Six sculptural concrete seats including liquid-like chairs and squashed benches

Often associated with toughness, concrete is an unusual material choice for furniture. But these six designs show how the material can be used for seating in a variety of forms including curved stools, puffy chairs and squashed benches.

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QTZ Concrete by Alexander Lotersztain

Designed to explore the architectural qualities of concrete, these seats by Australian designer Alexander Lotersztain have faceted shapes that are based on the naturally occurring forms and crystallisation process of quartz.

Lotersztain's series, which was created for concrete brand Ivanka, includes two lounge chairs with pointed headrests accompanied by a table and a footrest. The concrete is pigmented in five colours – off-white, mouse grey, rock grey, green and tobacco.

Find out more about QTZ Concrete›

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Rockito by Thomas Musca and Duyi Han

California designers Thomas Musca and Duyi Han cast glass-fibre reinforced concrete in a wooden mould to create this rocking chair called Rockito.

The seat forms part of a larger series of concrete furniture with chunky angles and geometric voids based on the brutalist architecture style, which emerged in the 1950s and used concrete predominantly.

Find out more about Rockito ›

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Efflorescence by Virgil Abloh

American fashion designer Virgil Abloh also drew on brutalism for his graffiti-covered Efflorescence furniture.

The collection includes Bench 2, which has a sloped surface based on the shape of skate ramps, and a blocky chair covered in large letters.

Find out more about Efflorescence ›

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Concrete Stools by J Byron-H

Concrete Stools "present a play of materiality by appearing at once smooth and rough, heavy and buoyant," according to the designer J Byron-H.

He created the set by adding pigments to glass-fibre reinforced concrete and then placing the "slurry" into wooden moulds,  where it was left to set slightly before being curved over woodwork into U shapes.

Find out more about Concrete Stools ›

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Concrete Melt Chair by Bower Studios

Pale concrete is draped over a metallic base and gathers in folds on the floor to form the Concrete Melt Chair by Bower Studios.

The New York studio created the liquidy shape from a wooden base that was then covered in concrete.

Find out more about Concrete Melt Chair ›

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Concrete Chair by Tejo Remy & René Veenhuizen

Although this seat appears to be inflated, it is in fact made of concrete cast inside plastic sheeting and reinforced with steel rods and metal fibres.

Dutch designers Tejo Remy and René Veenhuizen completed it as part of a prototype series in 2010 – making it one of the earlies examples of concrete chairs on the list.

Find out more about Concrete Chair ›

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Burberry and Tencent collaborate on interactive WeChat shop in Shenzhen

Visitors to Shenzhen's Burberry flagship store can use Tencent's WeChat app to interact with the window display and play their own music in fitting rooms.

The British fashion brand and China's largest social media company collaborated to design a shop that suited Shenzhen's growing reputation for technology.

Shoppers use WeChat, a Chinese messaging and social media app, to engage with the shop in Shenzhen's MixC development.

Tencent and Burberry have produced a custom mini program that is unlocked via WeChat. Users create a profile and are given a digital avatar in the form of a cartoon fawn that hatches from an egg.

Through the app, shoppers can book one of the three themed fitting rooms, pre-select the clothes and play their own music while they try them on. They can also use this program to book a table at the in-house cafe and make appointments with stylists and other services.

To encourage engagement, the program has a rewards system to earn "social currency" that unlocks custom content, such as new characters and outfits for the animal avatar and exclusive dishes on the cafe menu.

All the products have QR codes, which can be scanned to display more information and visual hints for styling the project – and give the user more points for unlocking content.

The interactive window display is currently a sculptural recreation of the runway for Burberry's Autumn Winter 2020 show. Mirrors and screens capture the movement of people as they interact with it, which users can capture and share with their phones.

"Social media is an increasingly important part of the customer journey and the interaction between social media and physical surroundings is ever more seamless," said Burberry senior vice president of digital Mark Morris.

"Our social retail store in Shenzhen is our response to this. It is a space where the social and physical worlds merge, taking interactions from social media and bringing them into the physical retail environment," he told Dezeen.

"The tech we use in the store is intended to provide a seamless journey that augments customers' online and instore life. Therefore, this is not a tech store, but a beautiful luxury store augmented by technology."

