Dezeen archive: to welcome in the Chinese year of the snake we've compiled an archive full of scaly architecture and design. See all our stories about scaly design »

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Nicknamed the Gingerbread House by neighbours, the two-storey house sits behind the reconstructed wall of a former Victorian box factory and its tall windows overlap the mismatched brickwork.

"I and the planners were keen to retain something of the original building envelope," Laura Dewe Mathews told Dezeen. "The pale grey/blue bricks were part of the workshop when I bought it and the clean London stock bricks were infills."

The architect drew inspiration from decorative vernacular architecture in Russia to design the cedar-shingle facade, then added windows framed by thick galvanised steel surrounds.

"I was keen that the cladding somehow softened the sharp silhouette of the overall, stylised building form and thought the round 'fancy butts' might achieve this," she said. "Contemporary architecture can often be perceived to be severe and alienating and I wanted to avoid that. I hope the balance of the sharp galvanised steel window reveals and cills versus the round singles manages to be more friendly."

To avoid overlooking neighbouring houses, all windows had to be placed on the north-facing street elevation, so Dewe Mathews also added a large skylight to bring in natural light from above.

A double-height kitchen and dining room sits below this skylight on one side of the house and opens out to a small patio. The adjoining two-storey structure contains a living room on the ground floor, plus a bedroom, bathroom and small study upstairs.

Walls and ceilings are lined with timber panels, while a resin floor runs throughout the house.

The building was the winner of the AJ Small Projects Awards 2013. Also nominated was a wooden folly that cantilevers across a garden lake and a reed-covered tower that functions as a camera obscura.

Scale-like facades have featured in a few buildings over the last year, including a university building in Melbourne and an apartment block in alpine Slovenia.

Photography is by Chloe Dewe Mathews.

Above: the original site

Here's a project description from Laura Dewe Mathews:

Box House / "Gingerbread House"

This is the first new build project by Laura Dewe Mathews. The motivation for the project was to create a domestic set of spaces with generous proportions and lots of natural light while working with a limited budget.

Above: ground floor plan - click above for larger image

The site was originally part of the garden of an early Victorian end of terrace house in Hackney. It was first built on in the 1880s, to provide Mr Alfred Chinn (the then resident of the end of terrace house) with space for his box factory, making wooden boxes for perfume and jewellery.

Above: first floor plan - click above for larger image

In discovering the history of the site, Laura Dewe Mathews was drawn to assemble yet another box inside the original envelope of the factory.

Above: cross section through kitchen and dining room

The one bed, new-build house was recently completed using a cross-laminated timber super structure, placed inside the existing perimeter brickwork walls and rising up out of them. The timber structure has been left exposed internally. Externally the palette of materials is limited to the original and infill brickwork, round "fancy-butt" western red cedar shingles and galvanised steel flashings, window frames and window reveals. The soft shape of the shingles contrasting with the crisp edges of the galvanized steel.

Above: cross section through living room and bedroom

The form of the proposal was a response to tricky site constraints, common for urban developments in already built up areas. The neighbours’ rights to sunlight, daylight and privacy needed to be respected. Consequently the only elevation that could have any windows was the north facing, pavement fronted elevation. The proposal counters this with large south facing roof-lights; added to this, light is brought into the main living spaces via a new private yard.

Above: front elevation

At 80msq the result is a small yet generously proportioned house. At ground floor level it retains the openness of the original workshop while feeling a sense of separation from the street immediately adjacent.

Above: side elevations

Structural engineer: Tall Engineers
Main contractor: J & C Meadows, now incorporated within IMS Building Solutions

Above: rear elevation

Sub contractor/suppliers:
KLH – cross laminated timber super structure
Stratum – resin flooring
Vincent timber – cedar shingle supplier
The Rooflight Company – roof light supplier
Roy Middleton – bespoke joinery including kitchen
MPM engineering – stainless steel to kitchen

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by Laura Dewe Mathews appeared first on Dezeen.

Frank Gehry first produced his Fish Lamps between 1984 and 1986 using the then-new plastic laminate ColorCore.

After accidentally shattering a piece of ColorCore while working on a commission for Formica, he decided to use the broken shards as fish scales by glueing them onto wire armatures.

For this new group of Fish Lamps, he used larger and more jagged shards of ColorCore. Some of the lamps can be fixed vertically against a wall or pole, while others are placed on flat surfaces.

The lamps are being presented at Gagosian Beverly Hills until 14 February and at Gagosian Paris from 24 January until 9 March.

