Mini Capsule Hotel, a six-bed dorm by Atelier Van Lieshout, featured in an outdoor installation called Never-EverLand at Design Miami/Basel earlier this month. Curated by Natalie Kovacs and presented by Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the installation was billed as a “dystopian/utopian garden of unearthly delights”. Mini Capsule Hotel was bought by actor Brad Pitt (see picture), who apparently plans to install it on his private beach.

Naruse Inokuma Architects designed a tree-shaped installation which creates a sense of spaciousness and partitions the room. The Forest of One Room installation illustrates a new residential concept. Naruse Inokuma Architects won the TENDO Design competition with a proposal that was realized and exhibited at Tokyo Designers Week 2008. Instead of partitioning the space with walls, designers Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma opted for a huge tree-shaped structure made of lauan plywood. It serves as a transparent room divider and, at the same time, as a place to hang clothes, mount lamps and attach other accessories. The structure branches out in four directions and reaches the ceiling. Without blocking the view, it adds depth to the space. Naruse and Inokuma envisioned a kinetic space flexible enough to accommodate changes in mood and lifestyle. The design – a response to existing housing complexes with standardized units – would work well in Tokyo’s relatively small apartments, in second homes abroad, in students’ quarters and in rooms shared with friends.

Via Frame

Fantastic Norway Architects designed an installation to display work done by design students, in the Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo.

Set to present brand new design objects, Fantastic Norway Architects decided to base the architectural concept on the ‘thrill of unpacking’. Over 3.000 cardboard boxes hover over the exhibited material and is said to resemble a large pixilated cloud. This cloud creates a variety forms, from cave like spaces to lifted and open areas. It is in these niches that objects and design concepts are exhibited.

Fantastic Norway’s ambition was to create an exhibition with focus on reuse and low material cost. At the end of the exhibition, the cardboard boxes will be recycled, which only leaves wires as leftovers.

The German practice Kadawittfeldarchitektur have completed a kindergarten in Sighartstein near Salzburg, Austria, clad with metal elements designed to look like blades of grass. This green ornamentation shelters the upper floor of the two-storey building and is made of powder-coated aluminium. The building houses a kindergarten on the ground floor with access to the gardens and floor-to-ceiling windows. A crèche is on the first floor, sheltered from bright sunlight by the external cladding. The staircase and hall have a green, natural-rubber floor and are used as multi-functional, shared areas.

Photographs are by Angelo Kaunat.

After posting this is should fly up on Twitter