US architecture firm Inform Studio and Buro Happold have designed a curved and stepped wood-covered pedestrian bridge to link two parks in Providence, Rhode Island.
Spanning 394 feet (120 metres), the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge connects new green spaces on the east and west sides of the city's riverfront. The design also incorporates five existing piers along the Providence River.
Built with a steel superstructure, the curvaceous form is clad in modular panels of Wana wood, also known as Red Louro. In addition to its durability and resistance to rot, the South American hardwood was chosen for its use in boat building in order to evoke Providence's maritime past.
Detroit's Inform Studio, which worked with global engineering firm Buro Happold on the project, said the wood has "old-world character and warmth".
"With modern innovations, this exceptionally versatile material was used to capture formal characteristics reminiscent of historical ships while simultaneously transitioning into an innovative contemporary solution," it added.
Inform Studio also collaborated with Brooklyn-based SITU Fabrication to develop the modular panels of the wood, which wraps both sides of the bridge like a curved shell. The exterior comprises 250 demountable panels. Wood is also used for benches and the floor.
"Using parametric tools to develop the internal structure for each panel, the team was able to modularise the larger system for efficiency while preserving the unique form and outer surface curves," said Inform Studio.
The prefabricated design was chosen to help with long-term maintenance, and enable access to the steel structure if needed. "The result accelerated the production schedule and reduced material waste and costs," it added.
The bridge's form is stepped to create a lower level that is closer to the water. It faces south and features plantings and wide steps that double as seating. On the east side of the bridge, a pathway splits in directions towards James Street and Transit Street.
Inform Studio and Buro Happold designed the structure in response to a competition held by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) and the City of Providence in 2010.
The contest called for a link between two new parks that were created as a part of the wider Iway project, which involved removing and relocating an intersection of two highway interstates.
"As a part of the Waterfront Park Master Plan, the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge had a significant responsibility to unify the East and West Park spaces into an integrated public environment synthesising both urban and natural conditions," said Inform Studio.
Providence River Pedestrian Bridge is part of a number of bridges that connect the downtown area of the city, which is the capital of US state Rhode Island.
Project team: Michael Guthrie, Cory Lavigne, Ken Van Tine, Azubike Ononye, Pandush Gaqi, Tom Provost, Anna Haezebrouck Structural engineer: BuroHappold Engineering Client: Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), City of Providence Electrical engineer: CJL Engineering Landscape: BETA Group Contractor: Daniel O'Connell's Sons, SITU Fabrication
US architecture firm GoCstudio has inserted a dark plywood box into an apartment in Seattle that doubles as a studio space for an amateur photographer.
Western Studio is a home and studio designed for a client who enjoys photography and hosting guests. The 1,000-square-foot (92.9-square-metre) open-plan unit is located inside a commercial building in Seattle's Belltown neighbourhood.
The remodel centred around designing a volume that could house the condo's main living spaces, including a bedroom nook and updated bathroom.
"The goal for the project was to reimagine the kitchen, bathroom, sleeping area in a compact multifunctional box which allows the rest of the space to be open plan and adaptable," GoCstudio said.
A row of cabinets, grey kitchen appliances and a sliding wood door front the monolithic box that is clad with stained plywood. The structure faces the unit's open-plan living area that was partially converted into a photography studio during the renovation.
To transform the space into a studio, the client proposed building an adjustable system to hold chainmail curtains that could be easily swapped out for photographic backdrops during a shoot.
Vertical metal panels attach to a track on the ceiling, which also features exposed pipes that nod to the apartment building's industrial past.
A compact bedroom with felt-covered walls is nestled into one corner of the box. Inside the unit, the bed is stacked on top of wood storage cabinets and a skylight is situated above to light and ventilate the narrow space.
Dark, venetian plastering in the bathroom matches the hue of the stained plywood used on the box's exterior. Fixtures in the confined room include a custom carved Jatoba sink and vanity and a rain shower head equipped with colour changing lights.
To add storage and utility space the studio designed a "loft" level above the box structure that can be accessed from a side door or the row of cabinets on top of the kitchen.
