MUT Design blurs line between indoors and outdoors with Das Haus furniture

Multiple European brands came together for MUT Design's Das Haus installation at IMM Cologne to create hybrid indoor-outdoor furniture prototypes that are now being put into production.

Each year, the Das Haus installation showcases one designer or design studio's take on the present and future direction of interior design.

For the 2020 edition in January, MUT Design focused on blurring the line between exterior and interior, and between architecture and nature, with a project titled A La Fresca! (Step Out into the Fresh Air!).

The studio wanted to do more than just adapt interior design for outdoor use or vice versa; they wanted to explore how home life might change if these boundaries were eased or eliminated entirely.

To that end, their space has five living zones – an Active Area, Cleanness Area, Resting Area, Kitchen and Patio. While some of these have a nearly traditional name and function, others are more flexible and open to interpretation.

For the furniture prototypes inside these spaces, MUT Design wanted the high standards of design and feeling of cosiness to extend across both the indoors and outdoors.

"We don't separate outdoor and living room furniture according to the usual norms," said the studio. "Nowadays, that's the only way the interior design can create a consistent overall picture."

To create the prototypes, MUT Design worked with multiple European brands including Gan, Preciosa Lighting, Sancal, Diabla and Expormim. Several of these brands are now putting the pieces into production.

Among the pieces is the Armadillo chair, launched at Stockholm furniture fair by Expormim, which is a reinterpretation of a papasan bowl chair that was popular in the 1970s.

The chair is made of rattan with a UV-filter coating that protects it from solar radiation, and has removable cushions.

Sancal is manufacturing the Roll chair, which has cylindrical cushions said to be inspired by the leg-press machines found in gyms. The chair is meant to look as attractive stacked and stowed as it is while in use.

There's also the Zig Zag hammock and rug, made by Gan. Both pieces are made of artificial fibres suited for outdoor use and feature an open weave that is meant to cast interesting shadows.

Another chair, the aluminium Grill, for Diabla is reminiscent of an outdoor barbecue, while the Bao pouffes for La Cividina are more like plush stones. Rounded shapes and playful approaches to weight are common themes across the pieces.

There is also a series of lighting for Preciosa and a set of coloured glass side tables for Pulpo.

The prototype bath collection in the installation will have a future too, as it has been developed into a range with Antonio Lupi that is also likely to launch in Milan.

MUT Design was founded by Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón in 2010 and is based in Valencia. Among their previous designs are the Twins outdoor chairs for Expormim and the chocolate-bar-like Onza tiles for Peronda.

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ZeroCabin in Chile designed to operate off the grid

A multidisciplinary team in Chile have designed a self-sufficient cabin that can be tailored to the local climate and topography, along with a client's specific needs.

The ZeroCabin was envisioned as a low-impact, customisable dwelling that operates without the use of public utilities.

The cabin was conceived by a diverse team of six people, who collectively have backgrounds in civil engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, sustainable farming and interior design. None of the team members have formal training in architecture.

Felipe Lüer, one of the lead designers, said the idea for the cabin took root in 2007, when he saw the documentary Garbage Warrior. The film is about the American architect Mike Reynolds and his efforts to build "earthship" houses, which are made of natural and recycled materials.

Lüer said the film sparked his dream of building an off-the-grid house, and he later found others who shared his vision.

"My team is made up of people who heard about the project and came to start building this new future," Lüer told Dezeen.

The designers have conceived the cabin as a "kit of parts" that can be customised based on a customer's needs and desires, along with the local site conditions.

The first ZeroCabin has been built within a puma sanctuary in Puerto Varas, a town in southern Chile. The building is rented out to tourists, with the proceeds going toward the wildlife preserve.

The cabin features a timber structural system with metal joints and biodegradable insulation. Exterior walls have metal cladding and thermally efficient glazing.

To provide views and minimise its impact on the earth, the two-storey dwelling is elevated two metres off the ground.

Encompassing 26 square metres, the cabin accommodates all of the basic living requirements. The lower level offers an area for cooking, eating and relaxing, along with a water closet.

The upper level contains a sleeping area, a closet and a shower. The bathing water travels via gravity to the lower level, where it is reused in the toilet.

