It seemed not long ago that Japanese architect Shigeru Ban first shocked the industry with his temporary pavilions made from paper tubes. These days, Ban lands multimillion-dollar commissions to erect paper-tube constructions around the world, and the unequivocally built-to-not-last design ethos has been inducted into popular contemporary practice. The Parisian design firm Studio Andrew Todd, for instance, was recently selected to realize their proposal for a circular theater made almost entirely of recycled-paper bales. More after the break.

more

The nude sculptures of Ancient Greece and Renaissance Rome are almost universally acclaimed for their ability to capture the proportions—and splendor—of the human body. But Paris-based photographer Léo Caillard has flipped this bare magnificence with a contemporary twist of humor and irony.

Perhaps we should emphasize the word irony. Rather than photographing the splendor of nude sculpture, Caillard takes classic sculptures and covers them up with outfits more suited to Brooklyn’s Bedford Avenue than Renaissance Rome: wayfarers, varsity jackets, cropped pants, adorable jumpers.

While we are quite positive the Romans and Greeks were not dressed in hipsterdom’s finest, the photographs challenge notions of identity, character, and personality. Click through to see them all!

“Hipster in Stone” photographs are available on demand in a limited edition of five prints on Caillard’s website.

more

Everyone loves window seats—but it’s safe to say that not everyone loves airports. Arriving hours beforehand just so you can be slowly corralled through a series of gates in which you are questioned, frisked, and asked to remove your shoes and discard your $3 bottled water? The ineffably boring duty-free shops, the limited dining options, the overpriced wifi? Not fun. But, particularly after suffering such indignities, nothing seems better than boarding the plane and settling down in that special place of your own, 34H, where you can finally block out the world and enjoy your ration of nuts and tomato juice.

Which is why we love the Windowseat Lounge, a new chair designed by Mike & Maaike that brings the intimacy and comfort of an airplane window seat to any public or private setting.

“[T]he Windowseat is designed as a comfortable refuge from the hustle and bustle of lobbies, airports or busy home environments,” say the designers in a product description. “By taking architectural elements (walls and ceiling) and applying them to a chair, we are exploring the idea of sub-architectural space.” In other words, with its “walls and ceiling,” Mike & Maaike’s Windowseat creates a partial sense of enclosure, offering a temporary sensory escape for the user. One can detect the design sensibilities of Eero Saarinen, the architect of the iconic TWA Flight Center, in the Windowseat’s diverse color scheme and streamlined form. See more photos after the jump!

more

Takako Tajima and Katrina Stoll Szabo’s 300-square-foot micro-unit model for LA Forum can accommodate a double bed, a kitchen and bath, a living area, and storage. Photo: Luke Gibson

We’ve come down hard on micro-apartments for promoting dorm life for full-fledged adults, glorifying prison cells, and lacquering unlivable pockets of space with a designer sheen that’s unattainable on most micro-incomes. But with an in-depth new show on micro-living at Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design to consider, we’re prepared to give the idea at least 220 square feet of our attention.

On view at the WUHO Gallery in Los Angeles through August 4, “How Small Is Too Small?” offers Angelenos a taste of living on the mini scale. Viewers who wonder how tiny a box they might compress their lives into can amble around a 300-square-foot mockup made from MDF and plywood. The MDF toilet is truly a work of art! Check it out after the jump.

more

Though this sculptural addition to Museum Gardens in Bethnal Green is called a “Peace Pavilion,” it sure doesn’t look like one. Though of course, there is no clear precedent for the term.

Designed by Paris-based Atelier Zundel Cristea, the pavilion evokes a canopy surface, occupyable both above and below. The structure creates a restful stopping point in the gardens, an oasis at which visitors can relax and hang out. That (theoretically) explains the pavilion’s name: It brings disparate people together—though you could argue that any pavilion would do the same.

Nonetheless, the pavilion does create a visceral experience—in more ways than one—at the center of the park, and images of families enjoying its use prove that it has already become an anchor for recreation and bonding in East London. Another success of the installation is that though the design is perfectly symmetrical in plan, it appears that way only from a few vantage points, granting it both balance and dynamism.

See more images below.

more

The Water House in Lijiang, China, by Li Xiaodong Atelier.

It’s an old adage from the golden age of suburbia that “a man’s home is his castle,” but what if you’re not into castles? Perhaps you’d like a house that looks like the intake of a jet turbine? Or a home that appears to be floating on a bed of ephemeral orange light?

