Be Open think tank

#BeOpenARCH Emerging from the rugged Joshua Tree Park in California, colorful Monument House designed by prominent Southern California architect Josh Schweitzer in 1990 takes shape as three separate structures, each in a different color. The modernist architectural icon characterized by multi-color exterior and trapezoidal openings was built as a vacation home for the architect’s close friends and family and is now open for the public for the first time.

#BeOpenARCH In 2014, architecture 1WEEK1PROJECT based in France and Chile proposed Qatar World Cup Memorial, an evolving tower dedicated to workers who died due to ‘natural causes’ during the construction of the 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums in Qatar. It is a tower made out of concrete modules, each representing a deceased worker. Concerned by the fact that no independent body has been able to defend the rights of migrant workers or count the deaths, the team wanted to offer families from Nepal, India and other nationalities a place of contemplation away from the cities and skyscrapers of Qatar. Today, the tower stands at a soaring height of 4.4 km, commemorating 6,751 fallen laborers, which is three times more than predicted by the architects at the time of the project’s conception.

#BeOpenARCH Entitled the Cliff House, this five-storey modular home conceptualized by Australian modular design and construction company Modscpape clings to the side of a cliff, creating an absolute connection with the ocean. Inspired by the way barnacles cling to the hull of a ship, the design itself would make conventional construction methods impossible. So, the concept utilises the company’s modular design and prefabrication technologies to deliver a series of stacked housing units that are anchored into the cliff face using engineered steel pins.

#BeOpenDESIGN The most prominent feature of PYLO, bike helmet prototype designed by Berlin-based innovation studio nFrontier, is the world’s first Face Shield Airbag designed for a bicycle helmet, which blows up from the rear to protect not only the skull but also the lower face from injury in the event of a crash. Equally suitable for urban commuters and tech-savvy athletes, the lightweight helmet integrates many other industry-first technologies, including key automotive safety and driver assistance, alongside LIDAR radar sensors, 3D immersive sound, LED light indicators, a Smart 360° Surround Safety System and a versatile 3D-knitted inlay. More bespoke bike helmets in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN China-born RCA student Yuhan Bai has come up with an idea to make a vegan leather mixing organic substances with soil. Aptly named the Soil Project, her concept clothing collection includes a soil-leather corset and several soil-dyed garments. To make her innovative material, Bai tried different raw materials such as gelatin, agar, starch, glycerin, gluten, mixed with water and combined them with different proportions of soil before boiling into the container or in the mould. Engineered to look and feel like animal leather, the resulting transparent biomaterial is as soft and flexible as silicone. More natural leather alternatives in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN Designer Albi Serfaty of Israeli-based lighting design studio Aqua Creations has created a luminous installation aiming to start a wider conversation about the imbalance in freshwater lakes around the world. Named Light on Water and shaped after Lake Doiran, located in Greece and North Macedonia, and Lake Chad Chad in Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, the artwork is comprised of silk moving shades on top of mirror-like stainless-steel structure that imitates the presence of water.

#BeOpenDESIGN The most prominent feature of PYLO, bike helmet prototype designed by Berlin-based innovation studio nFrontier, is the world’s first Face Shield Airbag designed for a bicycle helmet, which blows up from the rear to protect not only the skull but also the lower face from injury in the event of a crash. Equally suitable for urban commuters and tech-savvy athletes, the lightweight helmet integrates many other industry-first technologies, including key automotive safety and driver assistance, alongside LIDAR radar sensors, 3D immersive sound, LED light indicators, a Smart 360° Surround Safety System and a versatile 3D-knitted inlay. More bespoke bike helmets in our blog

#BeOpenARCH Inspired by the vernacular architecture in the gorilla forest in Rwanda, Daita2019 house by Japanese architect Suzuko Yamada forgoes a solid wall between the building and its garden in favour of an assemblage of 34 windows of different sizes, rendered alternately in wood, steel or aluminium. In addition to structural elements such as squared timbers, steel members, pillars and beams of single pipes and bracings, there are staircases, balustrades, window frames, furniture, curtains, trees, pot-plants, bicycles, and more, scattered around to shape varied scenes of life. Layers of lines are interwoven from the outside to the inside of the building, so that each inhabitant can live freely and find one’s own relaxing environment.

#BeOpenART London-based architect Yussef Agbo-Ola of environmental design practice Olaniyi Studio has created a collection of footwear made from biomaterials, which is designed to curl up like plants when they decay. Created to be artworks rather than functional objects, the series features nine experimental shoes with soles made from plant fibres mixed with clays, plant starch and other organic materials, such as herbs, sand, flowers, alga, volcanic dust and cacao powder. The natural additives have been chosen to control the footwear's rate of degradation.

#BeOpenDESIGN Co-created by machines and local artisans, this stool by Indian studio 5th Column celebrates both advantages of mass production and ages-old furniture making techniques. Named Ciro (Greek for Sun), the piece of furniture is shaped after this celestial body: its circular seat of teak wood is handwoven in place to a cast-aluminum frame, which holds the entire stool together, using cane strips. More design-minded stools in our blog