Be Open think tank

#BeOpenARCH Mexican firm Zozaya Arquitectos has designed luxurious beachfront residences with a very organic architectural style that mimics fluidity of the sea waves on a peninsula, north of Troncones, in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The masterplan of the project Punta Majahua comprises six buildings with three floors each, a covered garage area, paddle court, a family swimming pool with a semi Olympic lap lane, an administrative office, a gym, staffing and service area, orchards for the resident’s consumption, and green areas. The project is designed to reduce energy consumption through cross ventilation. It also has its very own residual water treatment plant, which means that greywater is used to feed the plants, which thrive in such conditions.

#BeOpenDESIGN Hoshinoya Tokyo, a restaurant in the Japanese capital, is offering a beautiful design response to social distancing proposing a new way of dining safely in the pandemic era. The Tokyo Lantern Dinner experience suggests transparent lantern-like partitions suspended over each person’s head, which enables diners to take off their facemasks and enjoy a conversation during their meal. The custom-made lanterns, which pay homage to traditional Japanese customs and culture, are made by the long-established lantern store Kojima Shoten in Kyoto, which was founded during the Edo period. Designed to be as beautiful as they are functional, the lanterns also feature an integrated light that illuminates the face with soft light.

#BeOpenARCH Greek studio Sinas Architects has built a house on the island of Serifos that blends almost seamlessly in its natural environment of gravel slopes and beautiful rock formations. The design challenged this morphological preconception, by imagining the main facades of the house as xerolithies, short stone retaining walls created a long time ago for land cultivation purposes. To achieve this, all the functions of the house were placed sequentially making it long and narrow. To complete the "xerolithia" likeness, the roof of the house was covered with dirt and vegetation imitating the natural landscape. This made the house almost invisible, especially when seen from behind and afar.

#BeOpenDESIGN Toy designer Luca Boscardin has teamed up with steel carpenter Iwan Snel to transform his colourful line drawings of wild animals into abstract life-sized objects made of metal tubing for a public playground in an ex-industrial area in Amsterdam. Called Animal Factory, the project includes four sculptures made of metal tubes that are shaped like a giraffe, a crocodile, a gorilla and a wolf, each painted in a single bold shade, encouraging users to open their minds and let their imaginations run wild. While from a certain angle the steel constructions do not seem to have specific shapes, the silhouette of a certain animal is clearly visible once the viewpoint is changed. Positioned together, the objects represent a versatile and interactive installation, serving as a gigantic playground for children, an alternative place for a work out, or even as a bike rack. More curious playgrounds in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN Following his Couch-19, a sofa stuffed by used masks, Italian designer Tobia Zambotti has introduced Coat-19, a puffer jacket filled by light-blue face coverings the designer collected from the streets of Reykjavík. Most of the disposable masks available on the market are made with the same thermoplastic that is normally used to produce acrylic stuffing for affordable down jackets, which is what has inspired Zmabotti to develop Coat-19. Concerned by the threat of plastic pollution poised by improper disposal of PPE, the designer disinfected the discarded masks with ozone and shipped them to Aleksi Saastamoinen, a fashion design student at Aalto University in Finland who turned the recycled masks into the unusual stuffing.

#BeOpenNEWS We are proud to see the works submitted by design students and professionals for Beirut ID competition organized by BE OPEN and Cumulus at this year’s Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. DDW is the largest design event in Northern Europe. Featuring Beirut ID among the concepts from more than 2,600 designers all over the world, which were presented during the event, means recognizing the significance of the competition for the aim of bringing back joy to Lebanese people and revitalizing Beirut and its spirit after the tragic events of August 2020. Held in response explosion in the port of Beirut, which had destroyed half of the capital of Lebanon and heavily impacted people’s daily lives, Beirut ID aimed to join forces of the world design community during this time of crisis to offer impactful environmental and identity solutions to disastrous consequences of the accident.

#BeOpenDESIGN Chinese studio X+living has made use of rounded lines to depict the soft shape of clouds when designing a private kindergarten in Huzhou, China. Aligned with the concept of “Knowing by Seeing”, the project encompasses a museum-like dreamy space full of fairy-tale vibes, simultaneously drawing inspiration from architect Antoni Gaudí. The concept starts at the entrance lobby on the ground floor from macroscopic universe and leads children to appreciate the mystery of astronomy. A ‘galaxy’ light stripe surrounding six star-like and artistic sphere lamps is designed in an effort to let children stand at the origin of the birth of everything, understand the vastness of the universe and awaken the original curiosity of exploring new knowledge. The kindergarten features art, Lego, sports, reading, and psychological game rooms, as well as areas for dance, health, piano, and other office spaces that follow the soft color tone of the whole project.

#BeOpenART In the works of Italian sculptor Fabio Viale, the vitality of real-life re-emerges from the stone surfaces, as a timeless past and current trends come together. In an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the West and the Middle East, the artist applies Japanese tattoos to the replicas of the famous works of art created by Renaissance sculptors. In his latest work Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche), which replicates the neoclassical masterpiece by Canova, he has disrupted its traditional interpretation through the tattooing of the female body with the wedding motifs of Middle Eastern brides. In such a way, he encourages reflection on the condition of women in the current geopolitical context on the themes of conquest, suffering and salvation. More classic sculptures reimagined in our blog

#BeOpenDESIGN FEIT, a design brand based in Lisbon, Portugal, has combined a baby cradle and a drawing table for a kid within their N+L series. The minimalistic baby cradle NINA is made from durable and solid wood finished with natural ingredients like wax and oils, which gives it an attractive aesthetics that can easily suit in any environment. By adding up the XL top drawing block, the user can convert the versatile piece to the LUCA desk equipped with height-adjustable legs, which evolves with the child’s growth, maximizing space, durability and functional efficiency.

#BeOpenARCH When Teheran-based RYRA Studio were invited to redesign Barin Ski resort next to Shemshak, Iran’s second largest ski resort, the main cube-like structure had been already completed, but the architects felt the rectangular shape was alien to the mountainous context. Resembling a snow-covered slope, the resulting 10-storey building seems to be carved into the iced rock formation like natural caves. Each of the 67 dome-shaped cells varying in size from a 45sqm studio flat to a 270sqm penthouse enhances the feeling of a warm, homely shelter to relax in after skiing out in the cold.