Art Architecture Dezign

TU Delft graduate Dermot Horgan has created a concept for a neighbourhood that would be built around a publicly accessible data bank, to make the topic of personal information central to society.

In Horgan's vision of future Amsterdam, individuals rather than companies will control how their data is stored and who is allowed to use it.

He developed the Data Municipality proposal for his final project on the Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences masters course at Delft University of Technology.

"As data becomes the resource of the 21st century we must be made aware of just how valuable our information really is," said Horgan in his thesis.

"Data should become a transparent aspect of our daily lives expressed through an architecture."

"Data must become an open-source resource in the 21st century, non-personal data must no longer be for the few, but for the many," he continued.

Horgan's plan places a publicly accessible data bank, university, library and temple at the centre of a neighbourhood in bid to make the "removed" topic of data storage more central to society.

Transport links, a lecture hall and a market square seek to cement the data bank as a vibrant and integrated public space.

"The action of making available all public data, or data relevant to the public realm, from a societal aspect could inform an entirely new innovative movement as people have the knowledge and access to vast amounts of information," said Horgan.

"No longer could industry quash innovation for profitable gain but rather the act of innovation and commercial transparency could strengthen our entire democratic society whilst simultaneously informing a new and transparent immaterial data landscape. Closing the data circle."

Death is also factored into the vision, with Horgan suggesting that some users of the facility may wish their information to follow their human lifespan to prevent a "data postmortem".

For this, a temple and on-site mausoleum allow an individual's data to be celebrated and laid to rest.

"If we imagine a scenario where all personal data's storage is controlled by the user, then we can imagine that data should also cease to exist as we do," he said.

"Thus as we look at a future in which data is 'all that we are' we too might wish to celebrate the life of ones data and place it within its own resting place."

Horgan selected concrete, brick and glass as construction materials that would allude to the transparency or "honesty" of the scheme's mission.

His visuals show slender etched and board-marked concrete frames surrounding the large windows of the data bank, while the university is given a more traditional appearance with the use of local Amsterdam bricks.

"'Honesty' in materials choices was very important to a new democratic typology," he said.

Previous TU Delft graduates have developed concepts for a robotic pillow that "breathes" to soothe users to sleep and a 3D-printed steel bicycle frame claiming to be a world first.

The post Dermot Horgan imagines personal data bank at centre of future Amsterdam neighbourhood appeared first on Dezeen.

Expansive angled roofs crown this desert house by Arizona firm Kendle Design Collaborative, protecting and shading spaces between walls of rammed earth and exposed concrete.

Dancing Light House is located in Paradise Valley – a town in the Phoenix metropolitan area that boasts multiple luxury golf courses and spa resorts.

The residence spans 5,600 square feet (520 square metres) across a single storey, with various outdoor living and gardens across the site to hot, dry climate.

Based nearby in Scottsdale, Kendle Design Collaborative designed the house with a dramatic pavilion-like roof, with wood boards lining the underside that appear to glow in the desert sun.

"The signature feature of this home is its floating roof canopy, the underside of which is comprised of tectonic-like forms inspired by local geology and monsoon cloud formations," said the studio.

Two roof planes project from the base of the house to form a massive overhang for a poolside patio. One soars above the other, so their pointy ends overlap.

"The canopy balances the owner's desire for both grandeur and coziness, starting low within the interior living spaces and raising dramatically towards the 180-degree mountain view," said the studio.

A courtyard and garden is also incorporated into the property, acting as a buffer for a four-car garage adjacent to the entrance.

Rammed-earth walls and cast-in-situ concrete are left exposed, and add a rustic feel to the interiors. Other materials like metal, glass and steel create a contrast with an industrial touch.

The interior of the home is arranged about an atrium, where sliding glass doors open a kitchen and living room to the outdoor areas. Sunlight also enters the house through narrow gaps between the tops of the walls and the roof planes, and reflects off the pool situated close to the house.

"At times, water-reflected light dances across the fractured planes of earth and wood while at other times, it provides a zen-like sense of calm," the studio said.

The open-plan kitchen, dining and living room is accessed from the entrance via a hallway, which passes an office and laundry room.

