Tabla de contenidos para March - April 2021 en Frame

Without doubt we’re living through one of the most important periods in the history of video gaming. The need for engaging, safe and social forms of distraction have made the medium central to the daily routines of millions during lockdown, often for the first time. According to the NPD Group, four out of every five US consumers played a video game in the six months leading up to August. Many will have been surprised to find another group exploring these digital worlds alongside them: fashion brands. As consumers across all demographics have started spending more time in game space, especially as a proxy for in-person social gatherings, fashion brands have jumped at the chance to help them craft their digital image. Whether it’s Longchamps in Pokémon Go, Valentino in Animal…

For those in the logistics industry, the holiday season is usually nothing of the sort – it’s usually their busiest time of the year. In 2020, what many dubbed the ‘shipopocalypse’ meant it was the busiest ever. ‘The spread of Covid-19 in the US has triggered such an increase in e-commerce since March that shipping volumes have consistently been at Christmas peak or Cyber Monday levels every day,’ FedEx Chief marketing officer Brie Carere told CNN. ‘Now we’re headed into a peak on top of a peak. We expect there will be limits to capacity on certain days this season.’ Indeed, FedEx and UPS couldn’t acquire enough delivery vans to keep up with demand in the runup to Christmas. Lockdown has magnified a number of frictions that remain within the…

Within the ever-growing and wide-ranging wellness economy lie niche areas of rapid growth, and CBD is a case in point. According to recent research published by Savills: ‘The market is currently worth ?300 million in the UK, a figure that is expected to more than triple in the next five years. That equates to a ?1 billion market in CBD alone by 2025. The number of CBD oil users also doubled from 125,000 to 250,000 between 2017 and 2018.’ And in the US, leading cannabis researchers BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research project that the collective market for CBD sales will surpass $20 billion by 2024. The global complementary and alternative medicine market is growing in general. With this comes a focus on natural remedies, so it’s understandable that a…

The fashion industry has led the way in the development, promotion and use of innovative vegan products, with brands such as Hugo Boss, Stella McCartney, Adidas and Gucci investing in the production of non-animal-based materials. Now, with a demonstrable popularity in the consumer market, such strategies are also being adopted by major workplace, hospitality and automotive brands. Recognizing an increasingly ecological imperative for automotive customers – even in an industry inherently built on consumption – the Volvo-owned electric performance car, Polestar, was initially created to ‘support the change towards sustainability’. Launched in 2020, the design for Polestar 2 eradicates traditionally familiar leather upholstery from the interior, substituting it with a fabric called WeaveTech. Rather than emulating the leather it replaces, WeaveTech embraces a character of its own, akin to the…

Napping between nine and five is becoming more common since the widespread adoption of working from home Sleep is fundamental for cognitive and physical rehabilitation. At the end of a long day, achieving a quality night’s sleep allows the mind and body to recharge. However, the stress endured globally since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted our sleeping patterns: emotional and psychological exhaustion is making us more tired, but the changes to our daily routines – combined with additional exposure to blue light from increased screen time – are, conversely, making it more difficult to sleep. A snooze is also a constructive method of escapism, breaking up the monotony of lockdown. At a time in which we’ve become increasingly aware of the importance – and joy –…

Your project targets young adults. Why? ANNE GEENEN: Today’s adolescents belong to one of the loneliest generations in history, having to rely more and more on themselves. We believe that the best cure for such feelings of social isolation is creating communities that foster connections and help people build relationships. Which is why we’re trying to answer the growing needs for social cohesion and emotional wellbeing among young adults. That’s where Woontuinen comes in? DAVID SCHMIDT: Yes. Woontuinen, which directly translates into Gardens for Living, is a proposal for a new, affordable and more socially sustainable form of youth housing. It offers an alternative to the anonymous and commercially driven ‘container villages’ that are often located in soulless city outskirts and have a design language that has more in common…

Received wisdom would suggest that 2021 is not the year to be reinvesting in your physical retail presence. The last 12 months set new records for store closures (11,157) in the US according to real estate data analysts CoStar Group. At the time of writing, the year-end totals aren’t yet out, but eMarketer’s last forecast had US e-commerce sales at $794.5 billion in 2020, up 32.4 per cent year-over-year. With many behavioural studies finding that consumers intend to keep up their online habits postpandemic, now is surely the time for brands to throw all their eggs in the digital basket? That’s not quite true. If anything, for those who dared, 2020 was a true demonstration of the power of the ‘halo effect’ – the idea that brick-and-mortar spaces contribute often-unaccounted-for…

01 If the global population was to adopt a vegan lifestyle, the Vegan Society estimates that greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by two-thirds by 2050, and there would be $1.5 trillion savings in climate damages and healthcare costs. Adopting a vegan diet alone could cut food-related emissions by 70%. 02 2019 was dubbed the ‘Year of the Vegan’ by The Economist, with Ipsos MORI estimating that the world population is 3% vegan, 5% vegetarian, and 17% pescatarian or flexitarian. Veganism and vegetarianism have both increased globally since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. 03 According to VeganDesign.org, it takes 360 silkworms to make one silk lamp shade, 12 geese to make one down pillow, and nine cows to make the leather interior for a Rolls Royce Phantom. 04 The…

