Tabla de contenidos para January - February 2022 en Frame

First, it was e-commerce that threw brick-and-mortar retail into a tailspin and redefined the shopping experience for good. Now, one of the greatest disruptors of the physical storefront is the commercialization of livestream technology, which has, in the last year, transformed the once-linear path to purchase even further. China has been a major driver of the livestream commerce market. An analysis by McKinsey indicates that live-commerce-initiated sales could account for as much as 10 to 20 per cent of all e-commerce by 2026. The evidence is there: Alibaba generated €6.69 billion in transaction value in the first 30 minutes alone of its Singles’ Day presale campaign on Taobao Live. Livestreaming is now being exported from China to the rest of the world. Amid this new retail landscape, brands are becoming…

FULDA A new, sustainable take on the local grocery, Tegut… Teo is a 50-m2 24/7 retail space that’s unmanned from check-in to checkout, conceived with local materials and fitted with a green roof. ‘Tegut… Teo is a winning project because it puts people first and humanizes technology to such a highly functional state,’ said jury member Rosie Morley, principal at Fender Katsalidis. ‘It brings utility to the fore, with solutions for future problems.’ Located in Fulda, Germany, the space was conceived by Design for Human Nature, which Interstore creative director Nathan Watts commended for giving ‘a bit of personality to the robot’. Tobias Geisler, Vave Studio cofounder, thought the project’s strength was in its scalability. He believes there is a good opportunity to use the model as a platform, ‘for…

DELFT ‘This not only serves as an interesting piece of architecture and an interesting co-working space but also as a meeting hub for the neighbourhood and city,’ said jury member Caro Lundin, cofounder and creative director of ARC Club. ‘That really spoke to me.’ The city in question is Delft in the Netherlands, where Vakwerk Architecten used circular principles to transform a century-old listed building into its own office as well as co-working space for other entrepreneurs. Anastasia Karandinou, architect and course director at the University of East London, said she read the project’s dialogue between old and new as ‘a metaphor for collaboration, coexistence and participation between the people who work there, the community and the surrounding area of the city. I was very impressed by the details of…

SHENZHEN Atelier XI transformed a massive air conditioner factory into an exhibition venue for the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in Shenzhen, bringing the idea from commission to fruition in just three months. Both the expanse of the 10,000-m2 site and its rigid grid-and-truss system appealed to the designers, who chose to work with the factory’s existing elements instead of disguising them. The result is a 250-m-long light installation for wayfinding, display and atmosphere. Jury member Julie Payette, cofounder and partner at v2com Newswire, found the juxtaposition of light and raw materials ‘beautiful’, an adjective also used by fellow juror Simona Franci, principal and design director at Fortebis. ‘UABB Longgang Exhibition Hall displays a wonderful exploration of light and geometry as an architectural conduit,’ said Julian Lwin, principal and…

Absolute thought-leaders’ is how jury member Esra Lemmens, design strategist at her eponymous agency, described OMA/AMO during the judging process. With bases spanning four continents, OMA is truly an international architecture and urbanism practice. The firm is a partnership led by Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long and managing partner-architect David Gianotten. AMO is the group’s research-and-design-oriented offshoot, applying architectural thinking to peripheral typologies. From office buildings to hotels to department stores to runway shows to exhibitions: OMA/AMO’s projects have a future-forward lens, offering cues of where design as a discipline is heading. This makes them stimulating substance for the pages of Frame, where they’ve featured heavily over the years. The group’s impressive client list includes Prada and Kaufhaus…

The doors of Eindhoven’s DomusDela swung open bright and early on the morning of 21 October 2021 for The Next Space, a partnership with IBA, IMM and Dutch Design Week. We anticipated the day to be full of ideation and action planning surrounding the future, resilient city. Little could we know how far the audience would take that mission. Aligned with four talks about spatial design’s role in environmental responsibility, distributed healthcare, urban agricultural and methods of shared living, the one-day make-a-thon brought together a range of industry stakeholders, from designers and architects to real estate developers and retailers. The motive? To form a framework for spatial design in which people and the planet can thrive. First on stage – while remotely tuned in – was Patrick Frick, lead facilitator…

A pivotal question is how to challenge the status quo and make social design incentivizing for clients. The goal at the start of any design process should be to encourage companies to examine their role in their communities – is it beneficial or detrimental? And how are the spaces they establish perpetuating that impact? ‘The human population on this planet – and specifically decisionmakers – has to understand our critical dependence on the health of the global commons,’ asserts Frick. Policies geared towards more socially and environmentally conscious design practices can be seen as a hindrance. On the contrary, it is only through these standards that our societies – and consequently the need for design – will continue to exist. Fortunately, the design industry has no shortage of ingenuity and…

