Spotted: The global food system accounts for over a third of annual greenhouse gas emissions. And the problems don’t stop at sustenance-free ingredients: even food colouring contributes to emissions, especially those derived from petrochemicals. Danish biotech company Chromologics hopes to change this, proving that this aesthetic additive can instead be environmentally friendly.
Instead of extracting colours from high-value raw materials like tomatoes, potatoes, insects, or beetroot, to create natural food colourings, Chromologics harnesses a fungus to create a low-carbon, natural red powder. Along with sugar and other nutrients, Chromologics ferments the fungus in water, which makes it produce a red colour. The company then filters away the fungus before processing the remaining fermentation liquid into a concentrated red powder.
The result is a pH- and temperature-stable, tasteless, water-soluble, vegan food dye – called Natu.Red – that uses renewable materials at a high production rate. And according to Chromologics, this concept can quickly become circular by running the fermentation process on green energy and recycling the water.
Chromologics recently raised €12.6 million in seed funding, of which €7.1 million will accelerate the commercialisation of its natural red food colouring.
Springwise has previously spotted other innovations aimed at revolutionising the food industry, including research that shows food can be grown using artificial sunlight, and a mycelium farm that creates an alternative to bacon.
Mass timber will not become a mainstream building product because it uses too much wood, construction material expert Benjamin Kromoser claims in this interview for the Timber Revolution.
“If we go more in the direction of mass-timber buildings we don’t have enough material, so the idea of scaling it up in the near future will fail,” he told Dezeen.
“I think there will be a possibility to scale it up a bit, so its use will go up in the next few years – especially in Sweden and Norway, where they have built quite a lot of cross-laminated timber production facilities.”
“But from my point of view, I think we will reach the maximum of mass timber in at least 10 years. I think, really, it will be before 2030.”
“Using wood doesn’t [automatically] make a building sustainable”
Kromoser leads the Institute of Green Civil Engineering at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, which receives funding from both industry and public sector organisations.
He believes that the main challenge for the building industry is using fewer raw materials overall, rather than simply switching from concrete and steel to biomaterials like wood.
“Our aim is to minimise the environmental impact of buildings over the whole lifecycle,” he said.
“Using wood doesn’t [automatically] make a building sustainable, because basically, what we have as a problem is that in total we need too much materials.”
Mass timber is the term given to engineered wood products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued laminated timber (glulam), which typically constitute layers of wood bound together to form strong structural components.
“Wood is a limited resource”
Because trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere, replacing heavily polluting man-made materials like concrete and steel for timber can significantly reduce the embodied carbon footprint of buildings.
But while mass timber can be used for taller buildings than conventional timber-frame construction, it uses much more wood. That leads Kromoser to doubt its overall sustainability.
“Wood is a limited resource,” he said. “It always has to be a balance between what we take from the forest to use for building construction and how much grows again.”
“If we go in the direction of building everything with CLT, then maybe from the point of view of temporarily storing CO2 it would be great, but it’s definitely not really possible to scale that up.”
Mass timber usually consists of layers of wood bound together to form strong structural components. Photo courtesy of Katerra
Even in Austria, where around half the country is forested, he is doubtful it would be possible to translate that into half of new buildings in Vienna being made from mass timber.
Instead, he argues that to increase the proportion of construction that uses wood, more material-efficient methods like timber frame must take precedence.
“It would be great if we could build 50 per cent of the buildings in Vienna out of wood but we are far away from that regarding the availability of the materials, so going in the direction of mass-timber construction is wrong,” he said.
“We have to go in the direction of using timber in the most efficient way and that means structurally optimised buildings, so mass timber is definitely not the right way to go.”
“Timber framing is much more efficient, and you can quantify that with a life-cycle assessment.”
Need to “decouple” material use from economic growth
Kromoser argued that mass timber’s main application should be for creating cantilevers or bearing heavy loads, or for living spaces in attic rooms thanks to its thermal massing properties.
“Timber is a great material, and mass timber where it has its justification is a good thing,” he said. “But thinking about how the building can be structurally optimised is a really important thing to keep in mind.”
