Be Open think tank

#BeOpenDESIGN Tokyo-based design studio Hiroki Tominaga Atelier has come up with an unconventional solution for a temporary office of a video production company. As the client rented the building and the lease was uncertain, the brief called for an inexpensive, yet spectacular design. The team proposed using wooden transport pallets as the main finishing material. They used 130 pallets of three different types, ranging in cost from £6.50 to £20 a piece. While the cheapest were used to create a tiered ceiling, the most expensive ones were broken down to be used as checkered parquet flooring. The furniture was also made using stacked pallets.

#BeOpenDESIGN Amsterdam-based designer Santa Kupča has created a digital fashion collection of eight glitching garments, which in absence of a human body seem to live their own life on a digital runway. Named Decrypted Garments and reminiscent of the pixelated clothing found in video games, the collection is developed from the designer’s own clothes and accessories that have been 3D scanned and later digitally manipulated. Each piece in the collection is fragmented and asymmetric to emphasise how errors and distortion can often lead to unexpected beauty.

#BeOpenDESIGN Award-winning Megre Interiors has renovated 150-year-old Fonarnye Bani, one of the oldest bathhouses in St. Petersburg, Russia. The designers collected the fragments of stucco and decor they found in the dilapidated building and collaborated with the restorer Rafael Dayanov to recreate some areas of the bathhouse. Where it was not possible, the team had a difficult task to rethink the historical building in the context of modernity. They managed to draw the guests’ attention to the preserved elements of architecture, proportions, and volumes while creating a cozy, functional space.

#BeOpenARCH Having won the international competition to design the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat at the western coast of Greenland, Danish architect Dorte Mandrup developed a building with a twisted, triangular structure and a rooftop viewing platform. Located 250 km north of the Arctic Circle, the centre is placed in a dramatic and distinctive scenery, which prompted the team to propose a structure that appears open and lightweight, so that the visitors feel connected to the landscape. The shape of the building is generated by a series of steel trusses that gradually curve and rotate as they extend across the landscape. This create the unusual twisted design, which helps to prevents snow build-up on the roof.

#BeOpenDESIGN New York based industrial designer Charlotte McCurdy has collaborated with fashion designer Phillip Lim to create an amazing petroleum-free evening dress covered in sustainable sequins cut out of a carbon-negative bioplastic film made entirely of marine macro-algae. The solution offers an alternative to conventional plastic sequins that have seen a rise in popularity recently but are at the same time are disastrous for the environment. To match the characteristic shine and stiffness of traditional sequins, the designer cast the material in a deeper mould made of glass that transfers its reflective finish onto the final product. She used mineral pigments to add ethereal green colour to the material and then cut sequins out in a gently curved shape known as a tusk. Sewn onto a biodegradable base layer of the dress made of plant fibres, the sequins create a ripple effect reminiscent of seaweed tendrils. More ingenuous solutions, which prove that sustainable fashion does not have to be unpretentious, in our blog

#BeOpenARCH Designer Mahdi Eghbali Amlashi has envisioned a futuristic moon village on the moon with a recreational and research approach planned for the next two or three decades. The project will have the capacity to accept 100 people in limited time periods. The visitors might include researchers, tourists, engineers of various sciences, etc. in the age range of 18 to 60 years with favorable physical conditions. The programme includes a staging area where people can meet and gather for several purposes, a motion virtual reality game room, a smart solo gym with a private virtual coach, a smart restaurant operated by a robot with vertical access to the downstairs kitchen, and vertical shelves for hydroponic planting. Due to the high cost of transporting materials from Earth to the Moon, the designer proposes to construct the village with the help of 3D printing methods by robots using lunar soil and native materials. via amazingarchitecture.com

#BeOpenARCH Tasked to convert a former WW2 bunker into a cultural complex on the shorelands of Blåvand in Western Denmark, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) chose to create an antithesis to the heavy and hermetic military object. From the outside, the TIRPITZ museum looks like a series of precise cuts in the landscape. Only approaching the site, visitors notice finer slices and narrow paths descending to meet in a central clearing, bringing daylight and air into the heart of the complex. This central courtyard allows access into the four sunken galleries that are literally carved into the sand. The material palette of the project includes four main materials — concrete, steel, glass and wood — which draw from the existing structures and landscape of the area. More exotic uses for disused war bunkers in our blog

#BeOpenARCH Ukranian practice Sergey Makhno Architects has conceived Plan B, an innovative underground bunker-like house concept. The autonomous residential space is made of concrete and can be situated at a depth of 15 meters or below. Externally, the structure has a simple but aesthetically attractive form and is topped by a helipad. The bunker has several levels going deeper underground, which feature a living space, a floor with a water treatment system and generator, a layer of electrical equipment, and at the very bottom – a well. All these systems are intended to allow the building function off-grid. Besides, it has three exits, and a fire-resistant evacuation ‘ring,’ which can be reached from almost any point within the interior to immediately deliver the residents to the evacuation route.

#BeOpenDESIGN The non-profit Stelling33 foundation that transforms old bunkers used by the Germans during World War II into holiday homes, has commissioned the local designer Remko Verhaagen of Blooey to create the Bed and Bunker furniture collection for the retreats. The collection features eight iconic storytelling objects made by local artisans mostly using materials reclaimed from demolished bunkers, such as salvaged construction steel and recycled army canvas; while the locally sourced oak wood used for the pieces was provided by the Zuid Hollands Landschap foundation. These include a steel-cage pendant light, a stool with a sandbag seat, a bent-metal clothes hanger, a steel-framed table that includes a storage compartment, a folding chair, a bunk bed, an open cupboard, and a small wooden shelve with a metal frame.

#BeOpenARCH UK-based studio Lipton Plant Architects has won planning permission to convert an abandoned World War II bunker in Dorset, England, into a two-bedroom holiday rental property. The windowless 76sqm bunker features two bedrooms alongside a kitchen, living space and bathroom. To compensate the absence of windows in the original structure, the studio is planning to create two bomb-blast-shaped windows to allow light into the holiday home. One will be in the living space and the other in one of the bedrooms. The architects hope to celebrate the significant historic yet redundant structure by turning it into a high-tech and sustainable home. More converted bunkers in our blog