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Sunday, January 5, 2020

Twitter Thread Explains One Of The Less Discussed Symptoms Of Depression

One of the most discouraging parts of mental illness is when your thought processes don’t even make sense to you, but that doesn’t bring you any closer to overcoming them. That’s what writer M. Molly Backes describes in this Twitter thread about a symptom of depression that not everyone knows about, but many can relate to.

The writer describes encountering an “impossible” task, actually a minor task like a chore or an errand, that seems to overwhelming to deal with. The longer the task is put off, the more insurmountable it becomes, and when you have a whole house full of “impossible tasks”, you no longer know where to start.

Image credits: mollybackes

This Twitter thread talks about an insidious symptom of depression

Image credits: mollybackes

Backes points out that the phenomenon actually has a proper name: executive dysfunction. It’s one of the main hallmarks of developmental disorders like ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, but even if you don’t have any of those conditions, it can be brought on by mental illness, stress and trauma. Executive function is the collection of skills that allows you to prioritize tasks, make a plan and figure out where to start. When it doesn’t work well, doing simple tasks feels confusing and takes disproportionate effort.

The writer was flattered that so many could relate to the thread

Image credits: mollybackes

Every time mental health comes up in the news and becomes a hot topic, we always announce that we’re there if our friends need to open up to us and ask us for help. It’s a well-intentioned offer, but even if we mean it, that platitude overlooks one important detail. If your friend is ashamed to ask you for help because they believe that their problem isn’t significant enough, or if they feel like they can’t write a message to you because they’ve been putting off responding to so many messages that they don’t know where to start, they won’t.

If you know that a friend is struggling with their mental health, you can start by reaching out to them first. You could try offering to cook dinner together and seeing if anything else that you can help with comes up while you’re with them, or inviting them to run errands with you and get them anything they need while you’re out.

Commenters identified with Backes’ words, added their experiences to the thread, and gave examples of ways people have helped them.

A lot of people could relate to the experience

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Echo House by Aaron Neubert Architects steps down slope in Los Angeles

Sliding glass walls front the living area of this Los Angeles house by US firm Aaron Neubert Architects and open onto a terrace designed to make the most of the surrounding views.

Echo House by Aaron Neubert Architects

Echo House is located in Elysian Fields, a neighbourhood north of Downtown Los Angeles built on hilly terrain.

Working with a tight site, Aaron Neubert Architects (ANX) designed the home to stagger down the plot in three levels. This main structure sits atop a technical floor containing the garage and mechanical room.

Echo House by Aaron Neubert Architects

In addition to the four-level home at the front of the site, there is also an artist's studio tucked away in the back yard. A nearby public garden allowed the firm to create the impression of a larger site.

"The residence and detached artist studio are positioned to perceptually inhabit the adjacent community garden, and present views of the downtown skyline and surrounding hills," said ANX in a project description.

Echo House by Aaron Neubert Architects

At street level, the compact floor plan only contains a garage and technical spaces. A hallway leads to a staircase that connects the garage to the home's main entrance, which is also accessible via an exterior stair.

Whether they arrive from the garage or exterior walkway, guests enter the home into a dramatic, double-height living room, with a terrace overlooking the city and views of the surrounding hills.

A switchback stair connects the entertaining space with the kitchen and dining area at the back of the property. Here, the interiors open out to the backyard, allowing them to "physically expand," according to ANX.

Because the highest floor of the home steps back, there is a covered area just outside the dining room.

Echo House by Aaron Neubert Architects

According to the local firm, the exterior space at the back of the house forms an "introspective landscape" for the owners to enjoy, and is framed by the home itself and the artist studio.

On the top level, the architects included three bedrooms, two of which share an additional terrace overlooking the city.

The 400-square-foot (37-square-metre) studio has a white exterior and dark slatted louvers, matching the main home. A floor-to-ceiling glass wall allows the occupants to overlook the property and garden from within.

ANX sought to bring in as much natural light as possible. "Strategically placed apertures around the residence and studio encourage the spatial reverberation and dialogue between the activities of the home," the firm said.

The interiors are decorated with a bright and minimal palette, with warmer accents such as wooden floorboards laid out in a herringbone pattern, and suspended geometric luminaires.

In the nearby neighbourhood of Silver Lake, ANX completed an all-black residence that steps down a steep site in a similar way. Other recent Los Angeles projects include a home straddling a small brook by Dan Brunn, and a refurbished artist's studio for Kim Schoen, that brings in light via a pivoting door made of translucent polycarbonate plastic.

Photography is by Brian Thomas Jones, unless indicated otherwise.

Project credits:
Principal architect: Aaron Neubert
Project architect: Jeremy Limsenben
Designers: Xiran Zhang, Jina Seo, Sheldon Preston
Interior design: Sidonie Loiseleux
Structural engineer: Craig Phillips Engineering
Contractor: Westward

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Sammode reissues classic lighting designs by Pierre Guariche

French lighting manufacturer Sammode has relaunched a collection designed in the 1950s by Pierre Guariche, including a standing lamp with a perforated "sail-like" diffuser.