“That’s my key message, because then we can reduce the amount of raw material required and then we can build more out of timber,” he continued.
He argues that depicting mass timber as a golden ticket to decarbonising the built environment could risk distracting from the main issue of material use.
“If you’re speaking about a big potential in mass timber construction, it could justify for our society, ‘if we use this material, it doesn’t matter anymore how much we use’. That’s absolutely not right.”
The major challenge, according to Kromoser, is to decrease the use of raw materials while still enabling the growth of economies around the world.
“Further development of society is always linked to an increase in materials, and that’s the wrong direction,” he said.
“So what we really have to think about is how we decouple the connection between material use and the further development of society. That’s the biggest issue and it’s not linked to construction material.”
This article is part of Dezeen’s Timber Revolution series, which explores the potential of mass timber and asks whether going back to wood as our primary construction material can lead the world to a more sustainable future.
Following a year-long exploration of domestic space, architect Andrew Bruno celebrates the completion of his newly published book, ‘One House Per Day.’ Each day for the year of 2020 while living in Brooklyn, Bruno imagined and sketched a new dwelling each day with a compound drawing comprising an isometric, planar, and sectional view. He has now moved to Atlanta on a teaching fellowship while these 365 drawings have been collected together in a comprehensive publication in the order they were drawn, as high-quality 1:1 reproductions. Readers are invited to explore the designer’s year-long investigation, and discover imaginary spaces that range from the familiar to the radical.
The exercise began on social media as a rejection of the single nuclear family program with which the detached house has become synonymous. ‘Even the most architecturally radical houses are typically designed to serve the ends of the single-family patron,’ writes Andrew Bruno in an essay. ‘One House Per Day responds to this arbitrary constraint by imagining over and over how the architectural form of the house might be detached from its association with the monocultural single family.’
Andrew Bruno’s One House Per Day proposes a captivating collection of domestic spaces imagined with new and inventive expressions. The concept of the single nuclear family home has long been a general archetype in the realm of residential architecture. It has become increasingly essential to question the relevance of this singular design approach to accommodate the complex and evolving nature of human relationships and societal structures. While this typology has long represented privacy, autonomy, and personal success, it simultaneously poses significant limitations in fostering communal living, adaptability, and sustainability.
Nonetheless, Bruno acknowledges the enduring American desire for suburban living. ‘The desire for a detached house in a suburban landscape is ingrained in American culture,’ Bruno explains, ‘and architects risk consigning themselves to irrelevance if they ignore it.’
‘a collection of rooms divided by arcades with arched openings of varying heights…’
exploration through ritualization
The cover of Andrew Bruno’s One House Per Day showcases 365 indented circles to symbolize the 365 houses, providing the book with a distinctive tactile quality. Printed on on grey recycled paper, each drawing is allocated a full page followed by an index containing a brief and description.
The publication contains a forward by Keith Krumwiede, contributions by Malcolm Rio, Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro, along with a section listing ‘One Sentence Per Day,’ by architect and author Clark Thenhaus — who explores Bruno’s ‘ritualized’ process of creation by embarking on a journal of daily reflections. The book concludes with a short essay in which Bruno examines the role of the detached house in American culture from social, political, and economic viewpoints.
‘a cylindrical volume sliced to create four rooms with sloped ceilings, punctuated by tree-filled voids’
‘two long and narrow gabled volumes separated by a wide tree-filled yard…’
‘composed of a series of voids carved from a vaulted solid’ ‘a collection of separate circular rooms of different sizes and opacities under one large canted circular roof’
1/6
‘a grid of nine separate gabled rooms with trees and outdoor furniture occupying the interstitial spaces’
American fashion brand Khaite has opened its flagship store in SoHo, New York City – a cement-trowelled and steel-lined interior with an evergreen tree planted into its shop floor.
The store was designed by Khaite‘s founder and creative director, Catherine Holstein and her husband New York-based architect, Griffin Frazen.