Burberry chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci turned to the brand's archive to create a visual look for the themed rooms that correspond to the digital platform.

The Italian fashion designer used the Thomas Burberry Monogram and the fashion house's fawn print as a recurring motif – the latter being the inspiration for the WeChat avatar too.

Furnishings, fixtures and plinths throughout the store are made from plywood and mirrors. Tisci used a palette of beige, pistachio, pink and blue throughout the 10 rooms in the shop, each of which has a different theme.

The three bookable fitting rooms are decorated around the concept of Burberry Animal Kingdom, Reflections and the Thomas Burberry Monogram, and visitors can book their favourite via the app.

Thomas' Cafe is decked out in high-gloss beige with chamfered mirrors, animal-patterned wall panels and layers of sandy-coloured curtains.

Even the tabletops are mirrored, creating a unique backdrop for diners to capture their meal for sharing on social media.

In the Trench Experience room, digital displays set in the plywood walls show moving images of nature in reference to the fashion brand's founder, Thomas Burberry, who designed a waterproof trench coat for British troops in the first world war. This room has more opportunities for customers to unlock custom content.

"I am fascinated by the balance between nature and technology, and the energy that connects the two," said Tisci.

"This store explores this relationship, blending the digital and the physical realms in an exciting new concept. I wanted to bring this love of the outdoors to life through all the elements of the store."

Burberry previously brought technology to its London shop, where it installed a robot that appeared to chisel sculptures out of polystyrene blocks.

Tencent recently opened its new headquarters in Shenzhen, a pair of towers designed by NBBJ joined by multiple bridges to encourage staff to meet and interact.

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Saskia Diez adds chains to face masks to make them feel "more like wearing an accessory"

German jewellery designer Saskia Diez has created face masks with detachable chains plated in silver and gold.

Diez told Dezeen she hoped the design would make the devices, which have become mandatory in many situations due to the coronavirus pandemic, feel "less medical".

"It feels more like wearing an accessory than something you're being forced to wear," she told Dezeen.

The Munich-based designer produced the first batch of lightweight cotton masks with 50-centimetre-long metal or nylon chains that allow them to be worn like a necklace for her store in April, before publicising the products on her website and Instagram account in May.

However, with designers rushing to put their own spin on face masks, covers with chain-link attachments have proved controversial. In an Instagram post by fashion watchdog Diet Prada, clothing seller We Wore What was called out for allegedly copying the design from fellow New York brand Second Wind.

After By Second Wind had launched its own chained masks in June, We Wore What direct messaged the brand asking for a mask, only to launch chained masks with a very similar design soon after being gifted it in July.

Diez believes she was the first to launch chained masks in April this year, but sees the addition of chains to face masks as a natural progression from the chains used to hold reading glasses.

"The date I made them and launched them was clearly before these two brands, and I did not see anyone else doing any at that time either," said Diez.

"Maybe Second Wind had seen my work, but maybe she did not. But, actually, I think making masks that you can hang around your neck was a natural thing to do, especially with the hype of the glasses chains in the last years," she continued.

Diez told Dezeen that the idea started off as her sewing some simple face masks out of old shirts for herself and her children at the beginning of March in the wake of the pandemic.

"Everybody always forgot to take it or left them somewhere," she explained. "And a friend of mine said, wouldn't it be great to have a chain like the glasses chain we had in the collection."

"So I did a few, bought fabric and got masks sewn by a tailor for our store in Munich. We sold out immediately, so we did more, I posted a picture [on Instagram] and from that day onwards we were inundated with orders."

To keep the production price low at the start, the designer initially bought leftover brass chains from her brand's various suppliers. Since then, she now has three tailors sewing the masks, which are prepared in different workshops.

The detachable chains, which are plated in gunmetal, silver or gold, allow the wearer to hang the mask around their neck when not in use.

"I have one around my neck all the time and I have gotten very used to it," she said. "I have a black one with a dark chain when I am wearing black, a taupe one with a golden chain when I wear colour or neutrals, and a white one with a silver chain when I wear white or blue or grey."

Another practical yet fashion-forward masks was an expandable face covering made from washable fabric made from recycled plastic bottles by wearable technology company Petit Pli.

