Spotted: Windows have remained functionally the same since their invention; providing natural light and perhaps a level of aesthetic beauty to a home. However, this has meant that while the home has undergone technological smart advancements with heating, storage, electricity, and other things, windows have fallen behind.
Windows account for about 30 per cent of heat loss in a home, and during hot periods, they often let in too much solar heat, which is often compensated for with energy-intensive cooling systems. And even with the right window insulation, it’s rare that lighting is “just right” for the occupant’s comfort when dealing with shifting natural light sources.
This is where Tynt comes in. The concept is simple: windows that can regulate the amount of light that is let in based on what’s available and also the desire of the operator. This is accomplished by using patented Reversible Metal Electrodeposition (RME).
The technology uses a small electric current to influence the properties of a metal film that rests in between the windowpanes – affecting how opaque the window appears and how much energy it absorbs. By either regulating the current up or down, the opacity of the window will range from completely transparent to truly blacked out. With this system the heat regulation of the house is also far more efficient – requiring just 1 volt to function, according to the company.
Tynt is not in the commercial phase just yet, but you can sign up to be alerted when the first product becomes available, which the company predicts will be in 2024.
Windows are a central part of all modern buildings, but if they’re poorly designed, they can rapidly increase the heat losses and greenhouse gas emissions of a property. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted shade screens that provide renewable sources of energy as well as this company that can retrofit entire buildings with net-zero glass to reduce heating costs.
himawari nursery school reimagines early childhood education
Akaike Tohyama Architects designs Himawari Nursery School in Musashimurayama City, Tokyo, relocating and expanding the original structure. Situated in the residential expanse extending toward the Musashino Plateau and Sayama Hills, the project reimagines early childhood education.
Departing from the previous two-story RC structure that segmented children’s activities, a single-story wooden structure rises to enrich interactions among children of varying ages. To achieve this, the design strategically places the nursery room, hall, and childcare functions on the first floor, while staff facilities, including the reception desk, are arranged on the second floor. This zoning strategy eliminates the division of children’s activities and fosters an environment conducive to cross-generational interaction.
all images by Kawasumi & Kobayashi Kenji Photo Office
nursery school becomes a dynamic playground
The entire site becomes a ‘playground’ where children are encouraged to explore both indoor and outdoor realms. Given the necessity for a single-story wooden structure, coupled with considerations for bicycle parking, childcare areas, and site conditions, the design team forms a compact schoolyard. Rather than opting for a single expansive playground, the approach scatters smaller play areas across the site. This arrangement integrates the ‘playground’ within the architectural volumes, culminating in a circulation system that seamlessly connects the interior and exterior. The plan offers a variety of play activities facilitated by accessible openings from nursery rooms and the hall, uneven terrain, diverse yard pavement textures, and pockets of green.
Himawari Nursery School is situated in a residential area of Musashimurayama City in Tokyo
House-Shaped Volumes Embrace a Child-Friendly Atmosphere
At the heart of the School’s plan lie five wooden house-shaped volumes that echo the scale of surrounding detached houses. The design maintains a low flat roof height, complemented by high ceilings, creating a gentle structure that seamlessly blends into the local townscape. Exposed wooden beams envelop the space in warmth, and each volume boasts a distinct structure, lending character to individual areas. Wood extends to the exterior and walls, enveloping the entire building in a child-friendly, inviting ambiance.
To seamlessly integrate the kindergarten into the neighborhood, the building’s volume is thoughtfully dispersed throughout the site, with the yard nestled within the architectural margins. The design introduces a walkway that connects the small garden with an alley-like path, allowing children to roam both indoors and outdoors. The small yard fosters unrestricted play for daily childcare. Himawari Nursery School redefines early childhood education, promoting childhood exploration and community integration.
five wooden house-shaped volumes that echo the scale of surrounding detached houses
the site becomes a ‘playground’ where children are encouraged to explore both indoor and outdoor realms
the small yard fosters unrestricted play for daily childcare
exposed wooden beams envelop the space in warmth, and each volume boasts a distinct structure
For our latest lookbook, we have gathered eight examples of serene living rooms where well-curated artworks add a touch of creativity.