Two wings on either side of this core contain bedrooms, and are arranged to enclose the patio slightly. One has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, while the other contains a master suite with a glass-enclosed garden off its bathroom.

The Arizona desert has a specific geology and climate that informs much of the architecture built there. Others houses in the area that are designed to embrace the pink-toned rocks and arid conditions include the Red Rocks house by The Ranch Mine, which nestles into the mountainside, the Hidden Valley Desert House by Wendell Burnette, situated among a forest of cacti.

Photography is by Alexander Vertikoff.

Project credits:

Interior designer: David Michael Miller
Landscape architect: GBtwo Landscape Architects
Builder: Desert Star Construction

The post Dancing Light House by Kendle Design Collaborative features dramatic pointy roofs appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen promotion: the Dezeen x Samsung Ambient Mode Design Competition has been whittled down to a shortlist of five, who have shared the thinking behind their designs with Dezeen.

Seeing off tough competition from a 15-entry longlist, the finalists have been announced as Alex Warr and Zach Walters with the entry TimeFrame, Swift Creatives with Kinetic Decor, Jianshi Wu and Yitan Sun with Bird Clock, Gerard Puxhe with Architectural Extension, and Doisign with Sphere.

The €29,500 competition asked entrants to create a visual experience that displays when the TV is not in use. The shortlisted designers responded with the likes of a virtual architectural extension, a window to other parts of the world and a personal assistant that brings in data from the user's life.

Others took a more decorative approach, creating a calming, interactive mobile and a clock that brings nature and joy into telling the time.

The designs are for the Ambient Mode feature on Samsung's new QLED TVs. Ambient Mode makes the screen look almost transparent by mimicking the appearance of the wall behind the television, with additional imagery and information overlaid on top.

The winner will be chosen by a jury made up of graphic designer Neville Brody, industrial designer Erwan Bouroullec, Samsung Electronics' head of the design centre Dontae Lee and Dezeen's editorial director Amy Frearson.

Judging is set to take place at electronics trade show IFA in Berlin, which takes place from 31 August to 5 September 2018, with the winner announced on 3 September 2018 on Dezeen. Each of the entrants shortlisted here receives €1,500, with €8,000 in prize money for the ultimate winner.

The winner will be displayed at the IFA show, and will have the opportunity to commercialise their idea.

Read on for interviews with the five shortlisted designers or design teams.

Alex Warr and Zach Walters (USA), designers of TimeFrame

How would you describe your design in a sentence or two?

TimeFrame is a dynamic window, enhancing the user's space by creating a virtual connection to another environment. TimeFrame takes the archetype of a window and moves it forward by transforming it into something dynamic, creating a new type of window that morphs based on the hands of a clock, the activity in the room, and the user's aesthetic choices.

How does your design change throughout the day or in response to the presence of people?

Our design changes constantly throughout the day. We imagine that the content can change to mimic the time of day and weather in the user's location. Meanwhile, the shape of the frame morphs gradually throughout the day, following the hands of a clock. When motion is detected, the shape transforms more dramatically, distorting the movement of the clock hands and expressing the subjectivity of one's perception of time.

Who is your design for?

TimeFrame is designed for people who have a desire to travel, see the world, or experience other places. This includes people in the city that want to retreat to the countryside or people who want to explore the landmarks or cultures of faraway cities. TimeFrame is not meant to replace travel. It is designed to enhance and expand the possibilities for a user's space.

What's next for you as designers?

We plan to continue designing in the realm of architecture, as well as outside of it. This competition was outside the scope of our usual work, but it is one of many areas of design that we are interested in continuing to explore.

What would you do with the prize money?

The prize money would allow us to continue developing our own design work. As we start our careers, this would be invaluable as we discover our voice and interests as designers.

Jianshi Wu and Yitan Sun (USA), designers of Bird Clock

How would you describe your design in a sentence or two?

Unlike today's personal devices, which often show time as plain digits, we designed a "bird clock", which uses an arrangement of birds to indicate the time of day. It gives a subtle notion of the passage of time and also makes the act of checking time less of a mindless errand but more of a joyful experience. We think Bird Clock is an example of how new technology like Samsung's Ambient Mode can encourage new ways we interact with technology.

