Preview Frame #149 NOV/JAN

Wen Studio, courtesy of

Courtesy of Omlab and Lilian van Daal

Iwan Baan, courtesy of Heatherwick Studio, BIG and Google

Rory Gardiner, courtesy of Kerstin Thompson Architects

Frame is published five times a year by

Frame Publishers

frameweb.com

EDITORIAL

For editorial inquiries, please e-mail frame@frameweb.com or call +31 20 4233 717.

Editor in chief

Robert Thiemann – RT

Head of content

Floor Kuitert – FK

Editor at large

Tracey Ingram – TI

Editors Anouk Haegens – AH Lydia Johnson – LJ

Head of digital Lauren Grace Morris – LGM

Junior editor

Kayla Dowling – KD

Video editor

Clémence Overeem

Copy editor

InOtherWords (D’Laine Camp)

Design director

Barbara Iwanicka

Graphic designer Zoe Bar-Pereg

Translation

InOtherWords (D’Laine Camp, Maria van Tol)

Contributors to this issue

Shawn Adams – SA

Polina Bachlakova – PB

Roddy Clarke – RC Simon Flöter – SF

Holly Friend – HF Vésma Kontere McQuillan – VKM Adrian Madlener – AM

Riya Patel – RP Kristofer Thomas – KT

Cover Marni x Shoplifter at Marni Milan by Brinkworth, The Wilson Brothers and Francesco Risso (see page 18)

Photo Louise Melchior

PUBLISHING

Director Robert Thiemann

Marketing and communication specialist Renata Sutton renata@frameweb.com

Social media intern Valeria Lee

Customer success manager Raluca Pop raluca@frameweb.com

Subscriptions

For subscription inquiries, please e-mail service@frameweb.com or call +31 20 2205 224.

2-year subscription + book From €239 2-year subscription From €229 1-year subscription From €129

1-year student subscription From €119

Please visit frameweb.com/subscribe for the latest offers.

Back issues

Buy online at store.frameweb.com

ADVERTISING

International sales managers Sara Breveglieri sara@frameweb.com T +39 339 4373 951

Veerle de Muijnck veerle@frameweb.com T +31 61 4562 079

Advertising representative Italy Studio Mitos Michele Tosato michele@studiomitos.it T +39 042 2894 868

Frame (USPS No: 019-372) is published by Frame Publishers NL.

ISSN FRAME: 1388-4239 © 2022/2023 Frame Publishers and authors

Printing

Grafisch Bedrijf Tuijtel Hardinxveld-Giessendam

Back issues

Buy online at store.frameweb.com

Worldwide and exclusively, JUNG offers its classic LS 990 switch in the 63 original colours of the Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier palette.

Pure colour. Pure matt. In order to reflect the impressive colour depth, the switches are hand-lacquered.

SOHO

Stuttgart,

gris clair 31 l’ocre rouge moyen

céruléen

Photographer: Henrik Schipper

If we had to pick a word that’s defined spatial design in the past decade, ‘experience’ might just be it. It’s a vague term – don’t all interiors offer some kind of experience? – that surged into the spotlight with the rise of the experience economy: the trend of customers prioritizing experiences over products and services. Now, the movement has spread to every conceivable typology and shows no signs of abating. It is, however, adapting.

Stéphane

courtesy of Balenciaga

omnilayered stores

A dual approach to retail has arisen and solidified in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the retail sector converges with adjacent industries – such as hospitality, technology and science – to increase meaningful foot traffic and, hopefully by proxy, higher revenues.

Eric Petschek

Retail laboratories

L’Oréal-owned Biotherm brings to life the convergence of science and skincare currently shaking up the beauty sector. The brand, which sells skincare products made with ‘Life Plankton’, opened the Biotherm Blue Beauty Lab to mark its collaboration with Monaco’s Oceanographic Institute. Eschewing retail for education, the openby-appointment lab offers a deep dive into Biotherm’s methodology on a microscopic level. Situated in an alcove with ocean views, the Universal Design Studio-designed space includes floor-to-ceiling projections of live generative visuals that allow visitors to create their own digital artwork and participate in hands-on learning.

biotherm.com

Courtesy of Universal Design

and

A staircase at the rear of teabased drinks store Introlemons in Shanghai guides visitors to a cinema-slash-entertainment area.