Paintings, sculptures and other art pieces can add a more personal feel to interiors, as seen in these eight art-filled living rooms.
While some have gone all in on the art, others chose just one or two signature pieces to create a creative atmosphere.
Either way, smartly placed artworks can enhance an interior and give homes a more personal feel.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring living rooms with cowhide rugs, monochrome interiors and basement apartments.
Photo by Nicole Franzen
Amagansett house, US, by Athena Calderone
Plaster walls, marble details and linen fabric were used to decorate this renovated mid-century home in Long Island, New York.
Owner and designer Athena Calderone also added plenty of sculptures and paintings to the interior, including in the living room where white artworks with playful textures and shapes add interest to the pale walls.
Find out more about the Amangansett house ›
Photo by Fran Parente
Gale Apartment, Brazil, by Memola Estudio
Brazilian studio Memola Estudio aimed to balance natural and industrial materials in this apartment in São Paulo, which has a double-height living room.
The owners took advantage of the height to create a gallery wall on one side of the living room. Artworks also decorate an adjacent mosaic wall, giving the whole room a gallery-like feel.
Find out more about Gale Apartment ›
Photo by Salva López
Casa Vasto, Spain, by Mesura
Designed to be both an apartment and an art gallery, this home in a former factory in Barcelona features an exquisitely curated living and exhibition space.
A large abstract blue-and-beige painting sits on top of a low bookshelf, which also displays a sculpture and multiple smaller paintings.
Find out more about Casa Vasto ›
Photo by Trevor Mein and Sharyn Cairns
Kew Residence, Australia, by John Wardle Architects
A large contemporary painting in a bright green hue decorates the living room of this house in Melbourne, the home of architect John Wardle.
Other artful details include playful side tables held up by mannequins, a sculptural wooden coffee table and numerous small vases and sculptures.
Find out more about Kew Residence ›
Photo by Olmo Peeters
Riverside Tower, Belgium, by Studio Okami Architecten
Located inside the brutalist Riverside Tower in Antwerp, this pared-back apartment has made a feature out of its original concrete structure.
In the living room, the material is juxtaposed with a dark blue wall and a large painting in green and blue hues. Cosy leather sofas and green plants add a homely feel.
Find out more about Riverside Tower ›
Photo by Andrey Bezuglov and Maryan Beresh
Log cabin, Ukraine, by Balbek Bureau
This house in Ukraine, a modern interpretation of a log cabin, features a number of striking and strategically placed artworks in the open-plan living room and dining room.
Above the dining table hangs a large painting in a neo-expressionist style, integrating turquoise, white and pink to create an eye-catching focal point among the room’s more neutral colours.
Find out more about the log cabin ›
Photo by by Ingalls Photography and Mark Durling Photography
Malibu Surf Shack, USA, by Kelly Wearstler
Designer Kelly Wearstler created Malibu Surf Shack, a renovated 1950s beachfront cottage, as a bohemian retreat for herself and her family.
Its wood-clad living room has been enhanced by artworks in tonal colours that match the warm panelling, as well as tactile timber sculptures and geometric stone tables.
Find out more about Malibu Surf Shack ›
Photo by Giulio Ghirardi
Paris apartment, France, by Rodolphe Parente
This apartment in a Haussmann-era building in Paris was given a makeover by interior designer Rodolphe Parente.
Parente played with contrasting materials and colour palettes in the apartment, which was designed around the owner’s “radical” art collection. In the living room, a framed photo print hangs on an otherwise empty wall overlooking two sculptural coffee tables.
Find out more about the Paris apartment ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring living rooms with cowhide rugs, monochrome interiors and basement apartments.
Spotted: Farmers often apply chemical pesticides and antibiotics to address crop diseases and strengthen plant defences against abiotic stress. However, these treatments are not only expensive but can also have environmentally damaging side effects. One solution is to use tailor-made microorganisms for crop protection, and this is exactly what Chilean company Exacta Bioscience is doing.