Artist Danielle Baskin also set up a company, called Resting Risk Face, that will print user's faces on N95 masks so they can use facial recognition technology while wearing them.

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Motiv Architects experiments with cross-laminated timber for Vancouver garage

Vancouver practice Motiv Architects has built a garage from cross-laminated timber as an experiment of working with the material on a small scale.

Called Eton Accessory Building, the garage is a 330-square-foot (30-square-metre) gabled structure on an alleyway in Vancouver. It is connected via a garden to the main residence that is on a separate street – a programme common in the city.

Motiv Architects created the project to house the owner's restored vintage Mustang and to serve as a workshop for them to manage their industrial bag and belt fabrication company.

The studio built the garage with a prefabricated design using cross-laminated timber (CLT) because it wanted to learn how to use the engineered-wood building material.

"This 100-per-cent wood structure is a testament that no project is too small for prefabrication, its design born out of a strong desire to work with cross-laminated timber – to better understand its properties as well as the efficiencies of its assembly on a project of a very small scale," Motiv Architects said.

CLT, which is made from layers of timber glued together, provided a way to build quickly and easily, as the site was rather inaccessible and surrounded by other garages and houses.

"The site presented a number of challenges – accessed from a narrow alley with an overhead powerline, limited lay-down area and adjacent structures," Motiv Architects added.

It took under two days to build Eton Accessory Building and it was constructed with a crane known as Hydrauliska Industri AB (HIAB). Black vertical boards and battens of native Western Red Cedar siding clad the exterior for insulation.

"Designed as a kit of parts, the structure is entirely made of three-ply CLT with large cedar framed openings at both ends," said the studio. "Cut into its component parts by hand as 14 pieces and trucked to Vancouver, the CLT was erected from a HIAB in one-and-a-half days – snapping together like a puzzle."

Efforts to maximize the CLT panel size and sturdiness included incorporating a mezzanine inside and adding built-in gutters outside to stiffen the structure.

Inside, the CLT is left exposed to showcase the warmth of the spruce. Four skylights are even placed across the ceiling and align with vertical windows around the exterior. A long window above the desk in the rear also overlooks the garden.

The exterior has an onyx finish for contrast and blends with the dark standing seam metal roof.

"A glowing contrast of interior and exterior is created," the studio added. "Neighbours come by to see what the latest project is and to admire the woodiness of it all… a gem in the neighbourhood."

In addition to this garage, another project built on a laneway in Vancouver is Laneway House by Campos Studio, but instead of being for cars, it has a bedroom for a growing family.

Motiv Architects is led by architects Asher DeGroot and Tracey Mactavish. The studio has also built Swallowfield Barn for DeGroot's family farm in British Columbia.

Photography is by Jean-Philippe Delage.

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Project credits:

Lead architect: Tracey Mactavish
Engineering: Aspect Structural Engineers
Collaborators: Nicola Logworks, Structurlam

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Burnt-red tiles and hessian feature inside Dough Pizza restaurant in Perth

Interior design firm Ohlo Studio used materials that evoke the "rustic sophistication" of Italy to create the interiors of Dough Pizza restaurant in Perth.

Dough Pizza takes over a unit of Westfield Whitford City shopping centre which lies just north of central Perth.

Locally based Ohlo Studio was tasked with designing the interiors and set out to create an aesthetic that, like the restaurant's name, is "timeless and no-fuss".

The studio also wanted the space to texturally reflect Italy and the country's "rustic sophistication".

"It needed to evoke a distinct atmosphere and personality reinforcing the cultural heritage behind the food," explained the studio.

On one side of the restaurant, burnt-red tiles have been used to line the lower half of the wall.

Just in front lies a seating banquette upholstered in taupe-coloured fabric, accompanied by wooden tables and white wicker dining chairs. Slim disc-like pendant lights have been suspended from the ceiling directly overhead.

The same red tiles clad the central bar counter. It's surrounded by wooden fold-out high chairs, where customers can sit and eat within view of the open kitchen or grab a quick drink.

A wall on the opposite side of the restaurant has been completely lined in hessian, which extends down to cover a chunky plinth that runs in front.

The plinth serves as a base for a series of tobacco-hued cushioned seats that can be easily pushed together or apart to suit different-sized groups of diners.