Tech-driven experiences

Nike has been perfecting the formula of phygital spaces with its Nike Style store in Seoul. The idea builds on the Nike Rise concept, which first appeared as a test site in Guangzhou, China. Intended for the sportswear brand’s distinct sport lifestyle audience, Nike Style is characterized by digital-physical spaces, locally curated collections and community activations like workshops and member events. Aimed at ‘broadening the aperture of sport retail culture’, the store boasts a content studio for local creatives, product experts and shoppers, with customizable backdrops. QR-powered augmented reality experiences provide an extra layer of context to product innovation and art installations. nike.com

Courtesy of Nike

For Prada’s AW22 show, AMO created a disorienting aluminium landscape in the interior of Beijing’s Yin An Palace – a physical space that was replicated in the metaverse.

Courtesy of Prada

At Bompas & Parr’s Forces of Nature in Al-’Ula, Saudi Arabia – home to UNESCO World Heritage Site Hegra –visitors ate meals cooked over lava in an ancient canyon.

Courtesy of Bompas & Parr

haute cuisine

As the experience economy continues to thrive, attention spans reportedly are narrowing and climate consciousness is gaining urgency, innovative restaurants are rethinking the fine-dining experience.

Just like the ideals it advertises, the global wellness market continues to thrive. Not only that, but it’s getting broader and more personalized. Wellbeing is moving beyond the mere physical, whether that’s by taking mental and emotional health into account or by utilizing digital tools. As awareness grows of how certain spaces and services impact the mind and body, designers take on a new role as ‘healthcare professionals’.

Hiroyuki Hirai, courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects and Zen Wellness Seinei

Courtesy of Tetris A/S and Sangberg

We’re living longer. Here’s how spatial design can help us live better, too

It’s no secret that a large portion of people living in the developed world are reaching seniority. The US Census Bureau estimates that the amount of Americans aged 65 and over is expected to outnumber those 18 years old or younger by 2035. Stymied by decades of declining birth rates, European countries are predicted to not fare that much better. With such seismic shifts at play, the issue should perhaps be seen as less of a dilemma – a supposed extra burden on already fragile economic systems – and more of a call to action. Re-evaluating how care homes and retirement communities could operate is an opportunity to introduce new design strategies that could benefit everyone and perhaps even address some of the other extreme challenges facing our world.

psychological debilities, especially those exacerbated by the insidi ous effects of loneliness and the feeling of abandonment.

Keeping the ageing active within our multi-modal communi ties is essential to their wellbeing. ‘Patients don’t want to be hidden, but to be a part of the natural life in the city,’ says Morten Gregersen, partner at Nord Archi tects. His firm helped spearhead the Co-existence Village proposal: homes for 300 individuals with dementia located at the core of a residential district in Odense, Denmark. Similar initiatives are popping up across Europe and the US. These developments now include a slew of new amenity spaces that cater to their physical and mental wellbeing.

care, but without the rigidity of regulated schedules or the limited scope of the traditional hospitallike layouts of yesteryear.

Built using Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and designed by architecture studio Sangberg, Agorahaverne is an environmentally friendly housing project for older citizens in Denmark. Block buildings are structured around a roofed atrium garden, which functions as a common community space.

