's founder Larry Harvey, who died earlier this year, explained the importance of urban planning during the 10-day event in a 2015 interview with Dezeen.

Previous Burning Man installations have included an artificial tree illuminated with "light flocks" by Studio Drift, and many more freestanding structures and artworks.

Each festival also features a main temple building, which is sent up in flames on the last night. French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani is designing this year's as a spiralling wooden structure.

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Digital-only bank Starling has launched a debit card with a vertical design to align with the way people usually make payments.

Starling Bank's art director, Mark Day, created the vertical design to reflect the way people use their debit cards today – inserting them into ATMs and card machines in a portrait orientation, or tapping them to make contactless payments.

The bank card follows several currencies that have been redesigned vertically, with Canada's latest $10 banknote reorientated 90 degrees and Andrey Avgust designing a conceptual series of vertical US-bank notes.

On Starling's card all of the "clutter" of the customer's details, including name, card number and expiry date, is placed onto the back of the card, leaving the front minimal with just the bank's name, chip and MasterCard logo.

According to the mobile-only bank, this discreet design improves security by making it harder to copy personal information.

"Great design is about more than just making things look good," said Day. "It's about finding a better way of doing things, being responsive to cultural and technological shifts and adapting the outdated to meet emerging needs."

"Our lives are largely lived in portrait now, even down to how we use our phones. A bank card in portrait reflects how we actually use our cards today; it's intuitive, instinctive, and in short: it's just common sense," he added.

Distributed to customers last week, the cards have been billed as the first of their kind for a UK bank.

The new orientation has been applied to two debit cards, one for regular personal accounts and one for business accounts.

A vibrant shade of teal was chosen for the personal account card, inspired by the blue-green tones of the feathers of the starling bird.

The company believe this hue grants the card an "understated" and "cool" feel. It was also chosen to reflect the bank's digital history, as the colour was one of the 16 original "web colours" formulated in 1987 to display web pages.

In contrast, the business account card is coloured in dark navy. Both have a pearlised finish to produce a smooth, premium feel.

"At Starling we are committed to disrupting the market by challenging old ways of doing things and reorienting banking so it works for our customers. Our new card design does exactly that," said Starling CEO Anne Boden.

Founded in 2014, UK-based Fintech business Starling offers a mobile-only current account on Android and iOS for personal and business customers.

The minimal card includes the MasterCard logo, which was given its first design in 20 years by Pentagram in 2016.

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Two long volumes clad in local cypress and kinked at their centres form this house in rural Chile, by Ignacio Correa Arquitecto.

The single-storey Casa Camilo was built for a family of famers who work near the bucolic site in Parral, in the county's central Maule region. Built on an area of 3,660 square feet (340 square metres), the linear house is covered in timber both inside and out.

Ignacio Correa Arquitecto designed the building with local materials and building shapes in mind. The home is constructed using cordilleran cypress wood sourced from the region, while its simple form mimics nearby wooden sheds.

"The scarce access to certain materials in the area determines and encourages the fact that the more traditional crafts remain active [in the town]," said the studio. "In this case, carpentry is one of the practices with the higher skills experience".

Large areas inside the house are also covered in cypress, which is coated in a warm-toned gloss. These boards wrap around the walls, floors and ceiling to help unify the interiors.

A variety of gabled trusses form the primary structure and are spaced differently in certain portions of the building.

The residence is made up of two long sections, which are laterally offset from another and connected by a glazed entrance box where their ends face. The pair of buildings are both kinked in the centre, but in opposite directions, so they trace a loose S shape across the site.

One volume contains the public areas, including an open-plan dining and living area, which is separated from the kitchen and staff quarters by a covered patio.

The second section is designated for sleeping, with three bedrooms occupying one side and a master suite located in the other. These halves are also divided by an outdoor terrace, though linked by a narrow corridor that runs the full length of the building's outer edge.

Based in the capital Santiago, Ignacio Correa Arquitecto has also built a wooden holiday retreat on stilts overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Other recently completed houses in the country include a hillside house with an expansive wooden roof and open-air living room by Sun Arquitectos and a bright red mountain house set within a forest by Felipe Assadi.

Photography is by Aryeh Kornfeld.

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New video footage reveals the latest incredible skyscraper being constructed in China, which incorporates a giant waterfall into its facade.