WeWork grew to monumental status by leasing huge amounts of urban floor space and subletting it to its tenants for a profit. But as the pandemic saw those swathes of central office space empty overnight, there is new thinking about how flexible office space is best created. In February 2021, The Wall Street Journal noted more joint ventures between co-working operators and landlords, where risk and revenue are shared. This approach is helping providers open spaces faster and more freely, particularly in locations that are seeing the work-near-home demand. It’s also helping neighbourhood workspace have a more localized and individual feel, with community benefit too. While the major players have so far dominated the urban scene, newcomers are enjoying success in the near-home space, like Perth-based Spacecubed, Common Ground in…

Pre-pandemic co-working was popular mainly with freelancers and start-ups, but the ongoing backdrop of uncertainty has seen traditional businesses de-risk by setting small teams of their employees up in local hubs. ‘Businesses today are looking for flexible rental options that are versatile and highly responsive to changing market dynamics,’ says Kong Wan Sing, founder of JustCo. Before the pandemic, 50 to 60 per cent of the Southeast Asian flex space provider’s deals were with enterprises. As of last December, it was 90 per cent. Sing told Coworking Insights: ‘The combination of businesses seeking to deploy less capital into real estate, and employees expecting more choices over how and where they work, will fuel expectations toward flexible office space to complement primary real estate needs over the next decade.’ In Australia,…

Every year, in January, the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathers with thousands of participants in Davos, Switzerland. In 2007, the theme of the five-day meeting was Shaping the Global Agenda: The Shifting Power Equation. It’s a setting where some of the world’s best minds come together to solve complex issues and literally shape the global agenda. That, understandably, requires the right tools. And it’s against this backdrop that Moving Walls was conceived. The organizers of the 2007 event sought whiteboard surfaces for visualization that could be used individually, but also come together as a system for discussions and the like. At the time, agile working was not a widespread concept in design. Nevertheless, the need for adaptable, easy-to-build products was there. Brothers Marcel and Patrick Frick saw a solution in…

Since its emergence through the 2010s, the ghost kitchen has been heralded as a major catalyst for change in terms of on-site, brick-and-mortar dining. The proliferation of the concept – which takes the sit-in format and flips it on its head for a model formed solely around food preparation and delivery – was a sign of times characterized by new technologies and third-party platforms whose missions orbit comfortable ease of use and frictionless convenience. Driven by the increasing demand for delivery and at-home options – as well as the ‘dark’ model’s low-overhead, small-footprint nature – the trend’s intersection with Covid-19 all but forced the restaurant industry to adopt this strategy as a means to both remain in operation and recoup substantial losses. According to data from Euromonitor, this section of…

City centres, and the retailers that operate within them, were debilitated by the pandemic. With a prediction of a 67 per cent drop in city centre retail footfall, a January 2021 survey by Bright-pearl found that almost a quarter of retailers (24 per cent) intended to close physical stores that year. The future isn’t as pessimistic as it appears, however. The same study found that almost one-in-five retailers (18 per cent) planned to move stores out of major city centres and into local high streets within the next 12 months. Such a move makes sense – these retailers are simply following their customers. With isolation placing greater emphasis on the importance of nature, one in seven Londoners wanted to leave the city as a result of the pandemic, according to…

AMSTERDAM ‘Felix Meritis is a really exciting work,’ said jury member Tina Norden of Conran and Partners. ‘Not only does it reuse existing spaces, it reimagines them in a way that feels contemporary and of the moment – and you can also imagine using the space in this way for many years to come. That adds to it being not only an exciting but a sustainable project.’ Located in Amsterdam, Felix Meritis was originally built in 1788 for a society of scientists, artists and entrepreneurs during the Age of Enlightenment. The designers at i29 drew from this history when renovating the monumental interiors into a contemporary cultural institution, relating each space to a specific point in the building’s past. Of particular merit was the use and effect of colour. ‘I…

‘The materials are well-chosen for the use and the space feels lived-in, so you can feel the culture’Sonya Simmonds, Spotify TOKYO For its own office in Tokyo, design studio R/Urban reunited an 88-m2 building’s formerly divided spaces – one commercial, one residential – to create an open, free-flowing interior. Flexible fixtures and curtains mean the workspace can be used in multiple ways and accommodate future changes. R/Urban reinterpreted traditional Japanese concepts for the scheme, including recessing the entrance door to create an external front patio (engawa) that could serve as a local community gathering space. Jury member Royce Epstein, design director at Mohawk Group, said this element provides a ‘great connection to the street with visibility and activity’. Matteo Renna, founder of his eponymous studio, noted that such semi-outdoor spaces…