Exacta formulates combinations of microorganisms designed for soil enhancement and the protection of crops against specific diseases. The products are designed to be used in place of pesticides and antibiotics.
Some of the products the company is developing include FitoRoot, which is composed of three strains of Bacillus and designed to stimulate plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria to help crops better absorb water; FitoBac FT, which includes three strains of bacteriophages designed to fight bacterial cancer in stone fruit and kiwi; and FitoBac NT, which uses strains of bacteriophages to fight bacterial blight in walnut and hazelnut plants.
The company recently announced a partnership with US-based Ginkgo Bioworks to leverage Ginkgo’s end-to-end agricultural research and development (R&D) services to scale up the production of Exacta’s FitoRoot product. Exacta will use Ginko’s fermentation and formulation services to reduce the cost of producing FitoRoot and make it more competitive.
As awareness grows of the environmental dangers of using chemical fertilisers, Springwise is spotting more innovations aimed at finding more sustainable solutions. In the archive, find affordable, low-carbon fertilisers and the use of microbes to turn methane into soil nutrients.
The spiral shape of a conch shell informed the Serpentine Bookhouse in Shenzhen, China, a library that has been designed by local architecture studio Atelier Xi.
Located in the Dasha River Ecological Corridor, the 300-square-metre building by Atelier Xi provides a children’s reading room, public restrooms and a viewing balcony with seating areas for visitors and residents.
Atelier Xi has created Serpentine Bookhouse
“The building performs like a rising spiral art sculpture, returning as much ground spaces as possible for plant growth and tourist activities,” founding principal Chen Xi told Dezeen.
“The spiral spatial structure both shapes the interior terraces and creates a 360-panoramic view of the surrounding landscape through expansive windows,” he continued.
It has a spiralling form
Atelier Xi created the structure’s distinctive shape using a steel framework of Vierendeel trusses – a truss with no diagonal members – and tensile reinforcement.
This structure allows the inner and outer edges of the spiral to be lined entirely with full-height windows, providing a changing view of the surrounding landscape as visitors move up the building.
It is modelled on a conch shell
“The starting point of the spiral touches ground, meandering among the trees,” Xi told Dezeen. “Meanwhile, the second floor at the end of the spiral path eventually opens up the vista, offering a different perspective overlooking the park.”
“For visitors, walking along the interior space provides a view that unfolds continuously, elevating their perspective like an unrolling scroll painting,” he added.
Vertical aluminium louvres cover parts of the building
High-level windows provide cross-ventilation to the interior, with sun-shading provided by vertical aluminium louvres that cover the building.
A staircase wraps the inner wall of the spiral, while the outer wall is lined with bookcases that are aligned to a series of stepped platforms.
A staircase wraps the inner wall of the spiral
At the top, wood-framed glass doors open onto a small, sheltered balcony area with seating overlooking the landscape.
Each end of the spiral, as well as its underside, has been finished with panels of corten steel that were chosen to mirror the colour of the wooden finishes used throughout the interior.
“Aluminum is chosen for the sunshade grille to ensure durability in the hot coastal climate, and is finished with a color scheme closely resembling the wood tones used in the interior,” explained Xi.
“Corten steel plates with darker color are used as facade end caps, symbolizing the beginning and end of the spatial movement inside,” he added.
Serpentine Bookhouse is longlisted in the Dezeen Awards 2023
Atelier Xi chose to retain the existing pathways surrounding the building and introduce new planting and a concrete bench that sits beneath the spiral, sheltered by its upper storey.
The Serpentine Bookhouse was recently longlisted in the civic project category of Dezeen Awards 2023. Fluid forms feature regularly in the work of Atelier Xi, with previous projects including a sculptural pavilion in rural China and a curving concrete extension to an abandoned library.
Twenty-three leading architects and designers from more than 10 countries met last week in a final round of judging to decide the winners of the Dezeen Awards 2023.
The Dezeen Awards master jury took place at hotel One Hundred Shoreditch in London and included architect Sanjay Puri and designers Giulio Cappellini and Sabine Marcelis, among others.
Interior designers Colin King and Tola Ojuolape, designer Patrizia Moroso and architect Andrea Cesarman also joined to finalise the 50 award winners.
