More stories

  • in

    Spacon & X adds kombucha brewery to 1930s functionalist building in Copenhagen

    Danish studio Spacon & X preserved “different layers of unique history” when designing the Folk Kombucha brewery, which is set within a listed building in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District.

    The factory belongs to fermented-tea brand Folk Kombucha and features a production area for kombucha brewing overlooked by a mezzanine level used for workshops and other social events.
    Spacon & X designed a brewery for Folk Kombucha in CopenhagenLocal firm Spacon & X aimed to balance the history of the 1930s functionalist building with its contemporary needs when designing the interior, which is led by cobalt blue, orange and pink accents.
    “The buildings in the Meatpacking District are from the 1930s and have a strong character,” said architect Malene Hvidt.
    “Our design team aimed to preserve different layers of unique history,” she told Dezeen.

    Mustard-hued floor tiles were preserved in the renovationSpacon & X maintained the building’s “archetypal Meatpacking white-tile walls” as well as mustard-yellow and green marble floor tiles.
    Translucent iridescent panels were placed behind the various stainless steel fermentation tanks to delineate spaces within the brewery.
    The studio also maintained the building’s green marble flooringStainless steel was also used to form the extensive network of pipes connected to the tanks as well as custom tables and benches topped with bright blue rubber.
    This tangle of tubes was echoed with the addition of spaghetti-shaped wire lighting.
    “The buildings in the area are all known for their white facades with windows and panels painted in a strong cobalt blue colour,” explained Hvidt. “Cobalt blue was chosen to pay tribute to the area itself.”
    A mezzanine overlooks the main production areaSpacon & X created lounge tables by recycling plastic packaging salvaged from fish and other food waste, which was industrially produced at the site before it became the Folk Kombucha brewery.
    “Instead of throwing out this long-lasting hygienic material, we transformed it into unique custom-made tables,” Hvidt said.
    Hand-hammered steel lamps also feature on the interiorArtwork made of scoby — a culture of yeast and bacteria that kickstarts the kombucha fermentation process — was used to decorate the interior alongside bespoke hand-hammered steel lamps.
    Other spaces within the multipurpose building include offices, a separate lounge, a laboratory and various storage areas.

    Pihlmann Architects creates sleek brewery in former Copenhagen slaughterhouse

    “The brewery’s spatial design was created in a way that resembled and preserved the listed building’s long history and strong character,” said Hvidt.
    “The design also incorporates subtle, organic and innovative spatial solutions with functionality and uses the building’s industrial nature as a guiding principle.”
    Cobalt blue, orange and pink accents define the breweryElsewhere in Copenhagen, Spacon & X previously created the interior for a burger restaurant filled with natural materials and plants.
    The studio has also completed an Ace & Tate glasses store in the city, taking cues from colourful artists’ studios.
    The photography is by Hedda Rysstad.

    Read more: More

  • in

    Finnish Design Shop creates forest-set logistics centre to enable “a more sustainable future”

    Avanto Architects and Joanna Laajisto have designed a logistics centre for retailer Finnish Design Shop that features warm timber, a foraged-food restaurant for staff and visitors, and views of the surrounding forest.

    Located on the outskirts of Turku, west of Helsinki, the logistics centre is the hub for storage, management and dispatch of products from the Finnish Design Shop, which says it is the world’s largest online store for Nordic design.
    The company needed a new logistics centre after a period of high growth, but founder and CEO Teemu Kiiski also aimed for it to be a meaningful place for employees and visitors.
    The Finnish Design Shop logistics centre is located in the Pomponrahka nature reserve in Turku. Photo is by KuvioEmployees of the logistics centre can enjoy plenty of light and forest views as well as warm timber environments and a restaurant run by Sami Tallberg, an award-winning chef who specialises in foraging.
    The Finnish Design Shop had first explored whether it could convert an existing building in the Turku area, but, finding nothing suitable, chose to build on a site in the Pomponrahka nature reserve, where the surrounding forest would provide a calming work environment and reflect the appreciation for wood in Nordic design.

