Be Open think tank

#BeOpenDESIGN Cizorz by French designer Serge Atallah breaks the archetypical perception of traditional-type scissors and offers an entirely new aesthetic and storing solution. This Red Dot Winner features a structural core, a hardened steel blade and a leaf spring, and functions in the same way as conventional scissors. However, when not needed, it can be compressed and easily placed in an upright holder that follows its cylindrical form, wrapped in a non-slip silicon finish, wood, or bamboo depending on the user’s unique taste. More innovative scissor designs in our blog

#BeOpenARCH Have a look at these unique, custom-built treehouses developed by California-based company O2 Treehouse. They have been specifically designed for the team’s recent initiative Treewalkers, a worldwide network of franchise-based rentable treehouses, enabling investors to provide modular and scalable glamping treehouses, from a single unit to an entire treehouse villa. The team hopes that melding architectural forms with trees would allow for a stronger connection between humans and nature.

#BeOpenARCH #BeOpenART Russian Quintessential by Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov is a new art object opened at this year’s Archstoyanie festival in Nikola-Lenivets, Russia. The suspended pipe-like structure with a diameter of 3.5 meters and a length of 12 meters is as a full-fledged residential building with all modern conveniences and everything necessary for a comfortable stay. Russian Quintessential is placed on the sloped terrain, due to which the structure is literally ‘hanging in the air. Complex engineering techniques normally used in shipbuilding were used to bring the project to life. One of the main features of the project is its seamless cladding made of a 4 mm stainless steel sheet, reflecting the surrounding landscape of the art park. (via archdaily.com)

#BeOpenDESIGN Biarritz-based startup EXOD has developed an inflatable eco tent named ARK that comes together through inflation, tension and compression. It can be assembled on the ground, like a conventional tent, or raised above the ground, like a hammock (but without the curve!) using an innovative multi-anchor points solution. It can be suspended between two stable elements (e.g. two trees or rocks), or from a single point (e.g. a brand or under a bridge). The tent features an inflatable exoskeleton, which takes up to 3 minutes to be inflated using a standard air pump, and a single wall made of waterproof-breathable custom fabric, inspired by kite surfing technologies. More innovative camping solutions in our blog

#BeOpenARCH Local studio Bak Gordon Arquitectos has completed Casa Azul, a residence along the rural flat landscape of Alentejo, Portugal, with both exterior and interior covered with ochre-pigmented lime mortar. The graphical building is punctuated by large openings along its façade and has a swimming pool running along its length. The pool, widest at its center and narrow at both ends, sits between two imposing double-height volumes called the ‘fresco rooms’, open-air structures featuring long benches, which makes them the perfect lounging place.

#BeOpenARCH Architects Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira Architects have teamed up to build a contemporary art pavilion in South Korea, which was originally planned to be four times bigger to host two Pablo Picasso pieces for the 1992 Madrid European Capital of Culture. Adapted to its new location atop on of Changpyeong-Ri’s tallest hills, the Saya Park Art Pavilion is partly sunken below ground with squared openings controlling the amount of light pouring into the pavilion. The pavilion forks out into two volumes: a rectangular one for the main exhibition spaces and a curving one for additional exhibits.

#BeOpenARCH Local studio Bak Gordon Arquitectos has completed Casa Azul, a residence along the rural flat landscape of Alentejo, Portugal, with both exterior and interior covered with ochre-pigmented lime mortar. The graphical building is punctuated by large openings along its façade and has a swimming pool running along its length. The pool, widest at its center and narrow at both ends, sits between two imposing double-height volumes called the ‘fresco rooms’, open-air structures featuring long benches, which makes them the perfect lounging place.

#BeOpenDESIGN Designer James Dickson has developed a solution to help children conquer their fear of needles. He 3D prints Children’s Needle Covers, playfully shaped like a plane or butterfly, make the entire process of getting vaccinations less daunting and brighten the day for children who are patients in hospitals. Medical professionals can even offer the cover to the child to take back home as a memento after safely disposing the syringe.

#BeOpenARCH Italian architects Fabio Revetria and Lara Sappa of the Officina82 studio has launched Selucente, an experimental project of architecture, recovery and hospitality in a previously abandoned settlement in the Ligurian Alps. The project offers an innovative way to spend a night immersed nature using GlamBox, a receptive module in chestnut wood configured with a bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor and a mezzanine above. What gives it zest is the bed that is mounted on a trolley enabling occupants to move it outside, onto an external platform, where they can enjoy sleeping under the starry sky.

#BeOpenART Milan-based artist Edoardo Tresoldi has inaugurated a permanent installation called Opera on the seafront in Reggio Calabria, Italy. The open wire-mesh structure is conceived to celebrate the contemplative relationship between place and human beings through the language of classical architecture and the transparency of the Absent Matter. The artist has used pillars as founding archetypes of Western cultural heritage to compose a frame allowing for a different interpretation of the park. The colonnade distribution does not match that of the park, which enables the visitor to discover harmonies and contrasts between the two architectural systems.