Named the Liebian International Building, the 121-metre tall tower in Guiyang, southwest China, has been built to include a dramatic a 108-metre-high water feature.

This unique feature is one of the largest artificial waterfalls in the world, and the tallest to be included in a building. It is operated by four pumps that feed from underground tanks containing rainwater and runoff.

The dramatic building, which is being developed by Ludi Industry Group, is not yet complete. But it is believed that the water feature has been functional for the past two years.

Although full details of the tower are not available, it is part of a complex that includes another equally high tower extending upward from a podium structure. Offices and a luxury hotel will be placed in the towers, while the podium building will house a shopping centre.

The building's architect designed the tower to bring water into the city, according to Ludi Industry Group director Cheng Xiamao.

"Guiyang is a city of mountains, and with many trees, just like a forest," Xiamao is quoted in the Independent newspaper as saying.

"He [the architect] wanted to create a feeling of water and greenery, even when you are surrounded by skyscrapers."

The Independent also reports that, because the running cost of the waterfall amounts to £90 per hour, it has only been operated six times.

The building is part of a trend for unusually shaped structures in China that has accompanied the construction boom the country is experiencing, as developers and cities strive for attention.

These strange shaped buildings include a giant doughnut-shaped skyscraper in Guangzhou, designed by Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale, and MAD's horseshoe-shaped hotel in Huzhou.

The trend led to Chinese president Xi Jinping calling for an end to "weird architecture" in the country, in 2014. Xi was particularly critical of OMA's CCTV headquarters in Beijing.

The Liebian International Building is one of several new buildings set to open soon in Asia with large-scale water features.

Moshe Safdie's Jewel Changi Airport will contain a 40-metre-tall waterfall at its centre, while Grimshaw is planning a 50-metre high water feature at the Chinese Eden Project, which would be the world's tallest indoor waterfall.

The world's tallest artificial waterfall, the 165-metre high Cascata delle Marmore in Umbria, was created by the ancient Romans.

Images courtesy of AFP/Getty Images.

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In this week's comments update, readers aren't sure how to respond to furniture formed from a naked body.

Butt of the joke: designer Nicholas Bentel has attempted to patent his body as a furniture collection, leaving readers concerned.

"If I buy eight of these chairs to go around my dining room table, am I also responsible for feeding the furniture pieces and contributing towards their inevitable retirement?" quizzed a cynical Chris Pietersen.

An equally apprehensive Lauren Thu said: "Love all this eco, sustainable, biodegradable design – although I'd be worried about the finish changing in a few years."

"And the inevitable sagging," agreed Chris_becket.

Commenter Keith Dougal added: "Missed opportunity for a bike parking function, but ballsy move nonetheless."

For one reader, the furniture also doubles up as a decorative accessory:

What do you think of the Corpus Collection? Join the discussion ›

Reaching for the sky: six architects are competing to design Australia's tallest building – including BIG, MAD, UNStudio, MVRDV, Coop Himmelb(l)au and OMA – and commenters can't decide if any of them are impressive.

"From speaking with fellow Melbournians and designers, the consensus is that any of these would be a welcome addition to the city and its culture," said a complimentary Brovelo.

A pleased Chris_becket responded: "It is good that the majority feels that way. It is, after all, your city."

"I feel everyone's trying too hard," offered Steve Hassler, in disagreement.

"Such relentless mediocrity makes it hard to know where to begin. Good luck Melbourne!" added Heywood Floyd.

One reader made it clear which one they liked the least:

Do you have a favourite? Join the discussion ›

Box clever: decluttering guru Marie Kondo has launched a line of shoebox-style boxes and readers are flabbergasted.

"We're being punked, right?" asked Blkbrrry in astonishment.

Chris said sarcastically: "Brilliant concept! How is "box" pronounced, phonetically?"

For some readers, the concept wasn't a laughing matter. "Too much time and too much money. Meanwhile someone somewhere spends another night sleeping in a cardboard box! Time to reorganise priorities!" commented Charlotte_tindle.

Rodrigo Galvan-Duque was also unimpressed: "Sad. We've reached a point where even decluttering is Instagrammable."

For one reader, something else came to mind:

Are the Hikidashi Boxes clever or pointless? Join the discussion ›

Back to the future: graduate Cody Seipp has imagined what Detroit could look like in 2051 if retail giant Amazon took over. It has left readers divided.

"Fabulous! I look forward to the next city makeover!" praised Jb.