‘Maggie’s and Heatherwick have created a new global reference for buildings of healing’Luís Pedra Silva, Pedra Silva Arquitectos LEEDS ‘This is the winning project on many levels,’ declared jury member and Domus Academy director of education Mark Anderson. ‘It’s a very sensitive and innovative proposal that represents a ground-breaking approach to the typology where the human experience is prioritized.’ Located on the campus of St James’s University Hospital in the UK, Maggie’s Leeds is a 462-m2 healthcare centre by Heatherwick Studio that champions wellness and nature through its design. The curvaceous wooden interior – prefabricated from sustainably forested spruce – has concentrated nooks of greenery, and the structure sports a rooftop garden where visitors are encouraged to help care for the plants. Mohawk Group’s design director Royce Epstein called it…

AMSTERDAM As implied by its name, The Gymnasium was once a central Amsterdam gymnasium, which had fallen into disrepair. Architect Robbert de Goede’s challenge was to create an intimate atmosphere in the 620-m2 space. Because the apartment is actually too large for a typical family to occupy, De Goede looked ahead to make a house that feels finished but can adapt to new functions in the future. Certain areas can be separated from the main house, for instance, while a hobby area can later become a home office with space for additional workers. These two drivers – adaptive reuse and future-proofing – scored top marks from the jury. ‘A view to transformation in the future is an exciting and much-needed approach for every architectural project,’ said Leni Popovici, founding director…

TOKYO Representing the fact that our planet is oversaturated by information and objects, The Drowned World Anchor is a set design in Tokyo concocted by Ultra Studio and Jukan Tateisi in which humans hang in the balance between real life and virtual reality. ‘This “low-tech” environment allows the messaging of performance and projections to take centre stage,’ said jury member Julian Lwin, spatial design director at LwinDesign and StreetFarms USA. ‘Its lack of explicit design is central to its success as an avant-garde art space.’ For Bill Bouchey, principal and director of design interiors at HOK, the set design was both ‘familiar and disturbing, and the “discomfort” of the environment succeeds at both engaging the viewer and causing me to remember this space’. Dr Avsar Gurpinar, lecturer in design at…

SAN SEBASTIÁN In addition to taking home the Window Display of the Year award (see p. 54), Ura – Landscape topped its category for Best Use of Colour. Presenting a raincoat from Loreak Mendian’s AW19 collection, Ja! Studio worked with three distinct colour planes emerging from a single point. Sheltering from the ‘rain’, an element signified by a wall of blue perforated metal panels, three raincoats – one yellow, one blue, one green – suggested light refracted through raindrops. Jury member Julian Lwin, spatial design director at Lwindesign and StreetFarms USA, appreciated the ‘potent and vigorous choice of colours that mirror the products on display’. Other jurors saw a work of art come to life: Dum cofounder and art director Wiebe Boonstra likened it to a Frank Stella – ‘It’s…

‘A good client gives wings to his creative partners, acting as a creative accelerator.’ So said jury member Stefan Weil, CCO at Atelier Markgraph, during the judging process. And that’s exactly what he found in Shanghai Fengyuzhu Culture Technology – a.k.a. Fengyuzhu – a leading enterprise in the application of digital technologies in China. In Tonglu’s Qinglongwu Village, the company developed Fangyukong, China’s first village-based ‘cultural and creative resort’, combining accommodation, leisure activities and cultural tourism. According to those at Fengyuzhu, the project ‘has brought cultural and artistic elements into the village, enriched the functions and business formats of B&Bs, and improved the supporting services of countryside cultural tourism’. In a bid to ‘revitalize the village through art’, Fengyuzhu also brought to Tonglu the world’s largest international art festival, the…

Human-centric design requires that designers have more empathy for and connection to people that they create with – not for. Responsive technology, customization options and accessibility features are all strategies that accommodate the needs and wishes of the individual. Providing access to green space, protective systems and guidelines and neurodiverse solutions are a few of the many ways health and wellness can come to the forefront of the city. The efficacy of these urban improvements relies on the understanding and participation of each user in a community. One of the most echoed notions during the make-a-thons was Kool’s quote: ‘If you build a community, everybody should have skin in the game.’ ‘If people are only financially involved, you say: “Okay, you can join, you pay and then we’ll do it.”…