We've featured lots of architecture by Gehry, most recently a proposal for an art gallery and university complex in Toronto – see all our stories about architecture by Frank Gehry.

See all our stories about lamp design »
See all our stories about design involving fish »

Photographs are by Josh White, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Here's some more information from the Gagosian Gallery:

Frank Gehry: Fish Lamps

Gagosian Beverly Hills: January 11–February 14, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, January 11, 6–8pm

Gagosian Paris: January 24–March 9, 2013
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 23, 6–8pm

"The fish is a perfect form." – Frank Gehry

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Frank Gehry's Fish Lamps. The exhibition will be presented concurrently in Los Angeles and in Paris. One of the most celebrated architects living today, Gehry's career spans five decades and three continents. Known for his imaginative designs and creative use of materials, he has forever altered the urban landscape with spectacular buildings that are conceived as dynamic structures rather than static vessels.

Gehry has always experimented with sculpture and furniture in addition to his architectural pursuits, coaxing inventive forms out of unexpected materials, from the Easy Edges (1969-73) and Experimental Edges (1979-82) — chairs and tables carved from blocks of industrial corrugated cardboard — to the Knoll furniture series (1989-92), fashioned from bentwood. The Fish Lamps evolved from a 1983 commission by the Formica Corporation to create objects from the then-new plastic laminate ColorCore. After accidentally shattering a piece of it while working, he was inspired by the shards, which reminded him of fish scales. The first Fish Lamps, which were fabricated between 1984 and 1986, employed wire armatures molded into fish shapes, onto which shards of ColorCore are individually glued, creating clear allusions to the morphic attributes of real fish.

Since the creation of the first lamp in 1984, the fish has become a recurrent motif in Gehry's work, as much for its "good design" as its iconographical and natural attributes. Its quicksilver appeal informs the undulating, curvilinear forms of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1997); the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago (2004); and the Marqués de Riscal Vineyard Hotel in Elciego, Spain (2006) as well as the Fish Sculpture at Vila Olímpica in Barcelona (1989-92) and Standing Glass Fish for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (1986).

In 2012 Gehry decided to revisit his earlier ideas, and began working on an entirely new group of Fish Lamps. The resulting works, which will be divided between Gagosians Los Angeles and Paris, range in scale from life-size to out-size, and the use of ColorCore is bolder, incorporating larger and more jagged elements. In Los Angeles, Gehry is also designing the installation for the Fish Lamps, following his inspired design for the Ken Price exhibition at LACMA earlier this year.

The softly glowing Fish Lamps are full of whimsy. As individuals or groupings of two and three, some are fixed to poles or wall sconces, while others can be placed on any existing horizontal surface. Curling and flexing in attitudes of simulated motion, these artificial creatures emit a warm, incandescent light. This intimation of life, underscored by the almost organic textures of the nuanced surfaces, presents a spirited symbiosis of material, form, and function.

Frank Gehry was born in Toronto in 1929. He studied architecture at the University of Southern California and urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His drawings, models, designs, and sculpture have been exhibited in major museums throughout the world. Among his most celebrated buildings are the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany (1989); the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, (1997); and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (2003). Awards include the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1989); the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts (1992); the Praemium Imperiale in Architecture from Japan Art Association (1992); the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (1994); the National Medal of Arts (1998); the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1999); the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2000); and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (2000). "Frank Gehry, Architect," the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, was presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2001. Gehry's latest building, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation in the Bois du Boulogne, Paris, will be completed in 2013.

The first Fish Lamps were shown in "Frank Gehry: Unique Lamps" in 1984 at the former Robertson Boulevard location of Gagosian Los Angeles.

Gehry lives and works in Los Angeles.

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by Frank Gehry appeared first on Dezeen.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

Lyons used a pixellated image of the surrounding buildings to create a map of colour across the exterior. "The building derives its identity from its surroundings," Lyons told Dezeen. "It's a chameleon and a mirror."

Above: photograph by John Gollings

As part of technology and design university RMIT, the Swanston Academic Building provides learning spaces for the college of business, right in the centre of Melbourne.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

The walls have both curved and folded surfaces, creating a series of jagged edges that give the building an uneven profile. "In the same spirit as the facade, the undulating walls were a result of the building being 'affected and influenced' physically by its surrounds," said Lyons.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

At ten storeys, the architects describe the building as a "vertical campus," where double-height lobbies are intended to function as social spaces that take the place of the traditional college green.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

Most of these spaces feature vivid colours or pronounced geometric patterns. "The profile of each space and its character - including colour, materials, type of furniture and details - is informed by the landmark it faces," said Lyons.