    To undertake construction there responsibly, the Finnish Design Shop says the builders saved as many trees as possible and landscaped the area with natural forest undergrowth and stones excavated from the site.
    The entrance features glass curtain walls that connect the interior and exterior. Photo by KuvioAvanto Architects designed the 12,000-square-metre building to blend into the forest as much as possible — a challenge given its massing, a product of the warehouse layout.
    The layout was created beforehand by specialist consultants to maximise the efficiency of operations, which are carried out by robots in an automated system.
    The centre includes a showroom. Photo by Mikko RyhänenThe architects opted for a dark facade with a vertical relief pattern that becomes visible on approach and echoes the tree trunks in the surrounding woodlands.
    “The pattern forms a more human scale to the large facade surfaces,” Avanto Architects co-founder Anu Puustinen told Dezeen. “We also used warm wooden accents in the main entrance vestibule, balcony and windows.”
    There is also a restaurant that specialises in foraged food. Photo by Mikko RyhänenThe architects gave the office spaces large windows so the employees could enjoy frequent views of the forest and lots of light, and included a balcony for access to the outdoors on the first floor.
    The entrance to the centre is through the showroom, which features glass curtain walls that showcase the use of the building and a long, straight staircase made from two massive glulam beams.
    The first-floor offices have a view of the warehouse floor. Photo by KuvioThe interior was designed by Laajisto and her studio, who aimed to make the space feel well-proportioned and comfortable despite its size and to create a good acoustic environment by liberally applying sound-absorbing materials.
    She kept the colour and material palette neutral and natural, with lots of solid pine and ash wood to continue the forest connection, but used furniture from the Finnish Design Shop in bright colours to punctuate the space.

    Formafantasma and Artek’s Cambio exhibition explores Finnish design’s link to forestry

    “The aim was that every aspect in the interior should be done well and beautifully,” Laajisto told Dezeen. “Attention to detail was embraced in things that typically are overlooked, such as doors, plumbing fixtures and electrical hardware selections and applications, acoustic ceiling panels and ceramic tiles.”
    The project is the first logistics building in Finland to be certified BREEAM Excellent, the second highest level.
    Special attention has been paid to creating a good acoustic environment with sound-dampening materials. Photo by Mikko RyhänenKiiski, who positions the company as the opposite of multinational e-commerce players such as Amazon, aimed for the new centre to be the most socially and environmentally sustainable online store.
    “The values that life in the Nordic countries is based on include transparency, equality and respect for nature,” said Kiiski. “It would have been impossible to create this company and our new logistics centre without unwavering respect for these values.”
    Wood is featured throughout the interiorHe believes that global online shopping can be socially and environmentally sustainable when issues in supply chains, logistics and operations are addressed.
    “Many studies show that online shopping can have a lower carbon footprint as compared to in-store shopping,” said Kiiski. “This is due to the more efficient logistics in e-commerce and the fact that in-store shopping usually involves private transport.”
    “We want to push the whole industry towards a more sustainable future,” he continued.
    The hub is meant to offer employees a healthy and humane working environment. Photo by Mikko RyhänenPast work by Avanto Architects includes the Löyly waterfront sauna in Helsinki, which has a multifaceted exterior that visitors can climb, and the Villa Lumi, a house with a sculptural white staircase.
    Laajisto’s previous projects include office interiors for service design company Fjord and the Airisto furniture collection for Made by Choice, which was inspired by Scandinavian holiday culture.

    Read more: More

  • in

    Revival Projects' Zero Footprint Repurposing hub saves construction waste from landfill

    Australian building company Revival Projects has turned a warehouse that is set for redevelopment into a hub for repurposing construction and demolition waste, which is open to the public during Melbourne Design Week.