During the pandemic, it became clear that the traditional practice of ostensibly putting elders away in facilities that are cut off from the rest of society and located on the physical periphery of town centres is not viable. This is particularly true for older citizens who suffer from

If not introducing entirely new campuses or adapted build ing complexes that mimic the vibrancy of small towns or major cities – complete with dedicated retail spaces, cafés, gyms, theatres and parks – these services are being harnessed and redirected in urban areas that already boast these services. Such environments still offer the benefits of traditional

Reimagining the 65+ population as a demographic that is active within established or new communities requires us to also rethink the nature of how our homes and other complementary spaces are designed and operated. ‘Through the different periods in the life of a person, their living conditions change on average every seven years: marriage, divorce, a baby, a person leaving, or a relative joining – natural con ditions that necessitate a change in the way of living,’ Edgar Gonzalez, associate dean for design and Bachelor of Design director at Madrid’s IE School of Architecture and Design, commented during Frame’s think-tank The Next Space. It’s clear that our surround ings should reflect the progression of our lives but no longer mirror the traditional pattern of educa tion, work and retirement. These segments of one’s life are now far more interspersed and sporadic.

As more people surpass the 100-year mark, careers are

Astin Le Clercq, cofounder of Modem, believes spatial meeting technology can make hybrid work a more equal and personalized experience

‘We founded Modem in the middle of the pandemic because we saw a huge opportunity in people becoming more conscious of the choices they make, especially around work. Our first research paper on hybrid work with UC Berkeley – New Office Rituals – looked at how to bring serendipity back to this highly rigid and scheduled culture of meeting-based work. From a spatial design point of view, offices will need to shift to accommodate emerging spatial meeting tools that use AR and VR. Technologies that create a common ground between people working remotely and in the office. Whether it will be wearables or mixed-reality sets, in the future there will be so much more possibility to transform your own environment rather than step into a whole

different world. Because isn’t that just another version of going to the office?’

‘In the spatial computing era it will also be easier to adapt a work environment to more people. Let’s say you can’t wear a VR headset, or you can’t handle screen light, tools will become available to us in the next ten years that can create more flexible work spaces. Spaces can become more fluid. Slowly we’re getting towards the Star Trek Holodeck idea where space can be anything. But that’s very far away! In the spatial design context we need to get perspectives from more diverse design teams, then we need to work with the right tools to enable these workspaces for a broader audience.’

with

stress-relief tool

translates the user’s breathing patterns into ethereal AR sculptures.

How hyperspecific wellness is impacting hospitality settings

In a post-Covid-19 world, guests are more aware of their health than ever before. Several years of disruptive stressors coupled with a news cycle dominated by vaccinations, ventilators and variants have seen the mildest symptoms amplified to a cause of concern. Indeed, data from care platform Vida Health shows users are spending more time tracking, monitoring and fine-tuning their habits – average minutes spent exercising are up 42 per cent, those keeping food logs has risen 49 per cent and the use of mood and mental health trackers has increased by 186 per cent. The impact of such sharply escalated awareness can be seen in the

surging trend of ‘healthifica tion’, and the infusion of sectors from beauty and fashion to F&B and consumer technology with health-oriented form and function.

But where this is a relatively new development in these sectors, the travel and hospitality industries have benefited from a significant head start, and over the last decade large swathes of the market have realigned with the values of wellness. It might have been a broad category –touching on everything from spa days and morning yoga to biophilic architecture and guiltreducing sustainability drives – but after a period of massive

The 26-m2 structures that make up Arcana – a cluster of cabins in the Ontario wilderness designed by Leckie Studio – have been specifically developed to enhance the relationship between guest and landscape.

than the cabin itself, and so it all but removes itself from the external equation.

However, inner-city urban wellness cocoons have also seen a considerable rise in demand, and with a lack of nature to offer guests, projects like the newly opened Aman New York – where three entire floors are dedicated to a state-of-the-art spa – must go the opposite way and root the experience in highly engineered man-made environments. As

Jean Michel Gathy, the hotel’s designer, tells Travel Media Daily: ‘What makes Aman New York peaceful is the high level of attention given to the acoustic treatment within the building, enhanced further by layers of panelling and material . . . We are dealing with composition, not a juxtaposition of elements.’

