LA Design Group Creates Fruit-Inspired Interior for RK Apothecary

The Los Angeles Design Group have created an interior design for RK Apothecary, a store that sells bath and body products. The interior features a series of “outré fruit” tables to display products. The designers wanted to create a shopping environment that was spatially efficient as well as visually engaging, due to the small size of the store. They designed hanging light fixtures to fill the double-height ceilings, and tables that enabled the shoppers to browse unhindered by the obstacles of large floor displays. The practical problems of the space forced LADG to imagine new possibilities for the existing space, as shown by the organic shapes of the tables and displays, which were inspired by the anatomy of the fruity ingredients in the Apothecary's line. 

Thoughtspace Finishes Fun Design of BBC Worldwide Office

Australian design studio Thoughtspace have completed the interior design for BBC Worldwide’s office in Sydney, Australia. Thoughtspace took two geographically separate BBC Worldwide offices and created a dynamic 2000m² workplace in Macquarie Park. Eden Park Drive media precinct was the perfect fit for the evolving global media organisation. BBC Worldwide’s new headquarters boasts a large expanse of office-free open plan environment peppered with a variety of working lounges and alternative activity based working areas. The organization believed that there needed to be a element of ‘fun’ introduced into the typical workplace in addition to the functional aspects of commercial interior design. Thoughtspace worked closely with the marketing and communications team to develop a design and workplace strategy for the new facility. These brainstorming sessions resulted in the primary design driver being a celebration of the BBC Worldwide global brands.

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"Double Skin" Computerized Facade Allows Skyscraper to Breathe

The engineers of the Westarkade, a colorful high-rise that officially opened in Frankfurt in July, show that you don't need to seal yourself in to live green.

The 15-story glass tower glows with natural light and offers windows that open—a comfort that can wreak havoc with energy efficiency. But the Westarkade's first-of-a-kind "pressure ring" facade and sophisticated, sensor-rich control scheme promise to consume no more than 100 kilowatt-hours of energy per square meter per year. That would make it a world-class energy miser, using half as much energy as a conventional office building in Europe and as little as a third of the U.S. average.

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Archinect Sessions Offer Architectural Debates

Lively architectural exchanges occur every day in schools, coffee shops, and on online blogs. Archinect Sessions looks to formalize these discussions through a series of debates that will take place in front of live and online audiences. Achinect Sessions chooses the debate format because of the need for a return of criticality in the discussion of architecture. This format strips away the visual crutches of the traditional “show and tell” lecture circuit, and instead requires participants to advocate for a particular point of view rooted in genuine political conviction.

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Architecture for Humanity Releases Plan for Sustainable Reconstruction in Pakistan

Architecture for Humanity Housing Prototype for Karachi Relief TrustArchitecture for Humanity recently released a plan for rebuilding of villages destroyed by the floods in Pakistan. The mission statement of the plan aims to rebuild in a sustainable manner-both environmentally and economically. Their three part plan includes supporting and empowering rebuilding efforts, supporting historic preservation, and updating and distributing their disaster resistant housing manual. For Architecture for Humanity's complete three part plan, click here.