Critical agreed: "The project seems to be an amazingly graphic narrative to establish a platform for critiquing starchitecture, the nature of big spending, and the philosophies or urban green spaces. It's a job well done!"

For some readers however, the imaginary investment was injected into the wrong part of the city: "Please, if we're going to spend the time and energy, can we have an imagining of the neighbourhoods," pleaded Jeff.

Zea Newland added: "Stunning illustrations but I don't think Detroit would benefit from being Silicon-Valley'd."

This reader enjoyed one building in particular:

What do you think of this conceptual project? Join the discussion ›

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American firm The Ranch Mine has overhauled and expanded a Phoenix residence, adding limestone cladding and generous terraces, and reorganising the home so it capitalises on views of the desert terrain.

The Red Rocks house hugs the side of Camelback Mountain and overlooks the vast desert metropolis below. Local studio The Ranch Mine was tasked with transforming a Spanish colonial revival-style house into a modern dwelling with generous views and plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.

"When the homeowners approached Claire and Cavin Costello of The Ranch Mine to redesign their mountainside home, they were frustrated by the thick columns that interrupted the views, the heavy clay tile roofs and dark beams, and the floor plan that focused more on a ceremonial entry than the indoor/outdoor lifestyle they craved," said the architecture firm in a project description.

"It was clear very quickly to the design duo that although the Spanish colonial revival style can be beautiful in the right situations, the style of this home was repressing the potential of the site."

The first corrective measure involved stripping away the Spanish elements, which resulted in a simple, two-storey box sheathed in stucco. The team then added a second-storey volume that cantilevers over the site, reducing the impact on the landscape. The addition is wrapped in vein-cut Veracruz limestone.

"Rather than mimic the red sedimentary sandstone of Camelback Mountain, limestone was chosen to make the addition appear like the calcite veins that often appear in the red rocks, marking their moment in time," the team said.

Inside the 4,490-square-foot (417-square-metre) home, the architects rearranged the floor plan in order to prioritise the connection between living spaces and primary vistas. A staircase was even relocated to allow for a view from the front portion of the home through a glazed wall in the rear.

Public spaces occupy the ground level, while the second storey houses several bedrooms. Ample glazing throughout the dwelling provides views of the city and the desert landscape.

To provide numerous opportunities for indoor-outdoor living, the team created shaded, exterior terraces that total over 2,000 square feet (186 square metres). On the first level, a covered patio looks upon a stepped backyard with a fire pit, hot tub and swimming pool, along with an array of native plants.

On the second floor, a south-facing patio has bi-folding, custom steel screens that help block the intense desert sun while still allowing breezes to pass through. In the central portion of the screen, the hexagonal patterning is less dense, which allows for clearer viewing. At dusk, the owners can fold up the screens entirely to enjoy the dramatic Arizona sunsets.

The second level also features a small balcony, which is adjoined to the new addition. "A modern take on a Juliet balcony cantilevers out, almost kissing the mountain, creating a powerful connection and an intimate moment," the team said.

A restrained palette of materials and colours was used for finishes and decor, in order to keep the focus on the scenic terrain. Rooms are fitted with sleek decor in hues of white, black, and grey, with wooden pieces adding a touch of warmth.

On the ground level, a low-maintenance concrete floor was poured. This lends to the home's modern atmosphere, and also covers extensive work that occurred to mitigate structural and plumbing problems. On the upper level, the team retained wooden flooring.

"A fairly neutral palette of walnut and white cabinetry, with a variety of quartz counters and marble tile, were used throughout to keep the red rocks as the star material," The Ranch Mine said.

Based in Phoenix, The Ranch Mine was founded in 2010 by the Costellos. Other projects by the studio include a canal-side residence that takes cues from mission-style architecture, and a series of townhomes wrapped in brick, stucco and weathering steel.

Photography is by Roehner + Ryan.

Project credits:

Architect: The Ranch Mine
Builder: Koss Design+Build
Landscape architect: The Green Room
Screens and pivot gate: Bang Bang Designs

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This raised wooden structure, designed by Cerejeira Fontes Architects, creates a secluded inner chapel inside an old church in Braga, Portugal.

Braga-based Cerejeira Fontes was tasked with renovating the Imaculada Chapel, a decaying church building built during the second world war.