This disparity between city and rural health retreats is driving a period of minimalist/ maximalist polarization, with

one side of the market attempt ing to synthesize health through scientific accuracy and precision, while the other sits back and lets nature do the work. For guests, this increased diversity and choice of product can only be a good thing, but for designers, the task will be to avoid alienating those guests seeking to escape the often-overwhelming remind ers of the human condition. KT

At the Shigeru Ban-designed Zenbo Seinei retreat on Japan’s Awaji Island, much of the second-storey footprint is taken up by a zazen meditation studio.

Hiroyuki Hirai

‘Co’ is arguably the most used prefix across the Frame channels over the past few years. Collaboration and connection are at the core of many recent spatial-design developments: co-working and co-living, for two, while the term ‘co-creation’ has transformed the role of the designer in creative processes from ‘captain’ to (community) consultant. Now, by expanding its collaborative approach across the board, our industry continues its quest to reach a more democratic, community-centric design scene.

Vivek Muthuramalingam, courtesy of Kumar La Noce

Co-designed collectivity

For the Sanjaynagar Slum Rehabilitation Project, Community Design Agency (CDA) sought to create opportunities for residents of all ages to interact with one another. ‘We wanted grandparents from different families to be able to sit outside in cool ventilated areas as children play right in front of them,’ says CDA managing director Sandhya Naidu Janardhan. The ongoing project in Ahmednagar will house 298 families currently living in slum conditions, and was co-designed with the 22 different communities that have occupied the area since the 1980s. Eight three-storey buildings are organized around courtyards to help maintain the strong pre-existing social bonds among residents.

Rajesh Vora

Tiers of privacy

Sanjay Puri believes multigenerational housing must have a balance of both private and social spaces, a factor his eponymous firm employed at Mirai House of Arches in Bhilwara. Organized across three levels, the design fulfils the family’s requirements to have four bedrooms, a lounge, a living room, a large kitchen, a gym and a study on a small plot. As you venture up the building, spaces become much more private. The house allows each generation to have its own indoor and outdoor spaces, with individual terraces for each room.

sanjaypuriarchitects.com

Dinesh Mehta

For the Wii Gyemsiga Siwilaawksat Student Building at Coast Mountain College in Terrace, Canada – where 48 per cent of students are Indigenous –HCMA worked with Indigenous design, art, culture, language and ceremony experts to inform its design.

Brit Kwasney

In an effort to create spaces that are more inclusive and grounded in their surroundings, designers can harness the invaluable knowledge of Indigenous collaborators.

indigenous design

It’s often said that history is written by the victors. Nowhere is this truer than in our built environment. For centuries, colonial forces established dominion over newly conquered territory by constructing cities, establishing remote homesteads and introducing agricul tural installations based on the standards of their home countries. Imposing the popular architectural styles, building practices and infrastructural innovations of the time on these environments, they left a lasting if not also destructive impact.

Though cross-pollination with Indigenous populations did occur – such as learning how to build sound shelters from those who had inhabited the land for mil lennia – the significance of these influences

was often taken for granted and overlooked. Asserting their dominance, colonialists were more interested in either extending their rulers’ reach, extracting natural resources or establishing new societies. They saw those they were pushing out or enslaving as inferior – savages that needed to be civilized – even if their assistance was critical to their survival.

In a recent push to rectify this deeprooted injustice and finally give credit where credit is due, influential architecture firms and major companies have set out to work closely with Indigenous design collaborators on vari ous projects, especially those addressing the topic at hand. These industry leaders are tap ping into different types of expertise and going beyond the standard European cannons. Their

The new workspace is a community. Co-creation is key to achieving it

Courtesy of MVRDV

MVRDV has received planning approval for the initial phase of co-created campus Atelier Gardens in Berlin. The first two buildings include a multi-use event space, flexible workspaces, meeting spaces and a café. Overhead curtain rails in Studio 1 allow the space to be subdivided quickly, either with translucent or acoustic fabric.

The momentum behind cocreation is growing as companies try to keep up with the chang ing needs of the workforce. It encourages a long-term view of office design, making successive iterations in consultation with staff and building users. Tech nology is also evolving to help employers and landlords form a more nuanced idea of their com munity’s needs. With the current jobs market tilted in favour of the employee, here are some ways we’ve observed businesses attracting talent by building workplaces from the ground up.