The building contains a variety of flexible learning spaces, from 300 person lecture theatres to 30 person classrooms.

Above: photograph by Dianna Snape

Lyons also recently completed a scientific research centre in Canberra for another university.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

See all our stories about Lyons »

Here's some extra information from Lyons:

A new student experience for Gen Z and beyond – RMIT University’s new Swanston Academic Building Project

Active student learning spaces are a key emerging trend in both University and TAFE campuses.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

While many universities have designed progressive teaching and learning spaces at the ‘experimental’ end of their teaching and learning activities, RMIT has recently completed its new Swanston Academic Building (SAB) which incorporates nearly 100 new spaces designed on new learning concepts.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

This major new building will provide the University with significant new capability into the future, as well as significantly enhancing the student experience within its city campus.

The brief for the project developed by RMIT, includes 85 learning spaces, 11 informal student ‘portals’, accommodation for 800 staff from the Colleges of Business, all within a footprint of approximately 35,000m2.

Integral to the teaching and learning brief is to achieve high sustainability benchmarks – including both substantive energy reductions, and improved amenity.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

A further key objective is for the new building to reinforce RMIT’s position and character as an urban campus – a campus in the city and of the city.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

The design creates a ‘vertical campus’, rather than a multi-level teaching building, where the journey through the building is connected by student and staff social spaces, or ‘portals’.

Above: photograph by Dianna Snape

This concept is characterised by a series of double height social spaces, dispersed throughout the building as a main focal point on each floor, providing space for informal student learning.

They are characterised by their connection to natural light and air, variety of furniture, and a marked difference to other teaching spaces.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

This is envisaged to encourage and support the type of peer-to-peer learning traditionally associated with the ‘college lawn’.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

The portals provide students with a place for informal learning, social interaction access to technology, and respite from the formal academic program in a varied array of designs and locations throughout the building.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

A diverse range of 85 new learning spaces are provided in the SAB, ranging from 30 to 360 person capacity, each responding to the teaching and learning needs identified by the University through an innovative joint timetabling project run by RMIT and Lyons.

Above: photograph by John Gollings

The building design responds to a wide range of class sizes and a diverse mix of teaching modes; didactic, collaborative, discursive, project-based group work, team teaching and workplace simulation.

Above: site plan - click above for larger image

Above: basement plan - click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan - click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan - click above for larger image

Above: second floor plan - click above for larger image

Above: cross section - click above for larger image

Above: long section - click above for larger image

Above: Swanson Street east elevation - click above for larger image

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by Lyons appeared first on Dezeen.

This scale-covered cabinet by Swedish designer Jenny Ekdahl is intended to help victims of natural disasters to recover from their traumatic experiences.

Ekdahl was inspired by the idea that creating graphs and diagrams of natural disasters can aid the psychological recovery process after the event.

One side of each wooden scale is painted blue, white or grey, while the other side has been left plain, so that they can be flipped to create patterns based on water and waves.

The beech wood cabinet is made up of more than 4000 parts in total.

Ekdahl recently graduated from the school of industrial design at Lund University in Sweden.

Here's some more information from the designer:

A natural disaster is an event that we associate with destruction, distress and sadness. But a natural disaster is also a phenomenon that fascinates, that is beautiful and at the same time terrifying. This contradicting love-hate relationship with nature was the starting point for my thesis work.

I wanted to create an object that could both illustrate my appreciation of natural forces as well as the psychological process of recovery after a natural disaster. By describing natural disasters with graphs, diagrams and simplified pictures they are said to make the events easier to embrace.

As part of my thesis work I therefore investigated what shapes, textures and patterns the human being automatically is intrigued by, such as rhythm, complexity, playfulness and the possibility to leave personal imprints on an object.

The interaction with the structure on the cabinet is a way for the user to tell her story, a conversation about sorrow and fear but also about finding meaning and regaining trust in nature after an incomprehensible event.

The function of the structure lies in mentally pleasing the user by showing her personality, feelings and personal marks, and it works as a tactile help by hiding at the same time as it highlights an event for the user, depending on what she decides to do with it. Sometimes you might talk about this process as turning pages in life and move on.

The cabinet represents water as well as the absence of water, a contrast that also defines a natural disaster. When mud is cracking of drought it produces a similar three-way pattern that water bubbles has, and therefore I chose to use this structure in my design.

The cabinet is made of beech wood with a moving structure on the door consisting of small, wooden scales. I both designed and made the cabinet myself that all together consists of more than 4,000 parts.

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Jenny Ekdahl appeared first on Dezeen.