Anna Resei’s modular survival kit for remote workers supports and promotes nomadic, pared-back lifestyles You envision a borderless future for work. Can you explain? ANNA RESEI: I believe remote work is here to stay and will not only release us from the grip of the daily commute, but from spatial and geographical limitations altogether. Employees now have much more choice over where they work and are no longer stuck to one or two locations. Our working lives become much more flexible. All we really need is an environment and the tools – think network connection, electricity and sanitary infrastructure – that aid in that flexibility. How does your design support such nomadic working lives? I propose the Tele-nomadic Kit, a modular and technical survival kit for remote workers. It offers…

01 THINK LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Outside the city, proximity to public transport and walkability still matter. Beyond that, near-home workspaces should emphasize local qualities and an individualized approach to design. 02 FOSTER COMMUNITY THROUGH SIZE AND SOCIAL VALUE Near-home workspaces have the potential to create social value in their communities. Programmes that give space to young local entrepreneurs, for example, will boost the neighbourly spirit among workspace tenants too. As for size, QIC Global Real Estate thinks a baseline footprint of 325 m2 and 500 to 600 daily users will foster genuine community while remaining profitable. 03 ADD AMENITIES AND SERVICES Creating F&B options, shops, entertainment or a place to work out alongside the office will dial up the convenience factor. Better still, take up space in a mall where…

Where Covid-19 served to accelerate hospitality design trends like contactless technology and remote working facilities, it had a reverse effect on the wider experiential travel market. Driven by extensive periods of lockdown living, a broad reassessment of values relating to leisure and locality saw the rise of rural staycations and a heightened appreciation for simple, authentic and responsible travel. While this ground shift may have been catalysed by an element of necessity, however, it is unlikely that these principles will simply fall away now the option for a return to so-called normality is once again available. ‘An emerging trend is seeing holidaymakers choosing to slow down the tempo and experience destinations on a deeper level, making more genuine connections with local people and cultures along the way,’ found a 2020…

SAN SEBASTIÁN A window display for Loreak Mendian, Ura – Landscape inhabited the fashion brand’s San Sebastián store to present a key piece from its AW19 collection, a raincoat. The Ja! Studio-designed installation aptly drew upon ‘the interaction between earth, water and light’, using a bold palette of blue, green and yellow to express the connection. ‘The whole entrance area is turned into a store window and vice versa,’ noted jury member Martijn Hoogendijk, a creative director and designer, commending the ‘great minimal graphic placement’. Indeed, it was the project’s minimalism that gave it the edge in its category. ‘There is a beautiful frugality about this proposal, which is so conceptually accomplished that it didn’t require any more material than what was used,’ commented Amrita Mahindroo, director of DROO-Da Costa…

‘It takes you to an almost spiritual level that’s unexpected’Mustafa Afsaroglu, Taner’s Sons Design SHENZHEN For farm-to-table restaurant Voisin Organique, Various Associates conceptualized a space that would evoke the sense of ‘having a picnic in a valley’, opting for refined materials and strategic lighting to set the ambience. According to jury member, Sunshine PR founder and Frame China director Sanxia Zhou, who has dined at the Shenzhen establishment, ‘going inside is like an exploration’. She added: ‘Shenzhen is a very busy city and everyone works very hard. This place is a very good environment in which to hide away for a few hours.’ Mustafa Afsaroglu, cofounder and interior designer at Taner’s Sons Design Studio, singled out the ‘flirtatious play’ between daylight and artificial mood lighting, while Tom Edington was drawn…

BANGKOK ‘Vikasa Yoga offers a beautiful balance of functional and emotional design,’ said jury member George Foussias. ‘The designers took a modern design-thinking toolkit and merged it with local fabrication methods that are relevant, sustainable and timeless.’ The director of interior design at Lemay is referring to Enter Projects Asia’s fusion of 3D technologies with local Thai craftsmanship for the Bangkok space, whose materials – from Thai hardwood to rattan to palm leaves to black slate – are all natural and locally sourced. Other jury members were impressed by the studio’s ability to shape such sustainable, local materials into a contemporary design. ‘I can imagine how refreshing it must feel to walk in from the hot, sweaty streets of Bangkok to this beautiful haven of peace and tranquillity,’ said Jason…

TOKYO A response to evaluating the necessity of central post-pandemic office buildings, design company Kokuyo converted the ground floor of its large Tokyo workplace into an ‘urban park’ that’s open to the public. The 8,426-m2 park presents an idea for future models of inner-city workspaces – what those at Kokuyo refer to as an ‘innovation ecosystem between companies and society’. Among 230 species of plant life, people can peruse art and books over a cup of coffee, pick up a musical instrument or gather on the wooden staircase. ‘I really like the attitude of taking an existing office space and opening it up to the public, allowing the office to be more social and open, while at the same time being really smart in terms of how each of the…

