Studio Fei & Field Object Lab envision leaf pavilion by the lake
Studio Fei & Field Object Lab conceive Leaf Pavilion by the Lake to accommodate The Community Center located in a rural village in Ya’an, Sichuan, China. The project is part of the local government’s initiative to boost rural tourism. The region, well-known for its tea production and culture spanning centuries, informs the architectural concept. Drawing from the local sloping roof typology, the design strikes a nuanced balance between the familiar and the contemporary. The leaf-like floor plan introduces a subtle architectural contour, tracing the water’s edge with a sense of lightness to the eaves.
all images courtesy of Studio Fei & Field Object Lab
four intertwined leaf-like formations compose the pavilion
Each structure’s central eaves gently descend, directing the gaze toward the distant horizon. Vertical spaces at the terminations of each room offer unobstructed panoramic views of the nearby lake and mountains. Adapting to the site’s natural elevation gradient, the overall massing mirrors the cascading topography of adjacent terraced tea fields, creating the interior spatial arrangement. As visitors enter, they are guided along a gradually changing floor elevation, culminating in a tranquil waterside trail. For the concept of The Leaf Pavilion, Studio Fei & Field Object Lab merge cultural influences with innovative design, creating a space that respects its heritage while offering a serene environment for the community.
central eaves gently descend in each structure, directing the gaze toward the distant horizon
the overall massing mimics the cascading topography of nearby terraced tea fields
the Leaf Pavilion, conceived to house The Community Center, celebrates the region’s rich tea culture
the giant roof is supported by an engineered mass timber structure
Melbourne studio Reef Design Lab has created a series of organically shaped modules from concrete blended with oyster shells to help reduce coastal erosion in Port Phillip Bay, Australia.
The Erosion Mitigation Units (EMU), which have been longlisted in the Dezeen Awards sustainable design category, were used to build a breakwater to reduce coastal erosion and designed to create a habitat for marine life.
Erosion Mitigation Units are semi-submerged modules
Designed for the City of Greater Geelong municipality by Port Phillip Bay, the two-metre-wide EMU modules form a permeable barrier 60 meters offshore, where the water depth ranges from 30 to 130 centimetres.
Reef Design Lab opted for an organic shape to minimise the material use and maintain structural integrity while creating refuges and colonies for ocean life.
The breakwater is a snorkelling destination
The design team used digital moulding analysis alongside traditional casting techniques to produce the precast reusable moulds in its Melbourne studio.
This saved a significant amount of cement compared to using 3D concrete printing, according to the studio.
Reef Design Lab also added locally sourced oyster shells, which it says makes for an ideal surface for shellfish, as aggregates in the concrete mix to manufacture the EMU modules.
The geometry of the modules was optimised to create the habitat conditions needed for marine species to live on them.
An overhang provides resting space for stingrays and pufferfish, while tunnels and caves on the module shelter fish, octopus and crustaceans from predators and provide shaded surfaces for sponges and cold water coral to grow on.
The module shelters fish from predators
The module’s surface was designed with one-centimetre-wide ridges and made rough on purpose to reveal the shell aggregate and attract reef-building species such as tube worms, mussels and oysters.
Designed to be covered in small pools, the modules retain water and shelter intertidal species at low tide.
Reef Design Lab installed 46 modules of EMU
In October 2022, Reef Design Lab installed 46 EMU modules in Port Phillip Bay. The breakwater is being monitored by the Melbourne Universities Centre for Coasts and Climate for the next five years.
Six months after the installation, species including shellfish, sponges and cold water corals were colonising the modules, the studio said.
Another breakwater project that aims to fulfil engineering and ecological requirements is the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab in San Fransisco Bay by a team at the California College of the Arts.
Off the coast of Cannes in France, British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor created the Underwater Museum of Cannes, a collection of six large underwater sculptures, to call for more care for ocean life.
Spanish interiors studio Viruta Lab has renovated a compact house in El Cabanyal, Valencia’s traditional fishing neighbourhood, using geometric blue-and-white tiling for an understated nautical aesthetic.
Built in 1946, the humble two-storey building once belonged to the grandparents of the current owner but had been boarded up for many years.
