Checking out one of my favorite websites, Yatzer, I came across their post with the Hermès collection in details as revealed in Milan this past week. Most people were looking forward to the final debut of this long awaited collection. In my post about Hermès Maison, the collection was still vague, with information of their collaboration with Dedar for their wallpaper and home fabric collection.
Well known architects, Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, designed the exhibition space, the Hermès Pavillion , the furniture however was designed by Enzo Mari, Antonio Citterio and RDAI Studio.
The beautiful exhibition space was mainly made out of cardboard tubes woven with paper. The Pavilion incorporated rooms of different sizes resembling the spaces of a home, some private and some shared. When pieces have such simple structure and form, quality is crucial. The luxury prevails through the material used and the fine finishing details of every part of every piece.
At a time when children are confined to a world of video games, indoor activities, and less resources for a natural environment, this amazing project comes up to make it up for the lucky students who will be attending this school. Creative School play area painting will also enable different outdoor activities for students.
Why would anyone get the impression that all we need in the Middle East is higher towers? In a region whose tomorrow is at stake every second of today, there are more constructive ways to use the money, creativity, and energy we have. Toppling Burj Khalifa as the highest tower in the world after only 18 months of its opening is not a good enough reason.
Architecture does not fall under “ the bigger, the better” category, architecture is about meeting human comfort in terms of design and function, its about the beauty of volumes and how they serve their role in the best way possible. It was never about requiring half a day to reach your destination going up the elevator, or standing out in an environment that is so incoherent from the actual structure.
Another thing that would make you wonder, why would they choose a name indicating the type of regime at such a critical political period “ Kingdom Tower” ?
The video at the bottom of the post is a more graphic approach of how odd it will look in its surrounding.
So far the press release for the project has not been officially out, but information on the project has been circulating a few sites:
“Kingdom Tower” will be one mile high. It will contain almost 12 million cubic feet of space. It will be part of a larger urban development built to house about 80,000 people, at a cost of almost 30 billion dollars.
In terms of scale, it is estimated that a lift journey to the uppermost level of this 275-floor structure will take 12 minutes, with the Burj Khalifa’s 828m shrinking in the wake of the Kingdom Tower’s 1,609m height. Similarly, the highly celebrated Kingkey Tower in Shenzhen is only destined to reach 441m, while Guangzhou’s Canton Tower stands at 610m high. Should this lofty new building been seen through to realisation, it will overshadow every other ‘tall’ tower in the world and push the boundaries of architectural design in a way many never thought possible.
Architectural icon after the other, A-Cero never refrain from keeping us in awe with the amazing sculptural designs they present. I am really impressed recently with Spanish designers and their works.
The design impact of this Open Box House, as they named it, can not be missed, the open spaces, the minimal use of colors yet strong volumes are what characterized it. The residence is located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain and the design is inspired by Spanish sculptor Jorge Oteiza.
The interior spaces are overlapping and overlooking each other. A large mirrored partition serves as a background for a long fireplace, a glass bridge hangs over the living area and is adjacent to a large bookcase.
Natural light is plenty, tiles used are large grey ceramic tiles, furniture used is mainly from Fendi Casa. In the photo above you can see the Elisa chairs by Fendi Casa and the Canova console in black lacquer finish. The sofa is called Domino, also by Fendi Casa.
