Renovation
fromDesign Milk
1 hour agoCircularity Cements Memory in Cast Concrete
True ingenuity in architecture lies in negotiation with the past rather than erasure, as demonstrated by the Trace project in London.
Craft is often defined as skill in making things by hand, but this interpretation is being challenged by AI. Craft transcends physical interaction; historical figures like Mozart and Beethoven exemplify mastery without traditional methods.
The entire indoor journey, from entry to elevator to the 100th floor, has been reimagined as a multi-sensory, immersive environment. The overhaul comes via a collaboration between experiential design firm Journey, multimedia studio Moment Factory and NYC-based design outfit SOFTlab.
"It's bizarre to watch people in this way - even in gay cruising areas you wouldn't stare at other bodies this intensely. Now, whenever I go to a concert, especially at the Berliner Philharmonie with its encircling seating, my gaze hovers over the audience as well as the stage."
From unassuming hunks of Carrara marble and limestone, Matthew Simmonds carves realistic, miniature gothic cathedral arches, stairwells, and colonnades. Often based on architectural details of real places, such as cities around Tuscany and Germany's Bamberg Cathedral, the sculptures portray intimate details of corners, vaulted ceilings, arcades, and stairwells that can sometimes be peeked through additional apertures.
This is just one item in a display that looks at how wood can be turned into all sorts of things that don't look or feel like wood at all. It's all because wood is a renewable resource and could be a viable replacement for plastics and other oil-based materials.
The art-chitecture system proposes a different framework, treating furniture as a structural and spatial language capable of interacting directly with architecture. In this system, chairs and lighting fixtures function as modular units that maintain their individual identities while contributing to larger configurations.
SO KOIZUMI DESIGN has developed Resonique, a ladder that explores the relationship between functional structure and sculptural form. The project draws on the structural logic of ladders while referencing the flowing geometries associated with brass musical instruments. Through this combination, the object shifts from a purely utilitarian tool toward a design piece that engages both function and spatial presence.
Mumbai is a city of simultaneities. Its urban fabric is dense and restless a patchwork continually fractured by moments of porosity. Narrow alleys suddenly unfold into courtyards, and fleeting intimacies emerge between strangers in crowded trains. Rhythms of chaos and solitude overlap seamlessly to create an everyday theatre of resilience.
How did a material conceived for bridges, factories, and large-scale structures make its way to the living room bench, the apartment bookshelf, the café table? For centuries, metal was associated with labor, machinery, and monumentality-from the exposed structures of 19th-century World's Fairs to the productive logic of modern industry. Its presence in domestic interiors is not self-evident but rather a cultural achievement: the transformation of an industrial material into an element of everyday, intimate use, in close proximity to the body.
There's something mesmerizing about watching objects move with intention. Not random chaos or frantic spinning, but deliberate, mechanical motion that feels almost choreographed. Kutarq Studio's Totem de Luz captures that magic perfectly. It's a kinetic lighting sculpture that sits somewhere between functional lamp and art installation, refusing to pick a lane and somehow being better for it. At first glance, Totem de Luz looks like a sleek vertical column made from stainless steel and glass.
Accessible from three sides, the booth is shaped by approach and visibility rather than a single frontal orientation. The primary entry is marked by an angled portal set back from the site edge, establishing a layered visual field rather than an immediate overview. From this offset threshold, overlapping planes of tiles, textures, and color unfold gradually, encouraging movement through depth rather than direct access.