Other custom-designed elements in the unit include the Jatoba wood dining table that is paired with Hanko Chairs from Chadhaus and a pendant light fixture from Studio David Pompa.
Hues of soft pink and bold grey are coupled with tiled surfaces in this California facial studio designed by Los Angeles firm Proem Studio.
Cheeks & Co is a facial spa and skincare boutique located in a narrow building in Old Town Pasadena that was previously a travel bookstore.
To give the space its "high-end" feel, interior design firm Proem Studio completely overhauled the space leaving only the front glass windows and plumbing in place.
"The client wanted a bright, unique space that was luxurious, yet warm, approachable and relaxing," Proem Studio told Dezeen. "They also really wanted the studio to feel on-brand with their high-end, modern services and appeal to like-minded clientele."
The studio referenced the spa's branding by Studio Lowlights, which features pastel shades and a curving wordmark, as well as work of other designers to realise the concept.
"We were inspired by some French and Australian designers and the way they used colour and pattern in unexpected ways," the studio added. "The colour palette was taken from the branding for Cheeks that Studio Lowlights created."
Dark laminate flooring is used throughout the space, which comprises a reception area, five treatment rooms and a restroom. The ceiling is a shade of deep burgundy to contrast the white walls and pale accents.
In the entry area a rectangular check-in desk is clad with square, pewter-coloured tiles. Blue-tiled benches topped with matching cushions are situated in front of the large glass windows to form a waiting area for patrons.
A narrow hallway detailed with geometric black and brown tiles leads to each of the treatment rooms. At the end of the corridor there is an accent wall covered with blue tiles and circular, black light fixture.
The doorways to the suites are outlined with a soft pink similar to the colour used on the walls inside. Each room is furnished with a treatment bed, striped chair and oval-shaped mirror.
Walls in the bathroom are covered with a blue wallpaper by Maison C that features several dancing women.
"We chose it because it feels so feminine and beautiful," Proem Studio said. "To us it evokes a sense of women celebrating their skin, which is what Cheeks is all about."
The spa is furnished with white built-in and metal shelving units for displaying products and a grey vanity counter decorated with a round mirror and curvy wood chair.
Proem Studio is a Los Angeles interior design firm founded by Ashley Drost and Marie Trohman in 2017.
Arched doorways, altar-like tables and a nave-style display area feature in this Los Angeles showroom that McLaren Excell has designed for bathroom brand The Splash Lab.
The Splash Lab's showroom takes over a converted factory in LA's Culver City area that was originally built back in the 1930s.
As this is the bathroom brand's US flagship – and currently its only standalone space – McLaren Excell set out to develop an interiors scheme that "deviates from the typical showroom format".
"The display areas needed to feel integral to the architecture of the space and not afterthoughts within an independently conceived envelope," said the practice.
The showroom's floor plan is loosely informed by the layout of a church. Visitors enter via a lobby that is meant to be similar to a narthex – an antechamber or porch-like space that sits at the entrance of churches.
At the rear is a concrete counter denoting the brand's name. Suspended overhead is a minimal light fixture made from a network of slim metal rods.
Visitors then walk through a grand vaulted doorway that looks through to a central nave. Where there would typically be rows of pews, there are two grey-plaster partitions upon which taps have been mounted for display.
Just ahead lies a huge steel table, which the practice likens to an altar. It's surrounded by jet-black stools so that customers and staff can gather for product presentations or meetings.
Chunky walls punctuated by arched openings help divide up the rest of the showroom into a series of display niches.
Some of the niches simply show-off different tap models, while others have been styled as bathroom-like set-ups with sink basins and vanity mirrors.
Each dividing wall is composed of pale grey bricks that have been bonded together using the German mortar technique of ziegel geschlämmt, where more mortar than usual is applied so that joints in the brickwork are almost imperceptible.
"This process blurs the unit rhythm of the bricks to create a monolithic surface." explained the practice.
"The design needed to have enough tactility to achieve the weight and presence necessary to establish this identity but without competing with the existing building fabric."