They include the winners of the inaugural Bentley Lighthouse Award, a special award supported by Bentley Motors that rewards an individual whose work has had an overwhelmingly beneficial impact on social and environmental sustainability.
Winners will be announced in November
Winners will be announced at the end of November at the winners’ party in London. Longlist announcements will be revealed next week, followed by the shortlist in October.
Dezeen Awards 2023 architecture master jury (L-R): Andrea Cesarman, Sanjay Puri, Sumele Adelana, Lara Lesmes, Cristóbal Palma, Kevin Carmody
The master jury discussed 235 shortlisted entries selected from 4,800 projects from over 90 countries around the globe.
Judges also included Kevin Carmody and Titi Ogufere
Joining Cesarman and Puri on the architecture master jury panel were Lara Lesmes, co-founder of architecture and art studio Space Popular, Chilean-based photographer Cristóbal Palma, SketchUp architectural designer Sumele Adelana and Kevin Carmody, co-founder of London-based studio Carmody Groarke.
Dezeen Awards 2023 interiors master jury (L-R): Eny Lee Parker, Philippe Brocart, Patrizia Moroso, Tola Ojuolape, Colin King
Eny Lee Parker and managing director and head of Material Bank Europe Philippe Brocart joined King and Moroso on the interiors master jury.
Dezeen Awards 2023 design master jury (L-R): Sabine Marcelis, Giulio Cappellini, Erwan Bouroullec, Titi Ogufere, Chris Cooke, Rossana Orlandi
The design master jury panel included the founder of Design Week Lagos Titi Ogufere, Spazio Rossana Orlandi founder and curator Rossana Orlandi, Paris-based designer Erwan Bouroullec and head of design collaborations at Bentley Motors Chris Cooke.
They joined art director and founder Cappellini and artist and designer Marcelis.
Designer Piet Hein Eek, MASS Design Group senior director Kelly Alvarez Doran and A Plastic Planet co-founder Siân Sutherland were on the sustainability panel.
They were joined by professor of circular design and innovation Kate Goldsworthy, founder and creative director of Officina Corpuscoli Maurizio Montalti and director of design at Brookfield Properties Pragya Adukia.
An exclusive judges’ dinner took place on the night of the master jury day in the One Hundred Room at One Hundred Shoreditch, where the master jury was joined by other Dezeen Awards 2023 judges.
These included Jayden Ali, co-curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2023, CEO of the Design Council Minnie Moll and Raw Edges co-founders Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay. The dinner featured glassware by Nude Glass.
Dezeen Awards winners’ party
Following the longlist and shortlist announcements, the next big date in the Dezeen Awards calendar is the culmination of this year’s programme – the Dezeen Awards winners’ party, which will take place on Tuesday 28 November in London.
Dezeen Awards winners will be able to collect their unique trophy at the event and it is a chance for everyone who was shortlisted for Dezeen Awards, or who judged the entries, to celebrate and network.
Tickets will be available to purchase later this year. Subscribe to the Dezeen Awards newsletter to keep up to date with the latest announcements.
The photography is by Mark Cocksedge.
Dezeen Awards 2023
Dezeen Awards celebrates the world’s best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.
Spotted: Though targeted online ads can be highly effective, 54 per cent of people also find them intrusive. In addition, the sheer volume of online advertising makes it hard for companies to stand out, with internet users often scrolling straight past any ad out of habit. Helping brands to stand out in the sea of online ads is Miami-based Sustainable Skylines, an aerial advertising company that is bringing the traditional practice of sky marketing into the 21st century – using drones.
Sustainable Skylines guides brands from start to finish – assisting with the creative design of a banner, planning the flight path, and analysing the campaign’s success once completed. Benefitting from its exclusive partnership with aviation company Velary and its Vertical Take-Off and Landing technology (VTOL), the company is able to fly slower and closer to the ground than the planes that are traditionally used.