Houses have become architectural projects designed to reflect the unique personality of their resident(s). If a client has the resources then she or he can work closely with an architect to achieve that imagined perfect synergy of a human and her or his home. Many children imagine a “dream house,” and the core principle of that fantasy stays the same: a home perfectly suited to your identity and favorite activities. Eccentric French philosopher and academic Gaston Bachelard explored our intense psychological connection to our homes in his 1958 classic The Poetics of Space. Citing both psychoanalysis and poetry in equal measure, Bachelard argued that our homes occupy a special part of our psyche. According to him, we generate and experience profound mental associations with domestic spaces that stay with us our entire lives.

In the spirit of unconventional thinking (and design!) we present our top ten eccentric houses.

more

In the largest battle of the Spanish Civil War, Nationalists and Republicans fought for more than five months near the town of Corbera d’Ebre. Besides the death of thousands of soldiers on either side, the Battle of the Ebro resulted in the destruction of the town. In the aftermath, it was decided to keep the church atop the hill in its ruined state to serve as a memorial.

In order to better preserve this monument, architect Ferran Vizoso (along with Núria Bordas, Jordi Garriga, and David Garcia) was enlisted to design a canopy for the site. The new canopy protects inhabitants, as well as the church’s masonry, from wind and rain while also moderating temperature. The resulting space is thus between interior and exterior, old and new. See more images below.

more

Back in March, Gothamist-founder Jake Dobkin had the enviable opportunity to take a tour of Manhattan’s Second Avenue subway construction, deep below the surface of the Upper East Side, and took some incredible photos of the mega-project’s progress (see the photos here). Dobkin’s photos give a rare look into the borrowing subterranean world that construction workers inhabit each day. Since March, workers continue to tirelessly tunnel through the bedrock under Second Avenue, inching closer to the future opening of New York City’s first subway since 1932. Recently, the MTA released exciting updated photos on their Flickr page, which show the remarkable progress that’s been made in the past couple months.

The deep tunnels of Second Avenue look entirely mysterious; a mind-blowing network of connecting caverns covered in curing concrete. Rippling bright yellow layers drape the interior of the illuminated tunnels, giving them a radioactive appearance as the cement dries. In some photos, the droopy, damp concrete resembles the stalactites and exposed rock of deep caves. Others show the MTA’s rapid progress, as the shapes and forms of future stations look nearly finished. While noisy construction has been causing numerous controversies as the subway moves along, MTA’s photographs show that a less congested commute in Upper Manhattan is not too far away, with the opening of the Second Avenue line’s initial phase in 2016. Click through to see them all!

more

OMA has unveiled its design for a new bridge over the river Garonne in Bordeaux, France—one of two contenders for a project that will connect a new housing development with the rest of the city. The OMA design, led by Clement Blanchet, has been vetted by a jury of 40, the leader of which said he wanted a “bold” proposal.

In some ways, OMA’s design fits that description, but in others, it is staid and quiet. “We wanted to provide the simplest expression—the least technical, least lyrical—an almost primitive structural solution,” said Blanchet. “This simplicity allowed us to create a generous platform for pedestrians and public programs, as well as flexibility in accommodating the future needs of various types of traffic.”

Thus whatever boldness exists in the proposal is not formal but rather programmatic; this makes sense given OMA’s tradition of prioritizing of the latter.

The bridge orchestrates a flexible pedestrian zone that can be used for various types of public events. Rather than planning for one type of event space, OMA imbedded a great deal of flexibility into the scheme in order to provide for future demands. It is one of the first clear instances of infrastructure being planned for use as public space.

Bridges are already sites for spectacle, as crossing over water allows the observation of the city from vantage points rarely available. Pedestrians, though, are usually given the barest strip of space to occupy in crossing, and if high balustrades don’t disrupt the experience, loud traffic usually does. OMA, in contrast, aims to provide a large pedestrian strip that would occupy roughly one-third of the width of the structure.

Though it may not be so exciting to look at, the proposal is an adventurous one. It goes up against a design by Dietmar Feichtinger this December in the final stage of vetting. See more images of the project below.

more

Dwell on Design, the largest modern design event in the US, lands at the Los Angeles Convention Center Friday and … it’s going to be amazing. More than a trade show, Dwell on Design is a veritable design extravaganza, with more than 400 exhibitors, 200 speakers, and 2000 products. Panels organized by LACMA, Sci-Arc, and Architecture for Humanity (just to name a few); hybrid and electronic cars you can test drive (yes!); and some pretty remarkable real-life actual-size pre-fab houses: You don’t want to miss it!

The weekend kicks off with architect Michael Graves’s inspiring presentation on design—including how his philosophy and perspective changed due to a life altering-illness—and it runs June 21 through 23. Dwell has shared some of the funky chairs, groovy lights, and high-tech gear featured at this year’s show with Architizer. See a special sneak peek after the jump! 

more