How does your design change throughout the day or in response to the presence of people?

The underlying colors represent the sky at different times of the day. The patterns are dynamic. It may show a wonderful morning glory, a full moon, or a clear sunny sky according to the real-time weather condition.

In addition, when the user or their pet walks past the TV, the motion sensor can detect the movement, and the flock of birds would fly away for a short moment before circling back. This interaction, very much mimicking how birds would behave in real life, adds more delight and playfulness to the scene.

Who is your design for?

This scene is created with the lifestyle of a nature lover in mind. We'd like to enhance the interior experience in the home or office environment, to reduce the anxiety for people living in big cities. With Bird Clock, we add another dimension to their living/working environment with sound and movement.

What's next for you as designers?

As two architectural and visual designers, we are always open to new challenges in different disciplines and would like to transform more ideas through various media in the future.

What would you do with the prize money?

We will be presenting our design at IFA in Berlin soon, and we really love the culture here. We may travel a bit more around the country and get more inspirations from the people and the city itself.

Gerard Puxhe (UK), designer of Architectural Extension

How would you describe your design in a sentence or two?

It's a design that aims to integrate the digital and the physical world in a believable way.

How does your design change throughout the day or in response to the presence of people?

The LED lighting changes as time passes, as well as the sky in the background. It also changes when the space light does. Thanks to the QLED TV movement sensors, the flower or the flame of a candle will move when a person passes by, for example. A person's shadow can also appear in the niche if a person gets closer. There are many different possibilities.

What influenced your aesthetic choices?

The limitation of having the TV frame. I've integrated the design to the frame so it looks realistic and not just like an image, video or app in a frame.

What's next for you as a designer?

Thanks to Barcelona Rugs, I'll be exhibiting my rug design Yuu during the London Design Festival at London Design Fair in Shoreditch. I'm very excited about it after exhibiting in Milan as well this year.

What would you do with the prize money?

I haven't thought about it yet.

Doisign – Duhan Ölmez and Irem Deniz Akçam (Turkey), designers of Sphere

How would you describe your design in a sentence or two?

Television has only been a surface to watch when the time comes. However, Sphere acts as a personal assistant to an individual's life by using artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

How does your design change throughout the day or in response to the presence of people?

Even if each individual has different daily schedules, it reacts and adapts accordingly and gets used to users over time by machine learning. Therefore it creates selected ambients, generates professional suggestions, tracks your life or shows specified information for its user.

Why do people need this in their lives?

The Internet of Things surrounds us every day with devices we use in our routines. Our identities are based on things we have done, we are doing, we are to do, shaping our decisions. Decisions that were previously solely made by us, have begun to be made in collaboration with dedicated applications and innovations. An immediate personalised home interface allows users to take their home to a new interaction level.

What's next for you as designers?

We are a group of two consisting of an industrial designer and an architect. We believe design — as a process — is not related with any profession or training, but an interdisciplinary experience. Just for this particular example, we learned a lot, tried some new things and failed miserably so many times.

Even thought it is not our field to design a user interface, we enjoyed the process and at the end are pretty happy about the product. We are motivated to continue our search about how can we widen our perspectives throughout other challenges.

What would you do with the prize money?

We want to continue expanding this establishment for more professional competitions or design challenges with a larger group of people in a better environment.

Swift Creatives – Matthew Cockeril, Stephen Waller and Peter Hälldahl (UK), designers of Kinetic Decor

How would you describe your design in a sentence or two?

A dynamic decorative mobile that provides a calming and reflective feature in the room featuring hanging fish that gently rotate around each other. Not wanting to simply replicate a physical mobile on the screen we used the qualities of Samsung's QLED to bring enhanced features not possible in the physical world.

How does your design change throughout the day or in response to the presence of people?

As light in the room increases our design gradually comes to life. Starting as static black fish, as the light increases they begin to move and as they rotate their colour begins to change.

The fish also react to sudden changes of light level or the proximity of a user. Their eyes blink with their 'shadows' swimming off when disturbed and then slowly swimming back to as the light and activity in the room settles.