Homely decor elements such as ceramic vases, potted plants and tiny lamps have been dotted throughout to evoke the same feel as a "neighbourhood Italian espresso bar".

Large photographic prints that capture scenes from sun-drenched Italian beaches have also been mounted on the walls.

In a bid to contrast the commercial setting of the shopping centre, the studio has applied the same selection of warm materials used inside the restaurant to its exterior.

"The tiled bar puncturing the facade also activates the boundary and creates a playful entry," added the studio.

Ohlo Studio was founded by interior architect Jen Lowe and is based in Perth's South Fremantle suburb.

The studio's Dough Pizza project is one of several trendy Italian eateries across Australia. Others include Glorietta by Alexander & Co, which features wooden furnishings and a caged rattan ceiling.

There's also Pentolina by Biasol, which has worn concrete walls and pink-marble fixtures to emulate the materiality of Ancient Rome.

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Four chocolate trademark battles that were decided in court

Ritter Sport's recent court victory over Milka is the latest in a series of long-running legal battles to trademark the design of chocolate bars. Here we round up four of the tastiest disputes.

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KitKat vs Kvikk Lunsj

KitKat's tearable, four-stick design in the UK was the focus of an almost two-decade-long legal battle between Swiss company Nestlé and Cadbury, which is owned by American confectionary giant Mondelez.

Nestle, which owns the KitKat brand, had been arguing the case against the owners of rival Norwegian four-fingered chocolate bar Kvikk Lunsj since it filed a registration with the European Intellectual Property Office in 2002. This was appealed by Cadbury and a back and forth legal case began in 2007.

A European Union General Court ruling from late 2016 found that that the bar had acquired "distinctive character through use" in the UK, but this was over-ruled by the UK Court of Appeal in 2017.

This decision was confirmed by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in 2018, which deemed that the shape of the chocolate bar was not distinctive enough to amount to a European-wide trademark. Country specific trademarks for KitKat still exist in some European countries including Germany and Italy.

Originally called Rowntree's chocolate crisp, the first KitKat was produced in 1935, while Kvikk Lunsj came to the market in 1937.

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Cadbury vs Nestlé 

Nestlé and Cadbury also entered into another long-running battle over the colour purple. Cadbury trademarked the "predominant" use of its signature Pantone 2685C purple, which it had been using for over 100 years, for "chocolate in bar or tablet form" in 1995.

However, when it attempted to expand this trademark to cover its other products in 2004 it was challenged by Nestlé with the case ending up in the court system for several years.

Cadbury appeared to have won the legal battle with a UK High Court ruling in its favour in 2012. However, this was overturned at appeal in Court of Appeal in 2013 as trademarking a colour was considered too broad.

In 2018, Cadbury unsuccessfully attempted to update the wording of its original trademark for chocolate bars, which it finally dropped in 2019.

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Image courtesy of Alaina Terwilliger via Pixabay

Ritter Sport vs Milka

Mondelēz-owned brand Milka challenged Ritter Sport's monopoly on selling square chocolate bars in Germany.

The result of a 10-year legal battle saw Ritter Sport come out victorious. The back-and-forth dispute began in 2010 after Milka was challenged by Ritter Sport for selling a quadratic chocolate bar.

The Mondelēz-owned brand was initially successful in winning the rights to also sell square bars in 2016, but this was dismissed in 2017.

The case was closed when Germany's highest court upheld this decision earlier this year, declaring that the square chocolate configuration was the sole property of Ritter Sport.

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Poundland vs Toblerone

Mondelez found itself on the winning side of this legal battle UK discount retailer Poundland over Toblerone.

Poundland made a challenge to the trademark of Mondelez-owned Toberlone in 2017 when it was set to release a similarly shaped chocolate bar called Twin Peaks.

Poundland claimed its chocolate bar's Poundland form was taken from the shape of Wrekin Hill in Shropshire, unlike the Toberlone, which has a pyramidal shape said to be a version of the Alps' iconic Matterhorn.

When the case was taken to court, Poundland argued that a savings-driven redesign of the Toblerone bar that had larger gaps between the chocolate pyramids had diluted the trademark.

Eventually, Poundland entered into negotiations with Mondelez and released a modified bar with asymmetrically arranged sloped hills instead of peaked mountains.

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