The selection of desk lamps, floor lamps, wall lamps and pendants reissued in 2019 by Sammode are typical of Guariche's innovative approach to mass-produced furniture and lighting.

A pioneering force in French industrial design during the postwar period, Guariche set up his own design agency in 1951 to create furniture and lighting that utilised the latest manufacturing processes to make them as affordable as possible.

Nearly 70 years later, Sammode has chosen to return some of Guariche's most iconic lighting designs into production using contemporary components and technologies.

Each of the products displays an intelligent use of materials to produce an appropriate and comfortable level of light.

The lamps are also defined by their use of rational forms and clever mechanical details such as adjustable balance arms, cantilevers and counterweights.

"Pierre Guariche designed the full range of luminaires to cover all the needs identified for a given space," said Sammode Studio in a statement accompanying the products' rerelease.

"His luminaires are hugely comfortable and convenient in use, with no visible light source and an appropriate quality of light, whether intended for general lighting or traffic areas, to create an atmosphere or for a specific use, soft, powerful or even diffused by reflection."

The lamps are made mostly from metal, which is bent, formed and folded into sculptural forms. The light is reflected by the metal surfaces or dispersed through perforated surfaces to lend it a softer, more ambient quality.

Among the relaunched designs is the G30 standing lamp, also known as the Kite. It features a white-lacquered perforated steel shade resembling the sail of a boat that is supported by mast-like brushed-brass poles.

The G3 wall lamp has a perforated metal grille that creates a soft, diffused light. The metal surface is folded into an angular shape and can be tilted to direct the illumination as required.

Perforated metal also forms the exterior surface of the circular G13 ceiling lamps, which feature a glass Fresnel lens to cast a diffused light down onto the space below.

Guariche designed the G25 wall lamp to be used above a dining table, but its adjustable brass arm makes it suited to use in a range of contexts. A sculptural metal reflector at the end of the arm casts a diffused light into the room.

Guariche was prolific in the field of lighting design during the 1950s, creating more than 40 pieces for French manufacturer Disderot. He was also an architect and interior designer, and in 1965 was awarded the René-Gabriel Prize that recognises "designers of innovative, democratic and affordable furniture of high quality."

Other examples of classic designs relaunched in 2019 include a counterbalanced table clock designed by Richard Sapper in 1960 and a chair by Verner Panton that featured in a James Bond film.

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Archi-Union surrounds internet conference centre with robot-built pavilions

Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre by Archi-Union

Archi-Union has surrounded the Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre in Wuzhen, China, with pavilions that were built using robotic construction techniques.

The conference centre, which has a curving tiled roof and a facade of angled glass, sits in a landscaped park on a site northwest of the town surrounded by farm houses.

Wuzhen has hosted the World Internet Conference since 2014, and the growing popularity has led to the demand for a new dedicated venue.

Archi-Union gave the Light of Internet World Internet Conference Centre a tiled roof that sweeps up to meet in four tent-like peaks to echo the rooflines of historic structures in the area.

Surrounding this hall are four themed pavilions, the Water Pavilion, Moon Pavilion, Red Pavilion and Cloud Pavilion. The design and construction of each employed experimental, robot-based construction techniques.

They provide amenity spaces for conference attendees that demonstrate the potential of digital technologies for architecture.

For the Cloud Pavilion, prefabricated 3D-printed plastic components were used to create a cluster of umbrella-shaped canopies that shelter a cafe. The pavilion was built in two weeks by four robots.

The Water Pavilion, constructed in-situ by robots using bricks, provides a series of cylindrical toiled cubicles topped by weathered-steel roofs.

The Red Pavilion, also made from redbrick, takes its cue from the undulating roofline of the centre to create a sweeping, stepped archway leading up to a viewing platform that shelters a seating area below. 3D-printing was used to build the complex scaffolding required during the build.

A a seating area surrounded by pale wood shelves built with robotic timber construction sits beneath a translucent polycarbonate roof of the Moon Pavilion.

The main centre's beam string structure allows for a large column-free space inside.

This large hall can be divided into up to four smaller exhibition spaces, or be combined into a single large space.

Archi-Union used the double-skin envelope to make thin corridors between the exterior screen and the glazed walls of the conference halls.

Slender structural components finished in white highlight the dimensions of the space, and strips of lighting sweep down from the central truss to emphasise the curve of the roof.

The roof is clad in 700,000 tiles and the exterior is covered in glass panels that are angled away from the building like exaggerated shingles.

Shanghai-based Archi-Union has previously made use of robot-assisted design and construction for an AI conference centre in the city's West Bund, which featured a coffee pavilion covered by translucent arches.