And crucially, the process is also greener, only using three gallons of unleaded fuel for a four-hour flight of its hybrid-electric drones, compared with the 30 gallons of leaded aviation fuel needed by a single-engine plane for the same journey. Because of this, the company believes its method cuts 90 per cent of aerial advertising’s carbon footprint.
Instead of a campaign’s success being measured anecdotally, Sustainable Skylines provides an intelligent web-based analytics platform so that brands can monitor the impact of a banner. With the help of AI and computer vision, the company processes live footage of a journey to understand the reach of an ad and how many people were likely to have seen it. Using third-party cellular and geospatial datasets, the company can see exactly how many people on the ground below visited a website following a drone’s flight. With the first- and third-party data combined, Sustainable Skylines gets an accurate picture of a campaign’s success, allowing it to be further optimised in future.
As well as partnering with Velary, Sustainable Skylines has also joined forces with Mitsubishi Electric, Auvsi, and the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).
In the archive, Springwise has spotted other innovations working to make advertising greener, including resources to help marketers decarbonise and a tool to calculate and offset advertising emissions.
This article was written by Burgess Brown.Healthy Materials Lab is a design research lab at Parsons School of Design with a mission to place health at the center of every design decision. HML is changing the future of the built environment by creating resources for designers, architects, teachers, and students to make healthier places for all people to live. Check out their podcast, Trace Material.
This article is Part II of a three-part series on the hazards of vinyl flooring.
Part I explores “dirty climate secret” behind the popular material and shares some healthier, affordable alternatives.
Part II, this article, the long history of worker endangerment by the vinyl industry and how this legacy continues in China today.
Part One: Import Limbo
Warehouses and docks at the Port of New York and New Jersey are filled to the brim with shipping containers full of products like solar panels, textiles and flooring. These containers are stuck in import limbo. The bottleneck has had a particularly dramatic impact on the booming vinyl flooring industry as hundreds of millions of dollars worth of “luxury” vinyl tile collects dust or is returned to sender. They are being meticulously inspected by Customs and Border Protection–part of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act recently passed by the federal government. Customs is looking for products whose life cycles begin in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
This region has become the center of human rights abuses against Uyghurs [pronounced WEE-gur], an ethnic minority group indigenous to Xinjiang. The XUAR is an industrial hub for electronics, pharmaceuticals, apparel and technology fueled by state-sponsored forced labor of Uyghurs. A recent report called “Built on Repression” from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University and Materials Research L3C highlights a new and concerning industry in the region: PVC production. According to the report, The Uyghur Region has become a world leader in the production of PVC plastics in recent years. The seven PVC manufacturers in the XUAR produce 10% of the world’s PVC. China, as a whole supplies 63% of U.S. vinyl flooring.
There are many products coming out of the XUAR that are manufactured using forced labor, but none compare to PVC flooring when it comes to human and environmental health effects. According to “Built on Repression” author Jim Vallette, “There’s nothing like it on Earth in the combination of climate and toxic pollution. And workers are living there 24/7.”
Part 2: A History of Abuse
Image generated by Architizer using Midjourney
The toxicity of vinyl production has been a well documented fact for decades and labor abuses have been part and parcel of the industry from the start. As the chemical industry began ramping up PVC production in the ‘60s and 70’s, laying the groundwork for its eventual widespread use, they discovered that vinyl chloride monomer (the building block of PVC) was a carcinogen. They chose to hide these findings from the public and their workers. The story of this global coverup is revealed in the groundbreaking book, “Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution” by historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner. By the 1970s, PVC workers across the U.S. contracted a rare form of liver cancer and the pattern forced industry leaders to go public about the dangers they had kept hidden. For more on this story, take a listen to the episode of HML’s podcast, Trace Material, entitled “The House of Documents” that features interviews with Gerald Markowitz and other key players that pulled back the curtain on the early PVC industry.