Viruta Lab has renovated a former fisherman’s house in Valencia
Viruta Lab was brought on board to transform the small 85-square-metre home into a modern holiday residence while respecting its great sentimental value to the family.
“Emotion was a very important starting point,” the studio told Dezeen.
The interior is dominated by chequerboard tiles
“The house is a family legacy and the image they have of it is very deep, so it was necessary for any intervention to be as respectful as possible and with a language that they understood and took as their own,” Viruta Lab continued.
“We understood that the architecture already had a value, that we only had to beautify it, preserve it.”
Green upholstery provides a contrast with the blue-and-white colour scheme
Viruta Lab uncovered the building’s original brick walls from under layers of peeling paint and carefully repaired the pre-existing mouldings “to give height and nostalgic value to the interior design”.
Liberal chequerboard tiling provides a contrast to these traditional design details, featured throughout all the rooms from the kitchen to the sleeping quarters.
Viruta Lab restored the home’s original mouldings
In a suitably nautical palette of navy and off-white, the tiles reference the great variety of tiled facades found in the El Cabanyal neighbourhood.
“The dominant colours on the facades of the Cabanyal are white, blue and green, which are associated with a lifestyle linked to the resources offered by the sea,” the studio said.
“It was clear that we had to respect the local traditions, the architecture and the essence of the house and give it a maritime aesthetic, reinterpreting the Mediterranean style to adapt it to the tradition of the neighbourhood using its own materials.”
Green shows up throughout the interior in the form of simple upholstered furniture – including a sofa, pouffe, benches and stools – all custom-designed by Viruta Lab for this compact space.
European oak was used to form joinery details
The interior woodwork in European oak was stained to resemble Canaletto walnut, matching the tones of the two remaining original interior doors that were painstakingly restored and repurposed as sliding doors.
“We wanted the woodwork to provide a quality counterpoint to the cold tones of the blues and greens, with an imprint and weight,” the studio said.
The remaining interior doors were restored and repurposed as sliding doors
Another key local material – esparto grass fibre – is less noticeable than the tiles but pops up throughout the house to add textural interest.
Traditionally used to make ropes, baskets, mats and espadrille sandals, the flexible natural material was repurposed to form headboards and backrests, and even clad the suspended ceilings in the bathrooms.
Esparto grass was used to from headboards and backrests
“This material has been used because of its roots in the traditions and life in the Mediterranean area, especially in the Valencian community,” the studio said.
“For Viruta Lab, the legacy comes from its use by men of the countryside and the sea, by the original residents of the Cabanyal, those men who used to wear espadrilles.”
The house has a shaded outdoor dining area on the roof
As well as a clay-tiled roof terrace with a shaded outdoor dining area, the house also features a sensitively restored inner courtyard, complete with a stone water trough where the owner’s grandfather once dried his fishing nets at the end of a day’s work.
Other projects that celebrate Valencia’s historic architecture include a 1920s penthouse that was renovated to celebrate its original mosaic floors and an octogenarian home in El Cabanyal that was updated using traditional construction techniques and local materials.
Local studio Lab La Bla sourced diabase rock from a nearby mine and created seating from MDF and recycled cork for the interior of energy company E.ON’s headquarters in Malmö, Sweden.
Lab La Bla designed the headquarters’ reception area, coat room and lounge area, while also creating furniture, sculptures and other accessories across nine floors of the 22,000-square-metre building.
The studio aimed to create a sequence of space that had variety, while taking inspiration from sources including airport terminals.
The studio used recycled materials for the interiors
“Creating work for an office that houses 1,500 employees is both challenging and inspiring,” co-founders Axel Landström and Victor Isaksson Pirtti told Dezeen.
“It’s about creating spaces and functions that cater to the many while offering a mix of focus, creative and social environments, so it’s really about designing for the masses without making it boring or generic,” they added.
“There’s a current fascination about airport interiors in the studio, so for the reception area we drew from that source of inspiration.”
Seating was made from MDF
In the reception area, the studio created a set of sunny yellow furniture made from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) covered in nylon fiber.
“The overall project for us is sort of a reaction to dysfunctional and non-sustainable processes inherent within our industry,” the studio explained.
“For the reception area MDF and screws have been coated with repurposed nylon fiber using a technology commonly seen in the automotive industry, resulting in furniture that celebrates leftover material but without compromising on durability.”