The Khaite flagship store is located in SoHo, New York City
It occupies a Corinthian column-fronted building in SoHo, capped with Italianate cast-iron modillion cornices, designed by German architect Henry Fernbach in 1871.
Holstein and Frazen wanted to encapsulate the cultural legacy of the SoHo location with the area’s connection to the founding of the brand.
It was designed by Khaite’s founder and her husband
“Every element of KHAITE is shaped by New York, and we set out to make this space a tribute to the cultural legacy of SoHo,” said Holstein.
“When I moved to New York twenty years ago, this block of Mercer was my entry point to the city, and SoHo is where KHAITE was born. Our first design studio was just down the street.”
The couple looked to encapsulate the legacy of its location
The entire 371 square metre ground floor of the store was dedicated to retail space while the building’s basement was reserved for back-of-house workings as well as a private meeting area.
Holstein and Frazen’s approach saw the store clad in city-characterising materials such as steel, glass, poured concrete, troweled cement and plaster, which bring an industrial and monolithic look to the space.
Cement, concrete and steel were used throughout the store
Four curving steel partition walls meander through the length of the retail space and are used to conceal and frame Khaite’s ready-to-wear collections that are displayed on curved display rails.
The four steel walls are visually separated by a channel of light from one of two skylights at the rear of the store that was exposed during its renovation.
A focal feature of the store is an evergreen Bucida Buceras tree, which was named the Shady Lady and planted into the floor beneath the rear skylight.
As light enters and flows into the space from the skylights the rough and textural quality of the cement-trowelled walls is revealed.
Skylights were uncovered during its renovation
“The design was conceived in terms of material – choosing the right materials and working with them in the right way to satisfy the programmatic requirements,” said Frazen.
“We leaned into elemental qualities like natural light, preserving the scale and openness while creating intimate spaces.”
A tree was planted into the floor of the store
“We embrace the change of materials like steel and concrete just as you would leather and cashmere, honoring them by allowing them to wear in gracefully,” said Frazen.
“Each piece has unique textures, and rather than polishing away or painting over them, we preserved imperfection.”
It has an industrial look
Three fitting rooms were designed to contrast the brutalist details of the store and were blanketed in a deep red, fitted with plush red carpeting and warm lighting.
Minimal furniture was placed throughout, such as a Sing Sing chair by Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata that sits beside a twisted, low-lying shelf used to display the brand’s accessories.
The basement contains back-of-house operations
Before opening to the public, the store was used as the setting for Khaite’s Autumn Winter 2023 show which was presented in February.
Nearby in SoHo, design agency Aruliden completed a store interior for fashion brand Jonathan Simkhai that incorporated cut-out shapes from Simkhai’s clothing into partitions and furniture.
Design firm Crosby Studios teamed up with AR technology company Zero10 to create a pop-up store also in SoHo that allows people to try on virtual clothes.
Spotted: It is now well-understood that data centres consume vast amounts of energy. This is because the banks of servers in the data centres require a lot of cooling, which, in turn, uses a lot of energy. But one data centre has found a use for all the heat that it generates, a use that could also help public facilities such as swimming pools save money on their energy costs.
Deep Green, which runs data centres, has developed small edge data centres that can be installed locally and divert some of their excess heat to warm leisure centres and public swimming pools. The system, dubbed a “digital boiler”, involves immersing central processing unit (CPU) servers in special cooling tubs, which use oil to remove heat from the servers. This oil is then passed through a heat exchanger, which removes the heat and uses it to warm buildings or swimming pools.
The company says the heat donation from one of its digital boilers will cut a public swimming pool’s gas requirements by around 70 per cent, saving leisure centres thousands of pounds every year while also drastically reducing carbon emissions. Deep Green pays for the electricity it uses and donates the heat for free. This is a huge benefit, as Britain’s public swimming pools are facing massive increases in heating bills, which is causing many to close or restrict their hours.
The company hopes to install boilers in 20 swimming pools in 2023.
The issue of data centre energy use is moving to the fore, and is encouraging a host of new innovations. Recent ideas for more sustainable data centres that Springwise has spotted include a new server design that is much more energy-efficient, and the powering of data centres with hydrogen.