While working conditions have improved in the U.S.,there is unfortunately no safe way to produce, use or dispose of PVC. Workers, residents and fenceline communities continue to be exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. In China, the situation is even more dire. Chinese makers of PVC use an outdated and extremely toxic production method that is far more dangerous to people and the planet. The Uyghur Region has become a locus of PVC production in part because of the plentiful coal resources in the region. Factories are set up adjacent to coal mines and use coal fired power plants as an energy source. They incorporate an incredibly toxic mercury-based catalyst in the production process. This is one of the last remaining places on the planet where this method of production is utilized. The plants in the XUAR will release an “estimated 49 million tons of global warming gasses, each producing more than any other similar plant” and the estimated air emissions are equal to more than half of the air releases of mercury (14.8 tons) reported in all manufacturing in all of the United States in 2020, according to the “Built on Repression” report. At grave cost to our planet and bodies, XUAR-manufactured PVC and the products made from it have become absurdly inexpensive. U.S. manufactures are unable to compete and Chinese PVC has become the most common material in all new floors sold in the U.S.
Global demand for luxury vinyl tile has meant massive growth for a toxic industry in China. To keep up with demand, the government of the People’s Republic of China has instigated a sweeping program of forced labor in the XUAR. One of the primary methods used by the government are “labor transfer” programs. According to the “Built on Repression” report, “Through state agency labor recruiters, the PRC government compels people to be transferred to farms and factories across the Uyghur Region. Others have been ‘transferred’ thousands of miles into the interior of China to work in factories. The XUAR government estimates that it has deployed these programs 2.6 million times.”
The report states that refusal to participate in these programs can be considered “a sign of religious extremism and punishable with internment or prison in the Uyghur region.” Uyghurs are effectively unable to refuse a “transfer” or leave a job assigned to them. Millions have been separated from their families in what is tantamount to human trafficking and enslavement.
Part 3: New Cancer Alleys
Image generated by Architizer using Midjourney
The U.S. government has responded to these atrocities by passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The act effectively bans all imports whose origin can be traced to the Uyghur region. Tracing the origins of LVT has become increasingly difficult as China has made their supply chains even more complicated and opaque. PVC resins created in the XUAR are shipped to Thailand or Vietnam to be turned into flooring before export. The U.S. flooring industry has responded by returning as much production to the U.S. as possible. But, without forced labor and cheap coal, manufacturers can’t match price and capacity demands. While the steps to divest from an industry propped up by forced labor are certainly positive, ramping up domestic production of PVC brings risks to the health of U.S. workers and communities living near the factories. The heart of plastics production in the U.S. sits along the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The area has become known as Cancer Alley because residents are about 50 times more at risk of developing cancer than the average American. As the plastics industry vacates China and returns to the U.S., it’s building new cancer alleys in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Our demand for inexpensive flooring outsourced cancer, now that demand is bringing cancer home.
So what should be done? According to Gerald Markowitz, we need to stop using PVC altogether. Here are his suggestions:
“The United States should begin eliminating PVC by categories of use. Legislation has been floated in California to prohibit PVC in food packaging — a ban that could be expanded to other nonessential needs. Though PVC is inexpensive, it is replaceable in most cases. Alternatives include glass, ceramics, linoleum, polyesters and more.
Also, discarded PVC should be labeled a hazardous waste. The designation would put the burden on users for its safe storage, transportation and disposal, creating an incentive to accelerate its elimination.”
We at Healthy Materials Lab agree. LVT is durable, easy to install and maintain, inexpensive and toxic. Its low purchase price is outweighed by a massive cost to human and planetary health. By refusing to specify LVT, architects and designers act as advocates on behalf of the health of all communities. Attractive, affordable, healthier flooring products exist. Take a look at part one of this series (or the healthy flooring materials collection on our website) for a list of some alternatives that include healthy materials like cork, hempwood and linoleum. And, stay tuned for the final installment of the series where we will take a closer look at what happens to LVT at the end of its life and the limits of its circularity.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Mexican design studio Mestiz has opened a showroom and workshop within a historic building in San Miguel de Allende, where its brightly hued collaborations with local craftspeople take pride of place.
The studio space is located on Pasaje Allende in the heart of the central Mexican city, renowned for its colonial-era architecture and arts scene.
Mestiz opened its new studio as a space to present its colourful furniture and homeware
Mestiz founder Daniel Valero collaborates with a variety of skilled local artisans to create furniture and homeware using ancestral crafts.