What influenced your aesthetic choices?

Our concept is inspired by our Scandinavian roots, tapping into the fundamental pleasures associated with everyday living and the simple comfort of relaxing at home with friends, using technology to support not intrude.

We took inspiration from the classic handmade Danish mobiles of Christian Flensted, who made his first one in 1953 to celebrate the christening of his daughter.

What's next for you as designers?

We see the Samsung TV hardware platform as just the start of products becoming more intelligent and responsive to their environment, allowing us to develop more natural and ambient experiences enabled by emerging technologies like mixed reality and artificial intelligence.

As a Danish design and innovation team, with studios in Aarhus and London, we are fascinated by the possibilities of a mixed reality as our digital and physical worlds become increasingly interconnected and we move beyond screens to digitally powered product experiences.

What would you do with the prize money?

Well for sure we'd use some of it to celebrate as a team. We'd then put the rest towards a Samsung QLED TV for the studio to start developing our concept into a fully formed design for release on Samsung's Tizen platform.

The post Top five finalists announced in Dezeen and Samsung's TV Ambient Mode Competition appeared first on Dezeen.

American firm Hoogland Architecture has conceived a low-lying concrete residence wrapped in weathering steel, for an active couple who hope to remain in the desert home as they age.

The Arroyo House is located in Blue Diamond, a hamlet just outside Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert. The small community is situated near an active gypsum mine, and also lies within close proximity of Red Rock Canyon – a conservation area that is popular with hikers and rock climbers.

The home was envisioned as a "base camp" for an active couple who are nearing retirement.

"After recently relocating to the Las Vegas area, their love of all things outdoors convinced them to make their home in the tiny village of Blue Diamond," said local studio Hoogland Architecture in a project description.

"While only minutes from Las Vegas, Blue Diamond is a half-mile-wide by half-mile-long hamlet, surrounded by some of the most iconic landscapes and sought-after rock outcroppings in the US."

The 3,875-square-foot (360-square-metre) dwelling was built on a sloped site near a natural wash, called an arroyo. For the austere desert site, the architects conceived a low-lying residence that consists of two rectilinear volumes connected by a deck.

One volume is long and horizontal, and serves as the main dwelling. The other form, which rises two levels, is more compact. It contains a garage at ground level and guest accommodation up above.

Exterior walls are made of concrete, weathering steel and vast stretches of glass. Deep roof overhangs protect the glazed walls from the intense desert sun and also shade patios that encircle the home.

The main portion of the dwelling contains a generous master suite and an open-plan area for cooking, dining, and lounging. Large windows and sliding glass doors usher in ample daylight while affording sweeping views of the arid landscape.

While the clients' decor is eclectic, the team used a restrained palette of colours and materials for interior finishes. Polished concrete floors are paired with bright white walls and ceilings. Light-hued wood cabinetry and stainless steel appliances define the kitchen. In the bathroom, stone tiles evoke the desert terrain that surrounds the home.

One of the primary concerns for the architects was to create a dwelling in which the clients could grow old. "It was important for the home to not only address their needs now, but also 10, 20 or 30 years into the future," the team said.

In response, the team placed all living spaces on the same level, with the exception of the garage. A driveway connects the upper level to the garage, enabling the clients to drop off their groceries before parking their car down below.

The team also incorporated features such as grab bars and a roll-in shower in the bathroom. Plus, the home's wraparound deck connects all of the programmr areas, helping "address the realities of ageing in place".

Sustainability was also considered during the project. Eco-friendly features include low-flow plumbing fixtures, non-toxic paint, and an in-slab radiant system for heating and cooling.

Greywater is used for landscape irrigation, and black water is treated onsite through a septic system. The couple also intends to install a photovoltaic array, with hopes of generating more energy than the home consumes.

Known for its vast desert terrain, Nevada offers a dramatic backdrop for architecture. Other houses in the state include the highly sculptural Shapeshifter House by OPA, which features angled zinc-clad walls and enjoys views of the Sierra Mountains.

Photography is by Stephen Morgan.

The post Hoogland Architecture designs Arroyo House for stark desert site in southern Nevada appeared first on Dezeen.