Dezeen Courses: in the latest roundup of programmes listed on Dezeen Courses, we’ve selected five architecture and design courses that specialise in sustainability.
Based at institutions in the UK, USA and Italy, the courses aim to challenge students to create design solutions that respond to the global climate crisis.
The selection of courses includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees that provide specialised training in addition to online short courses that intend to give students an insight into sustainable design or careers in the field.
Here are five sustainable architecture and design courses on Dezeen Courses:
Master’s Program in Sustainable Architecture and Design at SOS School of Sustainability
The Master’s Program in Sustainable Architecture and Design at SOS School of Sustainability in Milan, Italy, trains students with backgrounds in architecture, engineering or design to become sustainability experts in the building profession.
Find out more about the course ›
Sustainable Architecture MArch (Part 2) course at Centre for Alternative Technology
The Sustainable Architecture MArch (Part 2) course at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales, teaches students the core principles of sustainable architecture to respond to environmental problems.
Find out more about the course ›
The Natural World at Academy of Art University
The Natural World undergraduate course at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA, offers students site visits and fieldwork to learn the principles of sustainability, ecology and environmental conservation to apply to their landscape architecture designs.
Find out more about the course ›
Sustainable Design MA at Kingston University
The Sustainable Design MA course at Kingston University in London, UK, provides designers from all backgrounds the opportunity to narrow and specialise their creative practice in sustainability.
Find out more about the course ›
Sustainable Product Design Online Short Course at University of the Arts London
The Sustainable Product Design Online Short Course at the University of the Arts London teaches students to incorporate sustainability into the development of their product designs.
Find out more about the course ›
Dezeen Courses
Dezeen Courses is a service from Dezeen that provides details of architecture, interiors and design courses around the world. Click here for more information.
Architecture studio The DHaus Company has finished a row of brick-clad townhouses within the Dartmouth Park Conservation Area in north London called The Arches.
The homes, which replace a derelict petrol station, are named after the arches that form the facade of each house.
Most commenters adored the project. One loved “the colonnade-like feel”, while another labelled it “breathtaking and inspiring”. Yet another said that while the home was “robust and luxurious” they questioned “the scale decision”.
Caspar Schols creates reconfigurable Cabin Anna in Dutch park
Other stories in this week’s newsletter that fired up the comments section include a modular cabin in the Netherlands by Caspar Schols and an opinion piece by Aaron Betsky questioning the decision to award David Chipperfield this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize. We also looked at the Tamedia Office Building by Shigeru Ban as part of our Timber Revolution series.
Dezeen Debate
Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.
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For this special lookbook sponsored by Danish design company D Line, we’ve selected ten interiors that showcase architectural details by the brand including door handles, taps and drawer pulls.
Door furniture and other pieces of practical hardware provide the finishing touches to interior schemes, and can create physical touchpoints that play a significant role in how people interact with the spaces they inhabit.
D Line has been designing and manufacturing architectural hardware and sanitary ware since 1971. Collaborators include Danish architects Knud Holscher and Arne Jacobsen and British designer Tom Dixon.
Here are 10 projects where D Line’s products have been used to add timeless accents to interiors with natural materials, including homes, hotels, restaurants and even a medical facility.
Photo is by Jonas Bjerre Poulsen
St Catherine’s College, Oxford, by Arne Jacobsen and Knud Holscher
Jacobsen designed the modernist concrete exterior as well as the interior and furnishings of St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford, which opened in 1962.
Details as small as the handles on the interior doors – named AJ lever handles in reference to the designer’s initials – echo the curved, smooth form of the college’s larger design elements.
Photo is by Jonas Bjerre Poulsen
Äng restaurant, Sweden, by Norm Architects
Danish studio Norm Architects has designed Äng, a restaurant in Sweden with both an above-ground structure resembling a greenhouse and a subterranean wine cellar.
D line’s distinct L lever handle in a gunmetal finish was used on doors throughout both spaces, where it matches other metal lighting fixtures as well as the building’s structural components.