A bench features a “melting” diabase stone detail
For the building’s central atrium, Lab La Bla designed an unusual bench that features a gloopy stone decoration resembling an oil spill.
This was created using diabase stone, which is famous for its blackness and was mined nearby in southern Sweden. The process of creating it was informed by its setting at an energy company headquarters.
Lab La Bla sourced local materials for the project
“Since electricity and magnetism are essentially two aspects of the same thing – and E.ON being an electric utility company – we thought it suitable to introduce magnetism as a modelling tool,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti explained.
“The shape of the piece comes from dropping a lump of magnetic slime on top of a conductive material,” they added. “The slime seemingly randomly slump and drapes over a metal bar before settling in its final shape.”
Lab La Bla then scaled this shape up and hand-sculpted the shape from a single block of diabase, which was finally sandblasted and polished.
“We see this process as an adventurous exploration in making a physical representation of the invisible force that shapes our world,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti added.
Mouth-blown glass panels form a three-metre-high sculpture
The studio also turned brick beams, left over from the construction of a school in Malmö in the early 1900s, into umbrella stands, and sourced mouth-blown glass panels from one of the few remaining producers of the material.
This was used, together with dichroic glass, to create a three-metre-high glass sculpture with a graphic pattern that depicts a CT-scan of a wood-fibre material.
Glass sculptures were formed inside hollowed-out tree trunks
Lab La Bla also created decorative vases and glass sculptures using molten glass blown into tree trunks that had been hallowed by fungal decay. The trunks were sourced from E.ON’s own local heating centre.
These trunks “serve no industrial purpose, but are burnt for energy by E.ON and used for teleheating for Malmö,” the studio said.
“We borrow these tree trunks to blow glass in them, before returning them to their final purpose.”
Lounge sofas were made from ground-down wine corks
In the headquarters’ lounge areas, the designers created modular sofas made from ground-down wine corks sourced from restaurants.
“The modular cork sofa uses a unique process where 100 per cent recycled cork is sprayed onto a foam structure, proudly incorporating signs of imperfection into the design while bringing superior durability and sustainability to your furniture,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti said.
A table has an office-style glass relief with a keyboard
To the designers, the aim of the interior design was to use disused or forgotten materials, as well as ones that were recycled and recyclable.
“We took a conscious decision of picking hyper-ordinary materials such as MDF and aluminium to pinpoint and educate people about cyclic and sustainable qualities inherent in the processes of creating these materials,” the studio said.
“We often try to celebrate the beauty and intrinsic qualities of everyday, industrial materials otherwise consigned to temporary or low-cost construction solutions,” it added.
“We wanted to design objects which require significant time and skills from craftspeople, usually reserved for expensive, rare and high-quality materials – to some of the very inexpensive and found materials that we used throughout the project.”
Lab La Bla’s designs have previously been shown at the Moving Forward exhibition at Stockholm Design Week and as part of the Metabolic Processes for Leftovers exhibition in Malmö.
Spotted: One day in 2018, Matt and Jalene Anderson-Baron were standing in line at the University of Alberta Tim Hortons discussing how to grow a cell-based chicken nugget without using foetal bovine serum (which is harvested from bovine foetuses during slaughter). The two wondered if they could use fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, to act as a substitute for bioreactors. The result of this conversation was Future Fields and its fruit-fly-based EntoEngine.
Bioreactors (which look like giant steel tanks) are used to generate the biomolecules needed for things like medicine, vaccines, and cultivated meat. However, bioreactors have a large carbon footprint. To reduce this, Future Fields uses fruit flies as a replacement. The process begins by identifying the protein that they want to produce and cloning the necessary DNA sequence.
Future Fields inserts the DNA into the fruit fly genome and breeds the flies. It then extracts and purifies the protein, and tests for quality. Compared to traditional recombinant protein production methods, Future Fields’ insect-based EntoEngine uses less water and energy, emits fewer greenhouse gases, and has a smaller land footprint. It also produces waste products that have other uses, contributing to a circular economy.
Co-founder Matt Anderson-Baron explains: “We’ve passed a tipping point where it’s scaling, not creating, biotech-based products that is the fundamental hurdle for founders, companies, and entire industries. Our approach is 30 times faster than tanks and more or less infinitely scalable with minimal investment.”