We've selected four of the best roles in interior design available on Dezeen Jobs right now, including opportunities with Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studio.

Interior designer at Heatherwick Studio

The London studio of Thomas Heatherwick is looking for an interior designer to join its team for maternity cover. The firm recently revealed its completed the Zeitz MOCAA art gallery in South Africa, which has been carved out of a grain silo in Cape Town.

Find out more about this role ›

Interior designer at Foster + Partners

The latest Apple Store in the Chinese city of Macau was designed by Foster + Partners and features an innovative facade made from a composite of glass and stone. The architecture firm has an opportunity for an interior designer to join its London-based practice.

Find out more about this role ›

Senior interior designer at Joyce Wang

Joyce Wang has an opportunity for a senior interior designer to join its team in London. The studio's projects include a restaurant in Hong Kong, with burnt walls and chandelier made from smoked washing-machine drums.

Find out more about this role ›

Interior designer at Ennead Architects

Ennead Architects is looking for an entry-level interior designer to join its team in New York. The US firm recently designed a new building for the University of Texas, featuring two towers linked by a central glass volume with lattice-shaped structural supports across its facade.

Find out more about this role ›

See all the latest architecture and design roles on Dezeen Jobs ›

The post Four of the best interior design roles available right now appeared first on Dezeen.

Prefabicated housing startup Koto has launched a series of modular one- to four-bedroom cabins that can be customised with add-ons such as saunas and outdoor showers.

The Scandinavian-style cabins, Koto said, are designed to last a lifetime and can be reconfigured to meet the needs of each individual client and the constraints of any site.

Koto, meaning cosy at home in Finnish, was founded in January 2018 by husband and wife duo Johnathon Little and Zoe Little.

The Devon-based duo, who have spent the past decade in Oslo where Johnathon previously worked for Snøhetta, created Koto as a range of off-the-shelf housing.

Each cabin comes as a pod with a tall diagonal ridge roof that creates an open interior space. The modular pods can be set up in numerous configurations to create different sized footprints to cater for homes, offices, hotel rooms and pool houses.

"Our initial range of modules – Pari, Muutama and Ystava – are all represented with the Koto wedge shape roof," Jonathan Little told Dezeen. "This shape allows for an interesting form and experience both internally and externally, a modern twist on the traditional vernacular."

Koto said that the cabins' minimalist Scandinavian-influenced design enable the occupants to live a "Nordic lifestyle", which revolves around creating a healthy work-life balance, with spaces for sleeping, relaxing and disconnecting.

The flexible cabins come as one, two, three and four-bedroom units that can be added to with other off-the-shelf components such as outdoor showers and saunas.

"Thinking about each living space as a separate design exercise has allowed us to create unique experiences in each space," they explained.

The cabins are manufactured by ​Kudos​, a Northern Irish company that specilaises in the development of low energy, timber frame buildings.

Inside, expansive concealed storage walls maximise floor space and help achieve a clean Scandinavian aesthetic.

The rooms are flooded by natural light from a generous glazed facade and a series of smaller windows that can be found on each pod component. Bespoke window seats connect the inhabitants to the outside world while making use of every last inch of space.

Other space-saving features include concealed storage walls and fold down beds.

Koto said they designed each bedroom to feel like a private retreat within the landscape. Furniture for the bedrooms was sourced from Danish brand ​Hay ​and arranged to create a calm, minimal environment.

Each cabin is equipped with a ​Morsoe​ wood burning stove and living spaces with neutral decor. In contrast the ensuite bathrooms are finished in dark colours with copper ​Lusso fixtures.

For example the Koto Muutama cabin, pictured, is Koto's medium-sized cabin. It contains a bathroom, bespoke fold down king size bed, hidden wall storage, window bench, wood stove and the option for a kitchenette.

According to Koto, additional components such as the black outdoor shower and a sauna cabin can be added to create a "spa-like experience".

"We are now developing a spa elements range which will include a sauna, steam room and pool house all united with the same koto brand visual aesthetic," Koto explained.

The Koto cabins can be relocated to a different site, even years after being installed, and are designed to address society's changing mindset towards house buying.