Rather than focusing on the existing building, the architects decided to instead insert a new tree-inspired structure, the Cheia de Graça Chapel, within its walls. Designed to make use of the chapel's height, this wooden building on stilts creates a sanctuary in the heart of the space.

"The chapel erected in wood creates a balanced structure that manifests as a forest at the entrance of the sacred space," said the design team.

The raised canopy contained within the structure is used by members of the church's seminary as a place to meet or reflect. Meanwhile, the area underneath serves as a divider between the secular and the religious spaces of the chapel.

The architects refer to these two elements as the canopy and trunks of the forest.

"Its canopy creates a space dedicated to the inhabitants of the seminary and its trunks a filter between the profane space and the sacred space, allowing the visitor to surrender to the space," they said.

A concrete vault is installed around the inside of the building's roof, framing the new wooden chapel. Set away from the old stone walls, it has a thickness of 12 centimetres and is supported by a slender steel framework.

The vault screens the windows. But it is punctured by slender openings that allow shafts of sunlight into the space.

"The vault creates a space of absolute 'restless silence' for introspection," added Cerejeira Fontes.

The elongated shape of the concrete vault was designed to provide the space with an improved acoustic quality. This is complemented by an acoustic sandwich panel installed within the Cheia de Graça Chapel, helping to reduce echoes.

Cerejeira Fontes is led by architects António Jorge Fontes and André Fontes, and sculptor Asbjörn Andresen. This isn't the team's first revamp of a religious building – they previously inserted a slatted timber chapel inside a school for friars elsewhere in Braga.

Photography is by Nelson Garrido.

Project credits:

Architects: Cerejeira Fontes Architects
Design team: António Jorge Fontes, Asbjörn Andresen, André Fontes
Paintings: Lisa Sigfridsson

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Royal College of Art graduate Philipp Schenk-Mischke aims to bring an element of chaos to his designs, which include lopsided vases and tables held together by metal blobs.

Schenk-Mischke created these two products as part of a project he calls Process Plug-Ins, which he created for the Design Products masters course at the RCA, and presented during the graduate show earlier this summer.

He wanted to investigate how he could interfere with traditional manufacturing processes, to make them more random in nature. The aim was to create works that reflect his own status, as a young designer in a DIY, post-internet culture.

The name Process Plug-Ins references website design, where plug-ins can easily adjust or hack the design.

"For my graduation project, I aimed to create iterations of classic domestic objects by introducing plug-ins that distort the usual outcome, sometimes forcefully," said Schenk-Mischke.

"My goal with this project is to look at traditional processes – such as modes of manufacture, assembly or use – and spoil them of their straightforwardness and predictability," he explained.

The first product, called BTM Ceramics, is a set of colourful ceramic vases, all of which feature bends and imperfections.

To create them, Schenk-Mischke moulds simple vase forms and then, while the clay is still wet, places them on a fitness vibration plate. The vibrations distort the shape of the vase in a random, organic manner.

"The design process was very experimental and oscillated between trying to gain a certain degree of control over the randomness that is introduced by the plug-ins without making myself obsolete as the maker," said the designer.

"Although the body vibration plate (which says BTM on it, hence the name) might seem randomly chosen, it was preceded by more than 200 experiments of shaking and vibrating different shapes on different machines that I built over the course of the last year," he added.

"I see the fitness plate as a tool to work and create with, similar to a chisel or a hammer."

Schenk-Mischke has also created two pieces of furniture using slabs of Crema Marfil marble and aluminium – a table and a bookshelf. Called Primitive Fixings, these designs feature custom aluminium "nails".

The designer creates them by drilling channels directly through the material where the fixings needed to be. He then fills these channels with molten metal, allowing a small spillage at the top.

The spillages form mushroom-like shapes that act like a nail or screw head and hold the pieces tightly together.

"The spillage becomes a blob that sits on top of the joint, similar to a screw head, but more reminiscent of jewellery," said Schenk-Mischke.

The designer hopes his project can draw attention to the expressive potential in industrial materials and also suggest how accidental design can come together with intentional construction.

"It is about reinvigorating things that might have become boring in a fun and playful way. I would like to convey the idea of thinking outside the box and recognising the possibilities in our immediate environments," he concluded

Schenk-Mischke's project was one on several standout projects from this year's RCA show. Others include a series of "normal" objects, made using the average measurements of 50 ready-made examples of five different objects, and a series of ceramics glazed with human urine.

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