In your dreams...
A popular feature in FX is If Only, for which creative agencies or individual designers express their design dreams, however just-wishful-thinking they might be. We’ve been so inundated with your If Onlys that we’re presenting a few extras this month as a seasonal treat, and we look forward to receiving a new crop of your creativity in 2013
If only... hospice patients could access garden spaces
by KKE Architects
We design hospices throughout the UK and always seek to create bedrooms that maximise light and great views on to gardens or landscaping, while also maintaining privacy. However, issues constricting bedroom design in hospices - from temperature management to ceiling-located services - can restrict the amount of natural light coming in from above. Knowing how hugely beneficial the natural landscape is to patient well-being, we would love to develop sliding bedrooms for full immersion into the outdoors. Self-contained bedroom units would slide out on solar-powered rails, either halfway or fully, depending on the patient's mood and the temperature outdoors. Bi-folding doors and a glazed roof would allow the air to flow freely. Lush, herbaceous planting, chosen to encourage wildlife, would bring the space outside alive with movement, colour, texture and sound. Mixed ornamental and native trees would provide dappled shade in summer and allow maximum sunlight through in the winter months.
About KKE Architects
KKE Architects is a Worcester-based architecture and landscape design practice, established in 2005. A specialist in healthcare design - especially the design of hospices (with 25 completed projects to date) - it also has a growing portfolio of education, residential and office schemes.
If only... a house could dynamically respond to the seasons
by The D*Haus Company
Conceived for the harsh, climatic extremes from 'Lapland to Cape Horn and Aleutians to Auckland', the D*Haus concept can respond dynamically to its environment by controlled adaptation to seasonal, meteorological and astronomical conditions.
Based on the discovery by Henry Dudeney that allows a square to transform itself into an equilateral triangle, D*Dynamic can 'metamorphosise' and transform itself into eight configurations.
The flexibility of the D*Haus allows adaptation from winter to summer, and day to night by literally moving inside itself. The thick, heavy external walls unfold into internal walls allowing glass internal walls to become facades. Doors become windows and vice versa.
The layout consists of two bedrooms, open-plan living room and bathroom, but it can be adapted to suit different living situations. The D*Dynamic can change its shape and its perspective both seasonally and throughout the course of the day, not only dawn to dusk but also twilight to sunrise.... For example, in the summer plan, bedroom one faces East and watches the sun rise as you wake up.
One can rotate the house so that the user is constantly in sunlight, while the house generates energy through its solar panels. The house is a product of an applied mathematical realisation, thus from a manufacturing point of view the design deploys only one set of materials to achieve the flexible possibilities which its design invites.
About The D*Haus Company
The D*Haus Company is an experimental design and architecture practice that is fascinated and inspired by the mathematics that can be found in every fibre that makes up our world. We at D*Haus truly believe in ideas that can help improve and inspire our daily lives. This can be done through flexibility, adaptability and originality.
If only... infrastructure was more beautiful
by Choi+Shine Architects
Land of Giants was designed as a proposal for Icelandic high-voltage electrical pylons. With only small modifications to existing pylons, infrastructure could be transformed into public art or monuments. The design is based on a kit of parts that are prefabricated and assembled to create various positions to t the landscape. This thinking could be applied more generally to urban settings. The electrical poles, traf c signals and street lights could be combined and painted to be reflective, creating repetitive vertical elements in the streetscape. Street signs combined with motorway lighting could be made of modular parts, creating appealing sculptural expressions.
About Choi+Shine Architects
Choi+Shine Architects has been creating innovative designs since opening its studio in 2004. While primarily focused on architectural projects, the studio has created beautiful and thoughtful designs for many mundane problems. Choi+Shine's works have appeared in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, London's V&A and the Design Gallery in Dongdaemun Cultural Park, Seoul.This article was first published in fx Magazine.