"We are creating beautiful small buildings that allow people to connect with nature and embrace outdoor living," said the husband and wife duo.

"Our ambition has been to create a lifestyle brand that is centred around the Nordic concept Friluftsliv [pronounced free-loofts-liv], an expression that translates to open-air living," they continued.

"Norwegian poet Ibsen described the term as ​the value of spending time in the remote outdoors for spiritual and mental wellbeing."

"They are a sculptural interpretation of the small buildings that you see across Europe, from Bothys to Alpine huts and Norwegian Hytte," they said.

"These small pitched roof buildings are an integral part of the landscape and provide warmth, shelter and an opportunity to fully immerse in nature. That is the heart of the ethos at ​Koto​."

Koto is not the first company to create a prefab cabin. Earlier this year, Uruguay and Brazil-based architects MAPA unveiled a series of prefab guest suites in Maldonado, Uruguay, with facades made up of mirrored glass and sliced logs. In 2017, Danish retailer Vipp debuted a factory-made, 55-square-metre metal-and-glass micro dwelling that comes filled with the company's line of homeware products.

Photography is by Joe Laverty

The post Koto's flexible prefab cabins are designed for "Nordic lifestyle" appeared first on Dezeen.

Helsinki's new art museum Amos Rex proves that importing an international brand, like the Guggenheim, isn't the only way to create a blockbuster tourist attraction, argues Dezeen deputy editor Tom Ravenscroft.

The arrival of the impressive Amos Rex art museum in Helsinki has vindicated the city's decision to reject the Guggenheim franchise. An expansion of an existing institution in a refurbished building, and designed by Helsinki-based architects, Amos Rex is the antithesis of the quick-fix cultural colonialism offered by global institutions like the Guggenheim.

The simultaneous plans by the Amos Anderson Art Museum to expand, and by the Guggenheim Foundation to create an outpost in the city, demonstrate two vastly different approaches to enriching culture within a city. While the Guggenheim promised to enhance the capital city's global standing with an injection of international art museum swagger, the Amos Anderson Art Museum has quietly reinforced Helsinki's existing cultural capital.

Following the Guggenheim's much-hyped Bilbao effect, cities around the world have been clamouring to gain cultural capital by developing blockbuster museums and galleries. Bringing a satellite premises of the Guggenheim to Helsinki would in theory elevate the Finnish capital, placing the city firmly on the global culture map and bolstering its tourist offering.

The simultaneous plans, by the Amos Anderson Art Museum and the Guggenheim Foundation, demonstrate two vastly different approaches to enriching culture within a city

Floated amid the financial crisis, the Guggenheim Helsinki received widespread public criticism from the start.

Under the initial proposals, the city would provide a prime plot of harbourside land and pay the €130 million construction costs. A €23.4 million licensing fee from the Guggenheim Foundation reinforced views that the museum colony would primarily serve itself.

With the benefits to the institution seemingly outweighing that of the city, the controversial initial plans for the outpost were dropped. A year later, the Foundation revealed a revised financial strategy and an international competition was launched to find an architect to design the new museum. That same year, 2013, the Amos Anderson Art Museum unveiled its intention to build a new larger home.

The prestige of designing a striking modern art gallery to be the latest global Guggenheim drew widespread international press and received 1,715 entrants, making it the largest architectural competition in history. Six emerging international architectural practices were shortlisted for the chance to complete the prestigious project, with Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki Architectes named the winner. Not only would the institution be imported, but so too would the architect.

"The City of Helsinki is tempted to spend hundreds of millions of municipal euros in return for the benefits of the branding of the city with someone else's mark," stated a competition launched to find alternatives for the proposed Guggenheim Helsinki site. The competition summed up the idea that the Finnish capital was selling out to an American brand.

Following the Guggenheim's much-hyped Bilbao effect, cities around the world have been clamouring to gain cultural capital by developing blockbuster museums and galleries

Concurrently, but with substantially less fanfare, Amos Rex hired Helsinki-based architect JKMM to design the new home for the Amos Anderson Art Museum. Previously located in a six-storey former newspaper office, the institution was established in 1965 from the collection of local businessman Amos Anderson.