    Melbourne Design Week describes the Zero Footprint Repurposing hub as one of the world’s first free hubs dedicated to the storage and reuse of demolished material.
    Revival Projects aims to save these materials from landfill by making them more accessible to architects, designers, builders and manufacturers.
    The Zero Waste Repurposing hub is located in Collingwood, Melbourne on the site of a future developmentThe Zero Footprint Repurposing hub stores materials from projects around Melbourne, with Revival Projects facilitating large-scale repurposing initiatives from various sites.
    “For repurposing of existing materials to be a fundamental element of new design, storage of a large amount of demolished materials is necessary, often for many months or several years, while the project comes to life,” Revival Projects founder Robbie Neville told Dezeen.

    “The idea of this costly storage is often a prohibitive issue, so we have offered the industry free storage of materials in our Collingwood space, if they are going to repurpose those materials back into their project.”
    The hub provides free materials storage space for architects and developers working on sites around Melbourne”We present this dramatic commercial offer with zero obligation to engage us for any of our services – which include structural engineering, commercial and domestic building, and joinery and furniture making – so we are effectively removing that prohibitive issue of space, with no strings attached,” he continued.
    The Zero Footprint Repurposing hub is located in Collingwood, in a 100-year-old, 1,500-square-metre warehouse that Revival Projects will occupy until its slated demolition in 2024.
    Revival Projects is working with the architects of the future development, Grimshaw, to repurpose the existing materials from the warehouse into the new buildings.
    The space is decorated with murals and artworks that communicate the company’s missionThe hub also currently stores material from architects and developers including FJMT, Edition Office, BAR Studio, Hip V. Hype, Kerstin Thompson Architects, ANPlus Developments and Bayley Ward Architects.
    The interior of the space is decorated with murals, art, quotes, installations and materials that communicate the project’s vision.

    Construction industry “doesn’t know where it stands when it comes to carbon emissions”

    “Our mission here is to revolutionise the way our industry approaches existing materials,” said Revival Projects founder Robbie Neville. “We are disrupting centuries of traditions based on reckless consumption of natural resources.”
    According to RMIT, 20.4 million tons of waste were generated from construction and demolition in Australia in 2017, including through works such as road and rail maintenance and land excavation, and about one-third of this ended up in landfill.
    The construction and demolition waste at the hub comes from sites around MelbourneThe waste from these activities include bricks, concrete, metal, timber, plasterboard, asphalt, rock and soil.
    A registered builder, Neville founded Revival Projects in 2016, after four years of running his own salvage missions but becoming frustrated that the construction industry was not geared for reuse.
    The company has since channelled salvaged waste into interiors and architecture projects such as RM Williams stores around Australia and the Industry Beans cafe in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
    Architects and developers are able to store materials from demolition at the hub free of chargeThe practice also worked with Hip V. Hype on a 2020 demolition and salvage for a block of 22 apartments the property developer is building in South Melbourne. For that project, Revival Projects established an earlier iteration of the Zero Footprint Repurposing hub beside that site.
    Additionally, the practice runs workshops out of its hubs, focusing on different sectors of the community that are underrepresented in the construction industry, such as women.
    The current Zero Footprint Repurposing hub at Islington Street, Collingwood is part of the programme at Melbourne Design Week, with an open day happening on Friday 25 March and a panel discussion at 5pm.
    Revival Projects also runs workshops out of the hubThe hub was awarded the 2022 Melbourne Design Week Award, with National Gallery of Victoria director Tony Ellwood calling it “a project of ambitious scale with global importance”.
    The construction industry accounts for 38 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, partly because of the cost of creating new materials.
    According to a 2021 report published by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, buildings equivalent to a city the size of Paris are being built every week, but less than one per cent of them are even assessed to determine their carbon footprint.
    The photography is by Sean Fennessy.
    Melbourne Design Week is on from 17 to 27 March 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

    Read more: More

  • in

    “I don't want my pictures to tell people what they should think” says Alastair Philip Wiper

    British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper explores all kinds of factories, from pork slaughterhouses to sex doll workshops. He says he isn’t trying to shock or influence, just to show people where things come from. Wiper photographs the facilities that make mass production possible. His images show the machines, the people and the processes used to […] More