“In our studio, partnerships aren’t short-lived; they’re built to last,” he said. “We’ve nurtured long-term relationships with artisans, where learning and creating are an ongoing process.”
Rough plaster walls of the remodelled space provide a neutral backdrop for the brightly hued designs
Pieces from Mestiz’s collection fill the interior of the studio, which occupies a remodelled stone building designed as a “wild habitat” brimming with personality.
“It was once a kitchen,” Valero explained, “and now it’s a space that respects the idea of Mexican cuisine, infusing it into our creative sanctuary.”
Ledges covered in glossy tiles provide places to display smaller items the in the showroom
The studio comprises three principal spaces. In the showroom, the original wooden beams and the brick ceiling are exposed, and rough buttery plaster covers the walls.
Ledges and podiums clad in glossy tiles provide places for small items like spiky vessels and framed pictures to be displayed.
In the workshop, red benches are used for assembling the designs
Larger furniture pieces like a triangular table and chairs with tufty backrests are arranged across the floor.
Meanwhile, textile artworks decorate the walls and huge, fibrous pink light fixtures hang overhead.
“Our creations aren’t just pieces; they’re stories,” said Valero.
“We believe in crafting designs that engage in profound dialogues with the context and history of each community we work with.”
A pink-toned storage room is also filled with products, which are all made from natural materials
The workshop is situated in a lean-to at the side of the building, where the rough stone walls are visible on two sides and other surfaces are left untreated.
Red-painted benches for assembling items and storing natural materials – palm, wood, wool, wicker and ceramic – are surrounded by partially completed designs.
Mestiz partners with artisans across Mexico to preserve and celebrate craft traditions
A pink-hued storage room is also packed with products, from wicker lights suspended from the ceiling to tall totems in blue, pink and purple stood in the corners.
“Our practice is a living testament to the merging of traditions,” Valero said. “Our pieces are the embodiment of cultural syncretism, where diverse influences converge to create something entirely new.”
The studio is located in a historic stone building in San Miguel de Allende
The rich creative spirit of San Miguel de Allende is also presented at the city’s Casa Hoyos hotel, where colourful tiles and local craft fill a former Spanish colonial manor.
Other Mexican designers continuing local traditions through their work include Fernando Laposse, who uses corn waste to create a marquetry material, and Christian Vivanco, who launched a rattan furniture collection with Balsa.
Spotted: The global refurbished and used mobile phone market is expected to grow from more than $50 billion (around €47 billion) in 2022 to around $172 billion (around €161 billion) by 2033. And advocates of electronics recycling see an encouraging uptick in consumer demand for refurbished devices.
As a means of making the most of all the valuable materials found in devices that range from smartwatches and tablets to video game consoles and audio products, digital resale platform Valyuu connects buyers and sellers with its reliable second-hand electronics marketplace. Valyuu provides buyers with a reliable evaluation of products that includes photos and access to full test reports.
Sellers have multiple options on the platform. They can sell their device for an immediate payment through Fast Pay or wait a bit longer to receive a Best Value payment. Valyuu covers all shipping costs, and if a seller chooses to donate their device to the company, Valyuu donates the value of the sale to a social inclusion and education charity.
With data sensitivity a major barrier to large scale electronics recycling, Valyuu provides sellers with detailed instructions on how to wipe clean their devices. And once the company receives an item, its team of IT experts re-wipes the product for further data protection.
If a device needs something fixed, the Valyuu team of refurbishers makes it usable again. And if a device is no longer usable, Valyuu’s team of recyclers takes it apart for sustainable reuse and recycling.
The Netherlands-based company operates throughout the Benelux countries of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany and plans to continue expanding the availability of its services internationally. Having recently closed a round of seed funding that raised €2.4 million, the company plans to further expand the range of products available on its platform, further its research and development (R&D), and make its service available in more locations.
As well as electronics, refurbishment is being used by a multitude of industries as a means of reducing waste while expanding the lifespan of goods. In Springwise’s library, innovations include a subscription service for office furniture and virtual trunk shows of used luxury items.