Rather that creating a new blockbuster landmark structure, the Amos Anderson art foundation choose to rejuvenate the council-owned Lasipalatsi, or glass palace, a 1930s piece of functionalist architecture that was looking for a new purpose. Crucially, and clearly differentiating it from the Guggenheim's proposal, the foundation intended on building its new home at no cost to either the city of Helsinki nor the state.

The Guggenheim scheme was finally dismissed by city councillors in December 2016, with Osku Pajamaki, a council member, stating that there are no shortcuts to tourism and cultural attractions in question. "Instead of buying a subsidiary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, we can now focus on creating unique local cultural attractions in Helsinki, he said."

Amos Rex, the Amos Anderson art foundation's new home, is one of these local cultural attractions – an impressive art gallery under a square that is certainly unique. The domed underground structures topped with playful skylights, merged with a sleek functionalist building, is both modern and born of Helsinki.

With the world's largest cultural institutions – the Louvre, Guggenheim, Pompidou, V&A and so on – exporting their brands to create high-profile outposts around the world, Amos Rex demonstrates a clear alternative: build from within rather that import culture.

Amos Rex demonstrates a clear alternative: build from within rather that import culture

Since rejecting the Guggenheim, Helsinki has seen a rejuvenation of an existing locally based museum, designed by a locally based architect, at no cost to the public. The architects have also given a historic building a new lease of life and created an impressively intriguing public square in the process.

Cities will still strive to replicate the Bilbao effect by attracting the high-profile Guggenheims of the world to their locales, and the soon-to-open V&A Dundee will undoubtedly add the Scottish city to the cultural map. But Amos Rex offers a different and perhaps better way. With it, Helsinki shows you don't need to import a brand to get cultural prestige, if you already have cultural capital.

Photography is by Tuomas Uusheimo.

The post "With Amos Rex, Helsinki shows you don't need to import a brand to get cultural prestige" appeared first on Dezeen.

Duangrit Bunnag has defended his competition-winning design for a new airport terminal in Bangkok, which detractors claim copies Kengo Kuma's work.

The Thai architect's studio, DBALP, won the competition to design a new terminal for Suvarnabhumi airport, with plans for a canopy of stepped timber arches that some online commenters have likened to Kuma's Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum in Japan.

The comparisons led Bunnag to defend the design. "I didn't copy anyone else's work," he was reported as saying by the Bangkok Post.

"Those who follow my work will know that I created a similar image in my previous designs, such as for a hotel in Sri Lanka."

His inspiration, he said, was the lush landscape of Thailand.

Covered by the soaring timber canopy encased in a glass facade, the design for Suvarnabhumi's terminal two features an indoor tropical rainforest complete with waterfalls.

In Singapore the Moshe Safdie-designed Jewel Changi Airport is due to open next year, featuring a giant dome with a waterfall pouring through the centre to the indoor forest below.

DBALP Consortium's design has a steel structure that will support timber beams, which will form a grid pattern and filter light like a rainforest canopy.

The competition to design Suvarnabhumi's terminal two was already controversial, after original winners SA Group had its contract revoked by Airports of Thailand (AOT) for failing to supply a document quoting the cost of the project.

DBALP Consortium, along with Nikken Sekkei, EMS Consultants, MHPM, MSE and ARJ Consortium, had originally been named the runner up for the competition to design the 35 billion baht (£822 million) airport.

SA Group is believed to be contesting the decision, claiming they did not receive the essential document from the AOT in the first place, and highlighting that its proposal was under the stipulated budget.

Bunnag told local paper The Standard he was "sorry" for his competitor's loss, but insisted that there had been "100 per cent no corruption" in the sealed bidding process.

Suvarnabhumi airport's terminal two, which will have capacity for 30 million passengers a year, is due to open in 2021.

In Mexico, the fate of Norman Foster and Fernando Romero's airport for the capital city hangs in the balance, after the country's newly elected president announced a public referendum on cancelling the $13.3 billion (£10.30 billion) scheme.

The post Architect denies plagiarising Kengo Kuma for Bangkok airport terminal design appeared first on Dezeen.