The cabin's water needs are met by rainwater, which is collected in basins and treated on-site. The water can be heated by a solar panel system or by a wood-powered stove that was invented by one of the team members.

Energy needs are met by photovoltaic panels, and heat is provided by sunlight and the stove. Lüer noted that cabins in other locales might incorporate power-generating devices such as micro water turbines, depending upon the climate and topography.

A second cabin is currently being constructed on Chiloé Island, located off the coast of southern Chile.

Because the building site is not accessible by road, the team has transported all materials and equipment by boat to a beach. From there, it is carried 100 metres by foot, according to the team.

This second dwelling, which will serve as a private vacation home, will total 46 square metres.

The designers have formed a company – called ZeroCabin – and they intend to construct additional units and retrofit existing buildings. Moreover, they are selling their "DIY kits" to customers wanting to build their own off-the-grid retreat. The starting cost for a ZeroCabin is about $50,000 (£38,455).

Other off-the-grid buildings include a simple, black cabin by designer Marc Thorpe that is tucked into the woods of Upstate New York, and a family retreat in Ohio by architect Greg Dutton that evokes the feeling of being in a tree house.

Photography is by Matias Riveros.

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Project credits:

Team members: Felipe Lüer, Hector Becker, Luis Valladares, Andrés Lüer, Oscar Villalon, Ian Burbulis

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Five hotels and holidays homes that double up as showrooms

Holiday homes and hotels that also function as shoppable furniture showrooms are growing in popularity. Here are five examples including a Copenhagen hotel, a Melbourne apartment and a Hamptons house.

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Stephen Kenn Loft, Los Angeles, by Stephen Kenn Studio

Stephen Kenn Studio turned a Los Angeles apartment inside an old factory building into "part showroom, part micro-hotel, part community space".

"The space is first and foremost a showroom for our furniture collections, supplemented by the work of some of our brand partners that make products in categories we don't design in, including lighting, ceramics, appliances and rugs," Stephen Kenn said.

Find out more about Stephen Kenn Loft ›

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Microluxe apartment, Australia, by Edwards Moore

This Melbourne apartment was transformed by architecture studio Edwards Moore for property company Microluxe to act as a rental property and showroom.

"All items are there for the experience and most are available to purchase after your stay, from the bed linen, wine and robes to the custom one-off furniture pieces," architect Ben Edwards said.

Find out more about Microluxe apartment ›

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The Audo Hotel, Copenhagen, by Menu and Norm Architects

Norm Architects worked with design brand Menu to create The Audo Hotel in Copenhagen, a 10-room hotel that doubles as a headquarters and flagship showroom for the Danish brand.

"We wanted Menu to take a new approach to running a design business through openness, knowledge-sharing and collaboration," Menu director Joachim Hansen said. "By showing our collection in different contexts within hospitality we will make the collection become more alive."

Find out more about The Audo Hotel ›

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McKinley Bungalow, Long Island, Studio Robert McKinley

This rentable vacation home in Long Island designed by Studio Robert McKinley displays some of the firm founder's favourite designs.

It is outfitted with a number of purchasable contemporary and vintage items, such as a spherical rattan ottoman, colourful wall tapestries and light fixtures from Isamu Noguchi.

Find out more about McKinley Bungalow ›

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Pieces Home, Maine, by An Aesthetic Pursuit

To launch its Pieces collection, Brooklyn creative agency An Aesthetic Pursuit created Pieces Home, a "shoppable stay" in Maine filled with furniture and products that guests can purchase.

"By creating a destination vacation design experience, we eliminate the noise found in both traditional brick-and-mortar and digital retail settings," Pieces co-founder Jenny Kaplan said.

Find out more about Pieces Home ›

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MIPIM property fair postponed until June over coronavirus fears

Breaking news: the giant MIPIM property fair that was due to take place in Cannes, France from 10 to 13 March has been postponed until 2-5 June due to coronavirus.

Organiser Reed MIDEM said it was postponing the event due to "growing concerns related to the coronavirus (Covid-19)".

“The well-being of our clients and staff is our priority," said Reed MIDEM chief executive Paul Zilk."Given the evolving context, the best course of action is to postpone MIPIM to June."