Future Fields recently $11.2 million (around €10.5 million), which will be used to scale the team and construct a “world first” production facility.
Researchers are increasingly turning to insects to improve sustainability. Some of the innovations Springwise has also spotted include a project that uses flies to convert food waste into animal feed and fertiliser, and salmon feed made from plastic-fed waxworms.
Spotted: Global waste generation has increased every year for decades and is likely to continue growing. Hospitals contribute a sizeable amount of waste to that total, with the global healthcare industry responsible for more than four per cent of worldwide net greenhouse gas emissions. Hazardous chemicals are part of the problem, with lab waste consisting of a mix of sharps, chemicals, plastics, and glass.
The recycling industry is struggling to cope with the volume of waste that needs processing, and new solutions are required. Irish biotechnology company Envetec has created a proprietary biodegradable chemical that processes lab waste on-site. Called GENERATIONS, the system transforms potential pollution into recyclable polymer flakes that are safe to handle and transport – and are usable in a huge range of other manufacturing processes.
GENERATIONS is a carbon-neutral process that is set up within or very near a laboratory to enable minimal transport costs. The biodegradable chemical uses far less water than traditional treatment systems, and Envetec works with teams and organisations in the diagnostics, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries to design bespoke treatment and recycling processes. Envetec helps organisations track their changes and results, and strive to meet international standards for recycling and net-zero commitments.
Finding ways to transform hazardous chemicals into non-toxic, useful products or replace them altogether are challenges that innovators are approaching in a variety of ways. Springwise has spotted carbon-negative chemicals produced for industrial manufacturing processes, as well as wastewater treatment sludge used to repair municipal pipes.
Australian designer Nickolas Gurtler has drawn from the nightclubs of 1970s Milan and Florence to create the interior for a cosmetic clinic in Perth, Australia.
It is the third interior that Gurtler has created for Youth Lab, a clinic that offers a range of non-surgical cosmetic treatments that include anti-ageing procedures, hair removal and skin rejuvenation.
The waiting area features a mirror wall, gold lights and a green silk carpet
Located in Joondalup, Youth Lab 3.0 is the brand’s most experimental space so far.
While the two other locations – in Claremont and West Perth – occupy heritage buildings, this one is set inside a commercial block from the 1990s. This meant Gurtler could be more daring in his approach.
A Dina Broadhurst artwork provides a focal point
While the design was partly informed by the brand’s minimalist identity, it also features playful details that include mirror walls and a grand geometric reception desk.
“There were some really outrageous and glamorous concepts that I really responded to and had filed away for the right project,” said Gurtler.
“When Youth Lab approached us again for their third clinic, I knew that this was the right time to bring them to life.”
The reception desk is formed of Arabescato marble and Venetian plaster
The starting point was the palette of forms and materials that Gurtler has worked with previously for the brand, which includes decorative marble, plush velvet and metal cabinetry.
While the Claremont space that Gurtler designed for the brand has a New York loft vibe, here these elements are paired with shades of olive green and gold to create a more retro Italian feel.
“This language is a kind of style guide for us on each project,” said Gurtler.
“Common elements such as mixed metals, monolithic forms, plush textures and rich colour are used in each of the clinics, but we translate these elements completely differently each time.”
The colour palette centres around olive green and gold
Arabescato marble is combined with Venetian plaster and polished aluminium to create the cuboidal forms of the reception desk, which sits beneath a custom glass and brass lighting pendant by designer Lost Profile Studio.
A large gridded mirror installation provides the backdrop to a waiting area furnished with a green silk carpet, a blocky marble coffee table and sculptural white armchairs.
A sculpture by American potter Jonathan Adler sits in front of a second mirror wall
Rows of golden-hued ceiling lights are reflected in the mirrors, doubling their visual impact, and an artwork by Dina Broadhurst creates another focal point.
As customers are led through for treatment, they also encounter a second mirror wall, a ceramic by American potter Jonathan Adler, custom wall lights and brass door numbers.
Custom lighting scones embellish the walls
Youth Lab 3.0 was longlisted for Dezeen Awards 2022 in the leisure and wellness interior category, along another of Gurtler’s designs, the Cole Hair Studio.