Photography is by Schran Images.

Project credits:

Architect: Archi-Union Architecture Design Co., Ltd.
Principal architect: Philip F. Yuan
Project architects: Alex Han, Xiangping Kong, Jinyu Huang, Huajian Gu, Hao Chen, Haobo Zhang, Yuying Li, Yu Lou, Xi Tao, Jinxi Jin
Digital construction manager: Wen Zhang
Interiors team: Fuzi He, Ju Wang, Yifei Wang, Tuomeng Wang, Luwen Liu, Jingyan Tang, Mengmeng Cui, Haiyan Jiang
Structures team: Zhun Zhang, Tao Huang, Rui Wang
MEP: Yong Wang, Dawei Wei, Qing Zhang, Zhengwen Chen, Xiao Yu, Jiandong Chen
Landscape designers: Nannan Dong, Weixuan Wei, Jun Ye
Lighting designers: Guojian Hu, Hongbo Qiang, Zhenjiang Wang, Xiaohua Wu, Tingting Ge
Signage system: Jiaqing Wu, Yue Han, Shiqing Wang
Digital fabrication: Fab-Union Architectural Technology and Digital Fabrication Co., Ltd
Structural consultant: AND office
Facade consultant: Zhejiang Provincial Wulin Construction Group Co., Ltd.
Landscape consultant: Innovative Urban Green
Lighting consultant: RDI Lighting
Signage system: VENP Brand Design
Green building consultant: Shanghai ShunGu Architecture Engineering Technology Co.,Ltd
Land surveyor: Zhejiang Earth Geotechnical Investigation & Design Institute Co., Ltd
Building surveyor: Zhejiang Engineering Construction Manage Company
Contractor: Yadu Construction Group

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Explore winter retreats on this week's Pinterest board

Our updated winter retreats Pinterest board showcases architecture in cold locations, including luxury treehouses in Austria and an Alpine chalet with panoramic views. Follow Dezeen on Pinterest or visit our updated board to see more.

Eastwind Hotel Catskill glamping pods — A-framed cabins in the Eastwind Hotel offer a cosy retreat in New York's Catskill Mountains

New additions to the Pinterest board include holiday resorts designed to offer escape from cities, such as the glamping pods at Eastwood Hotel in New York and a renovated New Jersey lodge by Chad and Courtney Ludeman.

The Ski Lodge by dKA Architects — Residents of this ski lodge in Val Saint-Côme can warm themselves around a central fireplace

Other images you can find on the board show buildings designed for winter-sports enthusiasts, including the sloping roofs of YH2's cabin in Montreal, which is designed to make the most of views of the snowy scenery, and a ski lodge in Val Saint-Côme with a black fireplace at its centre.

Dezeen's Pinterest account features thousands of images, organised into hundreds of boards. Follow us on Pinterest to keep up to date with our latest pins.

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Townew bin seals and changes garbage bags at the push of a button

Canadian company Knectek Labs has automated an often messy and unhygienic part of household waste collection with the Townew bin, which seals and changes its own bags.

Set to launch at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2020, the Townew bin is self-sealing at the push of a button.

It uses heat to seal the thermoplastic rubbish bag. The user then removes the closed bag and disposes of it, while the bin automatically replaces it with a new one. The bags come from a refill unit of up to 25 bags that sits under the bin lid.

Townew bin by Knectek Labs

Knectek Labs claims Townew saves its users time while also cutting down on odour and mess.

"Whether you're throwing leftover sloppy-joes or stinky diapers, nothing will escape the moisture and water-resistant sealing capability of this trash can," said Knectek Labs head of sales William Wong.

Townew bin by Knectek Labs

Hygiene is also improved by the presence of movement-detecting infrared sensors, which open the lid in response to approaching rubbish. For times when users need increased access to the bin, there is a "Lid Open Mode".

All the controls are activated by one button on the front of the bin – one tap activates Lid Open Mode, while holding it for three seconds triggers self-sealing.

Townew bin by Knectek Labs

Available in white or teal, the 4.02-metre-tall bin is made of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic, which Knectek Labs says it chose because the material is resistant to chemicals and impact and withstands humidity and different temperatures.

It runs on rechargeable 2000 mAh battery, getting about a month's power from a 10-hour charge.

Townew bin by Knectek Labs

Founded in 2016 and based in Toronto, Knectek Labs makes smarthome and other consumer electronics. Its previous products are the Cubinote sticky note printer and the CubiTag tracker.

The Townew bin is a 2020 CES Innovation Award honouree, which means it has scored highly in its product category. CES, the world's biggest consumer tech show, is on in Las Vegas from January 7 to 10.

Among other advanced bin designs in recent years is Simplehuman's automatically opening ST2015 bin and PearsonLloyd's stackable Intelligent Waste mix of rubbish, recycling and composting bins.

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