The power of listening

In any type of organization, people feel valued when they are heard. Flattened hierarchies give staff a sense of purpose and deliver useful insights for a company. Where better to dem onstrate an inclusive mindset than workplace design? For the headquarters for Publicis Groupe in Boston, Elkus Manfredi Archi tects spent 12 months listening to the building’s 1,500 users, using feedback to create a tailored approach. Teams identified that

they wanted to work from ‘home neighbourhoods’ and informal cafés or ‘joy spaces’, as well as having one large social space in which to gather.

The designer’s listening and facilitation skills are brought to the fore in a co-creative process. UK practice ID:SR used insights from staff experiences in the pandemic to deliver British Telecom a London headquarters that focuses on spatial variety, digital connectivity and acous tics. Staff work from ‘mini-neigh bourhoods’ defined by flexible furniture arrangements rather than fixed positions, reflecting a desire for more communal and social space. Beyond listening, the practice is also using VR to understand workplaces from the viewpoints of different user groups. Its BBC Wales head quarters has been designed to be sensitive to the needs of the neurodiverse.

Emotion-tracking tech Although co-creation is helping us design more inclusive work places, the process is still flawed. Authority bias can persist – senior

staff members’ views can still hold more sway, and users who sense risk in airing their views can hold back. Emotion-tracking software and wearables might provide a solution by giving anonymized feedback on employees’ daily work experi ences. Wearables can also empower users with insights into their own behaviour they were previously unaware of, and provide data that could help staff prove that they require certain circumstances or working pat terns to be productive.

For those who are under standably uncomfortable with having their boss track personal information on sleep, heart rate, body temperature and other intimate factors, emotional intel ligence platforms like Loopin and Moodtracker could prove more popular. These are designed for employees to directly report their feelings, helping to shape a workplace that reflects individual needs. Successful co-created workplaces need regular reevaluation. Instead of carrying out post-occupancy reviews yearly or quarterly, wearables »

The past three years served as a lesson in designing for uncertain times. While projects were put on hold, creative studios were forced to rethink their practices and venture into new – often low-touch, digital – realms. For those that were lucky enough to see their commissions continue, the challenge lay in designing for a new normal that had yet – and still has – to fully take shape. Moving forward, the answer lies in agility.

Antoine Huot, courtesy of Émilieu Studio

Tomohide

elastic interiors

climate resilience

Rory Gardiner

How can our buildings and interiors respond to the pressures of the climate crisis, from rising sea levels to extreme weather events?

Kerstin Thompson Architects’ design of the Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge in Australia is a timely response to a landscape shaped by fire and floods.

How agility is impacting office design

ABOVE At Norway’s The Plus – the Bjarke Ingels-designed factory of furniture manufacturer Vestre – an external ramp affords the public views of the production process.

OPPOSITE Inspired by scaffolding, Vitra’s modular office system Comma can be flexibly adapted to changing needs.

Einar Aslaksen

The term ‘agile working’ has been around since 2015, but the rapid changes of the past two years have tested the adaptive business mindset like never before. Cur rent expectations of the workplace are incredibly complex and the functions it needs to fulfil are constantly shifting. Here are some key strategies we’ve noticed busi nesses using as they try to keep up with a world in flux.

Demountable architectures and kits of parts

Without a crystal ball to predict what employees need in the near future, the smartest workplaces are embracing scaled-back fitouts, reconfigurable floorplates and even wholly demountable struc tures to deal with rapid change.

Waugh Thistleton’s London office building 6 Orsman Road has a low-key interior with structure and services left exposed, and

finishes deliberately kept raw in anticipation of changes in use.

The cross-laminated timber and steel building can be fully dismantled in the future. Circular thinking has also been embraced by RAU Architects for the Dutch HQ of Triodos Bank – principal Thomas Rau encourages a view of buildings as temporary stores of materials that can be disassem bled and used again.