“This is not a decision we have taken lightly," he added. "We believe these new dates will provide the international MIPIM community with the opportunity to achieve their business objectives. We are grateful to our clients for their support and constructive input during this challenging period, and we look forward to talking with them in the coming days about MIPIM in June.

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Studio 30 Architects remodel London home using reclaimed materials

Reclaimed materials feature alongside brightly painted new spaces in this transformation of two Victorian maisonettes in London by Studio 30 Architects.

Called Rylett House, the project sits within a conservation area in west London.

Studio 30 Architects freed up the interiors of the home, grouping utility spaces in a new basement level

The ground floor is opened up with an entrance hall, study and reception organised around a winding stair and finished with reclaimed flooring and doors.

A children's play area has also been created alongside the storage areas in the basement, lit via a window that overlooks a small lightwell by the home's entrance.

A bright red door opens on to an entrance area framing views through to the rear extension overlooking the garden.

"At the heart of the house an uncommonly generous circulation space extends its full height," said Studio 30 Architects.

"A snaking timber handrail connecting all floors and visually echoing the buildings history."

At the rear of Rylett House, a conservatory was demolished to make way for the extension.

This new space houses a large living, kitchen and dining area.

An old carpenter's bench has been repurposed as a kitchen island for this space, illuminated by a skylight and contrasted by a new terrazzo floor.

The extension is finished in pale brick and overlooks the garden with a projecting timber window box topped by plants.

A timber-framed, full-height door alongside the window-box leads out onto a garden patio.

This terrace has the same terrazzo as the interior, creating a continuity between these two spaces.

Above, three bedrooms with bathrooms occupy the first floor.

Rylett House's fourth bedroom sits within an attic space, all of which are lit by further skylights.

The extension has been stepped, with a single-storey section topped by a green roof overlooked by the first floor.

A two-storey section housing a new bedroom overlooks the garden through a wood-framed window.

Reclaimed floorboards have been used in the bedroom spaces, contrasted by contemporary furniture and fittings.

For a more contemporary feel, the main first-floor bathroom is painted and tiled with horizontal bands of green and pink.

A smaller en-suite is finished with a black grid of tiles and a bright yellow wall.

Studio 30 Architects has previously remodelled other homes in west London, including a conversion and extension of a terrace featuring sliding windows overlooking a garden.

Photography is by Agnese Sanvito.

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Common Accounts designs an eco-friendly funeral for the digital age

Design studio Common Accounts imagines the funeral of the future, where liquefied bodies are used to fertilise plants and flowers, and social media accounts generate a virtual afterlife.

Death needs a redesign, said Common Accounts founders Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler, to respond to global concerns about the environment, as well as the rise of digital communication.

Common Accounts built a prototype funeral home in Seoul

The pair believe that modern technologies could be used to create new, eco-friendly funeral rituals.

"Burial and cremation, as we know them, are dead," explained Gertler.

"Today's city can no longer afford to keep the material business of death at arm's length, given diminishing land availability, environmental concerns, and the prospect of your digital afterlife."

The design introduces new, eco-friendly funeral rituals

Bragado and Gertler have produced a short film of their proposal, Three Ordinary Funerals, which is premiering at the exhibition (Re)design Death at the Cube Design Museum in the Netherlands.

It shows a ceremony taking place inside a prototype funeral home, which the pair built for the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2017, inside a traditional Korean hanok house.

A virtual afterlife portal allows friends, family and followers to contribute digital memories

The ceremony is made up of two stages: the virtual and the physical.

Firstly, a virtual afterlife portal is opened, where friends, family and followers are invited to contribute digital memories. With a 3.0 terabyte-per-second connection speed, it is able to process and sort thousands of videos, photos, comments and files.

The body of the deceased is liquefied in an alkaline-hydrolysis fluid cremation system

Secondly, the body of the deceased is placed inside a bespoke alkaline-hydrolysis fluid cremation system and transformed into a fertile liquid, which is used to feed a flower garden.

Floral arrangements from the garden can be used to decorate a ceremonial space-frame displayed on the roof, along with memorial flags.

As an additional benefit, the heat generated in the liquifying process can be used to sustainably warm the building.

The liquid helps to fertilise a garden, which provides flowers for a ceremonial display

The process wouldn't demand land in the same way as a burial does and is more eco-friendly than cremation. But it also creates new ways of memorialising the deceased.