LEARNING FROM CHINA A New Era of Retail Design As e-commerce uproots the norms and conventions of physical retail, Chinese retailers are showing the way forward. What can designers, architects and industry leaders learn from this melting pot of innovation? A curated selection of 50 case studies, this book provides a window into the future of the industry. €49 WHERE WE WORK Design Lessons from the Modern Office The office isn’t dead. But just in what form will it live? As we think about the future of the office in a post-pandemic world, this book explores 51 ground-breaking workspaces, providing an indispensable reference tool for interior designers, architects and companies alike. €49 store.frameweb.com…

You’ve chosen women as your target group. Why? BS: Although the fact that mental health is integral to living a healthy and balanced life applies to everyone, research by the Mental Health Foundation shows that women are more likely than men to have a common mental health problem and are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders. So you decided to conceptualize a space for women who suffer from mental health issues. Yes. My housing project Connected gives women suffering from mental health issues the opportunity to live an independent life, but also provides them with the facilities and care they need to gain confidence and grow. How will the architecture of Connected support that mission? The space will be divided into private areas, for personal reflection,…

Despite the repeated attempts of evangelists in architecture and planning departments, and more recently consumer technology companies, our buildings don’t appear to be getting appreciably smarter. Yes, plenty of us have worked in buildings that will adjust light and heat levels based on occupancy. Sure, some of these systems may even have learned the usage patterns of their occupants in order to anticipate basic needs, but those benefits have been incremental rather than transformational. The past year, with its focus on analysing exactly how we inhabit, share and move between spaces, has now accelerated that trajectory. Search activity around both smart cities and smart buildings saw new peaks in 2020 according to Google. Countries like Singapore, India and the UAE have all increased investment in smart-infrastructure projects in response to…

The method of Loci, also known as the memory palace, is an ancient mnemonic strategy wherein an individual remembers a list of items or ideas by visualizing them along a habitual journey, or within well-known places. Resonances of this technique can be traced in places and products that preserve peaceful dreams of antiquity, drawing on the familiarity of neoclassical references to construct and conjure collective recollections. The ephemeral nature of contemporary life is countered in environments occupied by abstract historical impressions. A taste for simplicity favours divine proportions and mellifluous forms that unravel like musical manuscripts. Celestial Ekeberg marble and stained travertine mimic the quiet interior vocabulary of the museum or archive, absorbing light and compelling a contemplative state in visitors whose attention is directed towards iconic accessories and elegant…

UTRECHT When was the last time you walked into a bank? If you’re struggling to recall, you’re not alone. That’s not just a factor of the pandemic, when it’s been pretty much forbidden to walk in anywhere; High Street banking has been on the wane for several years. Scroll back to 2019 and you’ll see consultancy Caci predictions that mobile banking would overtake branch visits by 2021. Scroll back to the present again and you’ll see the news that HSBC is the latest in a long line of commercial banks to slash its physical presence, in this case by a further 82 UK locations. ‘In recent years we have introduced more digital options to make our customers’ lives easier and we know that customers are becoming more comfortable primarily using…

HORMUZ ISLAND It’s not often that you can erect a bright rainbow of human-made buildings on a natural shoreline in the name of biomimicry, but then again, Hormuz Island’s is no ordinary landscape. Tourists come to see the kaleidoscopic colours of Rainbow Valley, named for its 70-plus shades of minerals, and the otherworldly red-tinged waves that lap the island’s shore, produced by the sand’s high concentration of iron oxide. When counted in 2016, the population of the 42-km2 island was approximately 5,900. Despite its tourist appeal and politically strategic position – the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf is known as the world’s most important oil chokepoint, with the 2018 daily oil flow accounting for 21 per cent of global petroleum liquids consumption – local inhabitants are struggling economically,…

Megan Jones Bell, chief science officer of one of the most popular mental health apps, Headspace, said there’d been a 19-fold increase in people downloading stress-relieving meditations when the first shelter-in-place rules were brought in, with a 14-fold jump in those intended to relieve anxiety. In fact, research by Sensor Tower found that downloads of the 15 most popular mental health apps in the UK jumped by a third between February and March last year, with continued uptake as the pandemic wore on. For many consumers, this shift has been facilitated by their employers. Brands such as Twitter have started offering mental health days and subscriptions to mindfulness apps like Happify, while PR and advertising agency Havas started hosting Wellness Wednesdays, which include guided meditation, reiki and the opportunity to…

What problem are you addressing with your concept Inner Amble? UM: We have been locked indoors for about a year now because of the pandemic, so it’s time for some fresh air. It’s healthy for both the body and mind. Plants stimulate the imagination and help us concentrate, reduce stress and fight disease.Nature thrives in healthy ecosystems, and so do we. But, especially in urban areas, there can be a lack of outdoor amenities and access to personal outside space is rare is some cities. CB: Besides that our current way of living revolves largely around an excess of objects. Even if we try to escape from it all and go camping. What did you come up with in response to these observations? UM: A survival-inspired hospitality concept called Inner…