The designer hopes the space offers “an immersive and sensorial experience which is as much invigorating as it is calming”.
“The Youth Lab experience is a luxury and the interior reflects that,” he added.
The visual language of scientific laboratories informed the look of this blue-lit concept store in Monaco, which London firm Universal Design Studio has devised for skincare brand Biotherm.
Set inside Monaco’s historic Oceanographic Institute, Blue Beauty Lab is where buyers and other industry insiders can come to expand their knowledge of the science underpinning Biotherm‘s skincare line.
Visitors enter the Blue Beauty Lab via a circular doorway
Although the 30-square-metre concept store showcases a selection of the brand’s products, none of them are for sale. Instead, visitors can fully immerse themselves in the experience of being in the “lab”.
“Brands are increasingly looking to physical presence for means above and beyond selling products,” explained Satoshi Isono, creative director at Universal Design Studio.
“They’re harnessing spaces to storytell their core brand messaging in unique ways and ultimately connect with customers in a more impactful way.”
The first section of the store is set up like a science lab
As the outer walls of Blue Beauty Lab back onto water tanks harbouring various aquatic creatures, Universal Design Studio had to keep architectural interventions to a minimum. As a result, the store’s floor plan is fairly simple.
To enter, visitors walk through a circular doorway and a short mirrored tunnel. The interior is washed in sea-blue light and split into two parts.
Steel worktops and petri dishes add to the lab-like feel of the space
The first is an area reminiscent of a research lab that gives an insight into the production process of Life Plankton – an extract containing 35 different nutrients that Biotherm incorporates throughout some of its moisturisers, serums and skin peels.
Stainless steel counters and glass shelving units run down the sides of the space, dotted with science paraphernalia like microscopes, petri dishes, test tubes and measuring flasks.
A small workshop forms the second part of the store, centred by a round table. Directly above is a large ring light emitting a bright white glow that enhances the lab-like feel of the space.
Interactive visuals produced by multimedia design studios Superbien and AC3 Studio are projected on the surrounding walls.
Measuring flasks and test tubes are also displayed on the shelves
The clinical aesthetic of laboratories has also inspired a number of other interiors.
Among them is a bike shop in Copenhagen by local designer Johannes Torpe and a cafe in Tokyo with a white-lacquered steel ceiling grid.
London firm dMFK Architects has transformed a mid-century medical laboratory into a flexible office space with smoked oak joinery and a restored concrete staircase.
The office is spread over 550 square metres and located on the first floor of a fully-glazed 1960s building in the city’s Fitzrovia neighbourhood.
Meeting rooms are separated from the main space using smoked oak joinery
dMFK Architects was commissioned by property developers Derwent London to create an interior that was in keeping with the building’s heritage while incorporating the essential features of a modern co-working space.
Accessed from the ground floor lobby via the building’s original restored concrete staircase, the office features smoked oak joinery and bespoke family-style tables by British furniture brand Benchmark.
Spherical pendant lights hang in the main open-plan office area
Paired with vintage lights and pieces of Swiss and Danish furniture, the overall scheme creates a homely environment that is reminiscent of the mid-century era.
The studio incorporated a wide range of spaces for different types of work including phone booths, focus booths, a choice of meeting spaces, shared flexible workbenches, a breakout area, dining spaces, showers and changing facilities.
“We aimed to design as many different workplace opportunities within one space as we could, to offer a potential tenant light and shade and a range of options,” said dMFK Architects.
“Materials were kept soft and neutral to appeal to as wide a range of tenants as we could.”
Open shelving helps to divide up the space
The architects also stressed the importance of offering different types of lighting to foster productivity.
“We wanted contrast, areas of light and shade, strong task lighting on the tables but dimmer lighting in other areas,” they explained.
“We also chose not to use linear strip lighting to create a less even quality of light, which we believe is less tiring and more interesting.”
dMFK Architects restored the building’s original concrete staircase
According to dMFK Architects, the project is representative of a growing trend for developers to create finished interiors within office spaces, rather than renting out empty shells.
The studio has previously designed 11 buildings for The Office Group and was responsible for renovating The Gaslight, a mixed-use development set within an art deco building in central London.