Find out more about Äng restaurant ›
Photo is courtesy of Norm Architects
SAS Royal Hotel, Copenhagen, by Arne Jacobsen
Another project by Jacobsen, who designed all the elements found in the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen – which opened in 1960 – in line with his all-encompassing approach to architecture and interior design.
Subsequent remodelling means that only Room 606 remains in its original form. Here, steel AJ lever handles were chosen to tie in with the cool duck-egg blue walls and other silver hardware, such as the frame of the blue seats and sofa.
Find out more about SAS Royal Hotel ›
Photo is by Jonas Bjerre Poulsen
Archipelago House, Sweden, by Norm Architects
This holiday home by Norm Architects is situated in a coastal area of Sweden and combines Scandinavian design with Japanese aesthetics.
The L lever handle in charcoal from D line’s Holscher range provides a steady rhythm of graphic contrast in the interior, which primarily uses light wood furnishings and bright neutral finishes.
Find out more about Archipelago House ›
Photo is courtesy of Rubow Architects
Private Summer Residence, Denmark, by Rubow Architects
Designed by Danish studio Rubow Architects, this holiday home in Denmark aims to blend in with its surroundings by using neutral tones and floor-to-ceiling windows that allow natural light and views of nature into the house.
The L lever handle provides an unobstructive finish to the house’s doors and helps give the house its indoor-outdoor feel.
Photo is by Enok Holsegård
Barbara’s atelier, Copenhagen, by Barbara Bendix Becker
Textile designer Barbara Bendix Becker’s Copenhagen-based antiques and collectibles atelier is full of Nordic ceramics, lighting and furniture by celebrated Scandinavian designers.
The brass Arne Jacobsen lever handle features alongside these other design classics and has been seamlessly integrated with other warm-toned metal finishes, as well as the atelier’s honey-coloured wooden elements.
Photo is courtesy of MTJ Studio
Stockholmsgade bathroom, Copenhagen, by Emil Thorup
This bathroom scheme created by interior designer Emil Thorup is characterised by its rhythmic herringbone tile floor, muted sage-coloured walls and round-cornered, freestanding bathtub.
D-line’s Qtoo bathroom hardware collection in a subtle brushed-steel finish was used for part of the bath, sink and shower setup, and creates a nice metallic contrast to the pale green walls and natural materials used in the room.
Photo is by Jonas Bjerre Poulsen
Dentology+ clinic, Antwerp, by Norm Architects
Norm Architects went against the grain with the design of this dental surgery, which avoids overtly clinical interiors in favour of soft neutral finishes that encourage calmness in patients.
Charcoal-toned L lever handles punctuate the otherwise light and airy interior, alongside unexpected homely details like low-slung sofas and translucent draped curtains.
Find out more about Dentology+ clinic ›
Photo is courtesy of &Shufl
&Shufl x D Line collaboration
Danish design company &Shufl provides carpentry and hardware elements that are compatible with IKEA kitchens, bathrooms and wardrobes to give existing schemes a facelift.
D Line’s bar handles, which have featured in its catalogue for over 50 years, are used for the &Shufl designs, where they come in a curated palette of different colours and finishes.
Photo is by Luke Arthur Wells
Luke Arthur Wells x Fat collection by Tom Dixon
British interior designer Luke Arthur Wells devised an interior scheme that encourages peacefulness by using rounded furniture, handmade ceramics and soft floor coverings.
D Line’s FAT lever handle – part of a wider collection by Dixon – is shorter, thicker and more rounded than traditional door furniture and further softens the already gentle interior.
This is the latest in our series of lookbooks providing curated visual inspiration from Dezeen’s image archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing sociable split-level living spaces, subtly installed lifts, cosy cabins and opulent hotels.
This lookbook was produced by Dezeen for D line as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
‘a collection of rooms divided by arcades with arched openings of varying heights…’
‘a cylindrical volume sliced to create four rooms with sloped ceilings, punctuated by tree-filled voids’
‘composed of a series of voids carved from a vaulted solid’ 