BEIJING Archstudio’s sensitive renovation of three grey-brick Beijing houses into one unified home involved using the existing veranda as a tool to reconfigure the circulation and layout of the spaces – rooms for living, dining, tea and more inhabit the formerly separated residences. Some walls were modernized with glass bricks, uniform in shape and size to the original slate-coloured blocks, while, in other areas, sinuous glass reveals intimate scenes within. Jury member and Ikea designer Akanksha Deo Sharma called the work a ‘beautiful integration of old and new’ and particularly appreciated the ‘play of materials, lines and light’. Her sentiments were echoed by fellow jurors. Lorcan O’Herlihy, founder and design principal at Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, noted the ‘excellent atmosphere and materiality’, while Tobias Geisler, cofounder at Vave Studio, exclaimed that…

‘The three simple elements of this space – art, wood and stone – keep this bathhouse alive and interesting’Johnny Chiu, J.C. Architecture KUMAMOTO Built in a residence for both public and private use, the Kuwamizu Bathhouse in the Japanese city of Kumamoto offers visitors the chance to engage with art in an unconventional setting. Thanks to its lenticular construction made of Japanese cypress (hinoki), the wall art seems to appear and dissolve as bathers move through the space. It’s this process of metamorphosis that appealed to jury member and founding director and partner of KAP Studios, Leni Popovici, who called it a ‘sensitively designed space that pays a lot of attention to its use’. She added: ‘A modest, no-frills approach sprinkled with a bit of creative thinking that results in…

They may be only mid-career, but Neri&Hu nabbed the top Honorary Award at the 2021 Frame Awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the entire body of work of a person (or studio) who has been truly inspirational for their peers and has pushed the boundaries of spatial design throughout their career. ‘Consider it an encouragement,’ said Frame editor in chief Robert Thiemann when sharing the news of the accolade with Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu, ‘to continue on the path that you’re on.’ The pair set up their studio in Shanghai in 2004 and delivered their first project, a yoga studio, with a shoestring budget. They appeared on our radar in 2007 when they were shortlisted for Interior Design Firm of the Year at our Great Indoors Awards, a forerunner…

The way we interact with people and spaces has drastically altered course over the past few years. Work meetings switched to Zoom, events were livestreamed around the globe and we welcomed what was touted as ‘the first NFT house in the world’. As our ‘built’ environment increasingly straddles the physical and virtual spheres, Space Popular has emerged as an expert on phygital space. In the words of jury member and Fender Katsalidis principal Rosie Morley during the judging process: ‘A deft hand at bridging the physical and virtual worlds, Space Popular demonstrates clarity in how to connect both forms of our existence.’ Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg founded Space Popular in Bangkok in 2013 before returning to London in 2016. The studio has completed interiors, buildings, exhibitions, public art and…

As outlined previously, designers have a responsibility to redesign ‘norms’ and evolve values in developing wellbeing-oriented cities. In practice, this entails promoting communication between involved parties and providing open-source information. It also asks that creators adhere to science-based sustainability targets. Each of these objectives has sharing – and a shift away from personal ownership – at its core. New transportation infrastructures, food-exchange platforms and public space typologies are a few ways in which sharing economies are currently being redefined. The overarching motive behind each of these initiatives should be to decentralize give and take between designers, makers and users, creating transparent cities that prioritize residents over commerce. It’s a trajectory that, despite all the apps you can download, requires shared physical space. The village square is in dire need of…

Early in the pandemic we discussed how the remote work revolution could set us free, allowing work from anywhere. That inspired dreams of destination offices, co-working retreats in exotic places and sojourns in global cities no longer limited by our vacation allowance. While that’s proven true for some digital nomads, the reality is that most of us need (or like) to be tethered to one locality. Caring duties, school facilities and community links make working near home a more sensible option for most. But that doesn’t have to mean one fixed place of work. Access to a range of workspaces in a network can suit some workers, too. Apps like Narau, Switch, Deskimo and Workfrom are helping people navigate a new landscape of on-demand near-home workplaces. These include conventional shared…

What’s your view on the notion of the office today? TALITHA LIU: The office today is a state of mind. While the office space was once an indispensable social and technological infrastructure for work, digital technology now renders it obsolete in favour of devices, platforms, apps and clouds. Access to an internet connection is more important than the physical space of work. The dogmatic grid of the modernist office has been dissolved and diffused into public and private realms. Less office space equals less architecture. What was your starting point to envision an alternative (home)office setting? LEXI TSIEN: We looked back to the Continuous Monument, a conceptual model for total urbanization by the Italian architects of Superstudio. Developed in 1969 as a critique of the urban planning at that time,…