"New technologies present unique opportunities for the production of value – material, ceremonial, and ecological – that shouldn't be ignored," said Bragado.

"We need new, cleaner, socially productive disposition alternatives that integrate easily with the urban and digital realms."

The design could make it easier for cities with land scarcity, like Seoul, to handle death

Bragado is from Spain, while Gertler originates from Canada. Having met while studying at Princeton University, the pair initially developed a concept for an alkaline-hydrolysis fluid cremation system.

This idea, which they presented at the Istanbul Design Biennial in 2016, later evolved into a more comprehensive package.

The project was always designed with the South Korean capital in mind. Like other Asian cities, Seoul has a scarcity of available cemetery land and only one cremation facility, even though it is home to 10 million people.

The prototype was designed for a traditional Korean hanok house

"It is urgent to start a dialogue on this issue in Seoul, where a shortage of facilities and burial space has created a crisis in how we manage death in the city," said Jihoi Lee, who curated the Seoul Biennale installation.

"We can use this crisis to probe death's productive potential in daily urban life," she added.

The project features in the exhibition (Re)design Death at the Cube Design Museum

Bragado and Gertler are not the only designers exploring how death rituals could be redesigned for the 21st century.

Shaina Garfield has created a biodegradable shroud, as an alternative to the coffin, while Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel have developed an egg-shaped burial pod with a tree on top.

Meanwhile architecture firm Olson Kundig has designed an after-death facility for Seattle where human bodies will be composted and turned into soil.

Photography is by Common Accounts. Video is by Andrew Gilbride.

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Project credits:

Design: Common Accounts
Lead architects: Igor Bragado, Miles Gertler
Curator: Jihoi Lee
Alkaline hydrolysis technology consultant: STI Korea
Junior architect: Nowk Choe

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This week, Salone del Mobile was postponed due to coronavirus

This week on Dezeen, the Salone del Mobile fair in Milan was postponed until June as events across Europe were disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak.

The world's most significant furniture fair, Salone del Mobile, has been delayed until June because of an outbreak of the Covid-19 strain of coronavirus in northern Italy.

The decision to reschedule the event was supported by a slew of leading designers including Ross Lovegrove, who told Dezeen "it's better to postpone [the fair] and guarantee its cultural and commercial success later".

Other events including the Geneva Motor Show and Frankfurt's Light + Building have also been cancelled in an attempt to prevent the virus further spreading. However, organisers of the MIPIM property fair – announced that it will still be going ahead in March.

Sun Dayong designs wearable shield to protect against coronavirus outbreaks

The alarming rise of coronavirus also prompted Chinese architect Sun Dayong to design a wearable shield that could protect people from getting infected.

While the shield is just a concept for now, it would be embedded with wires that heat up and kill close-proximity pathogens.

Harikrishnan's inflatable latex trousers create "anatomically impossible" proportions

Elsewhere in the realm of design, London College of Fashion graduate Harikrishnan created a range of inflatable trousers that are able to give the body "anatomically impossible" proportions.

Up to 30 individual panels of latex are used to produce the trousers, which sit tight around the wearer's waist before ballooning out around the thighs and tapering again at the ankle. Models presented them on the runway with matching-colour tailored jackets.

OMA unveils "cliff-like" headquarters for SNCB in Brussels

In architecture news, OMA unveiled plans to renovate three former railway buildings in Brussels to form offices for Belgian train operator SNCB.

The project will also see the erection of an 11-storey glass extension that will feature a "sheer, cliff-like facade" punctuated by porthole windows.

BIG releases visuals of Newcastle office with "serpentine silhouette"

BIG similarly revealed visuals for a 10,000-square-metre office in Newcastle, UK.

The building will have a "serpentine silhouette" that mimics the curved form of bridges that span the city's River Tyne.

Studio Okami Architecten hides Sloped Villa in a Belgian hillside

Popular projects this week included a brick villa by Studio Okami Architecten that sits snug against a Belgian hillside and a concrete home in Slovenia that Arhitektura d.o.o designed to accommodate the owner's ceramics studio.

Readers also debated Studio Vural's renderings of Dune House – an imagined holiday home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts that would be carved into a sand dune.

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