Demountable offices are set to become increasingly sophis ticated as we attempt to define an architecture that can adapt quickly. Lightweight structures, such as If_Do Architects’ London community workspace The Hithe, can be low-cost, built on underuti lized sites, and minimize environ mental impact. Such offices help fledgling businesses in particular stay agile by only existing while needed and requiring less upfront funding. Furniture manufacturers

are also responding to an acceler ated idea of agile working with kit-of-parts systems like Vitra’s Comma. Inspired by scaffolding, the reconfigurable tubular steel system requires minimal tools and expertise to be constructed. Teams can change their work setup by the hour or day depend ing on what is needed.

Outsourced ecosystems that minimize risk

As economic uncertainty bites, large corporations are turning from traditional leases to flexible office space. By choosing office partners that run their properties like hotels, businesses can keep up with an evolving work culture without fear of ‘getting it wrong’. This shift has boosted existing flexible office spaces, but also opened up a new demand for spaces that support hybrid work. Take Convene, the fast-growing »

SUS

As climate crisis news floods the airwaves, the built environment is increasingly scrutinized for its contribution to greenhouse gases – around 40 per cent and counting. Despite – or perhaps due to – this immense impact, architecture and design are falling behind when it comes to curtailing carbon emissions. Adept at proving that crisis breeds innovation, designers are perfectly poised to help steer the ship out of rough – and increasingly rising – seas.

TAIN

Courtesy of Made of Air

of By The End of May

Ronald Smits

Working with partners in Germany and the Netherlands, Imat sets a new standard in textile production with its development of a yarn made of blended waste fibres. In contrast with other recycled materials, which consist of fibres separated out by type, Imat’s yarn contains unsorted fibres. The ongoing improvement of this new material blend provides further incentive to keep old clothing out of landfills, increasing the ease of repurposing it for use across the automotive, furniture, interior and fashion industries. To launch the yarn, Imat tapped Envisions to suggest possible applications for its use.

How solarpowered architecture is fuelling a greener construction industry

In partnership with the UN’s Environment Programme, the International Energy Agency produced a report in 2019 stating that globally, the buildings and construction sector accounted for 36 per cent of final energy use and 39 per cent of energy and process-related CO2 emissions in 2018. In the context of the climate crisis, this statistic was another wake-up call for the need for urgent change, especially in the architectural world.

While harnessing the sun’s power as clean and renewable energy has been in progress for several years, there have still been

drawbacks to the implementation of solar panels due to aesthetic challenges as well as cost and setup implications. However, thanks to the introduction of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and innovative, visionary and future-focused architects and manufacturers, we are seeing a rise in solar-powered architecture, presenting us with a renewable future that doesn’t compromise on aesthetics. And, if all newbuild construction could generate energy for itself and its inhabit ants, could this facilitate the rapid change we need to create a greener future for all? »

Iwan Baan

Google’s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley – designed by BIG, Heatherwick Studio and Google’s design and engineering teams – features a first-of-its-kind ‘dragonscale’ solar skin.

SUSTAINABILITY TOOLKIT

START SOMEWHERE

To borrow an already wellworn quote from Anne Marie Bonneau, aka the Zero-Waste Chef: ‘We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.’ And a good place to start? The three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle – in that order.

GET SPECIFIC, NOT (NECESSARILY) CERTIFIED

The diversity of potential solutions is proof that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to sustainability. Designers should instead assess each specific project: its location, materials and even its cultural context. According to designer Lucas Muñoz, this process is much more important than seeking standards and certifications. As he told us in Frame 137: ‘Sustainability in design should not be measured, it should be thoroughly understood.’

JOIN FORCES

The responsibility certainly doesn’t lie with one person or one industry. On page 70 we explore the power of community and collaboration in design, and negotiating the climate crisis will become another case in point.

Simon Flöter

CONTRACT BUSINESS connects

Ona Collection

Simple as Nature

Inspired by the Mediterranean. Natural colours, pure lines and soft shapes. This is Ona: a timeless, versatile and sustainable bathroom collection. roca.com/ona