The brick walls have also been balanced on concrete plinths to "give the sense that they have always been founded on [the factory's] existing concrete floor".
A grand triple-arched partition runs along the rear of the showroom, which is meant to offer the equivalent of an apse – a recessed sanctuary with a domed roof that's typically situated at the end of a church aisle.
Behind this lies a couple of private staff meeting rooms, screened off by heavy slate-grey curtains.
McLaren Excell was established in 2010 by Luke McLaren and Robert Excell.
Texas architecture firm Omniplan has topped the Holocaust museum in Dallas with a copper crown to represent "the strength of those who have stood up to injustice".
Omniplan created the building in a U-shape around an outdoor courtyard. The firm, which is based in the city, used dark iron spot bricks to form the majority of its 52,300-square-foot (4,859-square-metre) museum, while the upper floors are clad with a golden-red crown made from copper panels.
"The dark brick is used to foreshadow the solemn content the viewer is about to experience," said Omniplan, which was founded in 1956 by George Harrell and E G Hamilton.
The museum's mission is to promote human rights and teach the Holocaust, in which six million Jews and five million other people lost their lives.
"While no building can ever represent the inhumane injustices that occurred during the Holocaust, it can certainly be a vessel for the meaningful presentation of the repercussions, human experiences and realities thereof to ultimately influence impactful societal change," said Omniplan.
The upper portion of the building is separated from the dark grey base using a recessed light that continues around the building's perimeter. The copper, which will naturally weather over time, was used to communicate the resilience of certain communities that have suffered because of hatred and prejudice.
"The material was chosen to represent the strength of those who have stood up to injustice and inequality throughout history," said Omniplan.
The contrasting dark and red materials continue inside the museum's atrium, which is fronted by a double-height glazed wall that ushers natural light inside.
The ground floor contains two theatres, an exhibition room, a classroom and a museum store. Offices are located on the floor above.
The top storey contains several areas for exhibits on human rights, genocide and the Holocaust – also known in Hebrew as the Shoah and called this at the Dallas museum.
Exhibition design was done by Berenbaum-Jacobs Associates (BJA), which has offices in Los Angeles, Jerusalem and New Jersey. The exhibits include 120 survivor testimonies from the Holocaust, and rooms vary from dark to more light spaces.
A memorial space and reflection gallery is also included on the top floor.
Seven graduate students studying adaptive reuse at RISD have reimagined uses for the art-deco Superman Building in Providence, Rhode Island.
The art-deco building was built in 1928 by Walker & Gillette and George Frederick Hall as the Industrial Trust Building. It has been vacant for almost eight years and is listed by the Providence Preservation Society (PPS) as an endangered property.
Its visual similarity to the Daily Planet office building in the DC comics series influenced its nickname as the Superman Building.
Students worked with the PPS and the city planning office to each propose their own design for the interiors of the vacant structure. Each of the proposals was presented virtually on 22 May and can be viewed online. Read on for the seven designs:
The Second Act by Ankit Mandawewala
Ankit Mandawewala's proposal involves converting the building into several theatre and performance spaces. A jazz bar occupies the basement level and terraces would be situated on the higher floors.
Large LED screens cover a portion of the steel-framed structure to create a drive-in theatre on the city streets below.
Super Farmer by Shreya Anand
Shreya Anand has suggested converting the structure into a vertical urban farm that uses hydroponic technology. In the design, the walls and platforms of the 20 storey atrium are filled with plants that could provide food for local restaurants.
The top floor of the building is occupied by several dining options promoting a farm to table scheme.
Synaptic City by Michele Katora
Synaptic City is a biotech and science innovation centre outfitted with laboratories. They can be adapted to research a number of technology-related projects such as wind turbine production, interstellar satellites, artificial intelligence or medicine.
Beyond Years by Rashmi Ravishankar
Beyond Years is senior housing with recreational rooms, housing and healthcare resources. The coronavirus outbreak prompted Rashmi Ravishankar to research air quality and its relationship to virus transmission.
Garden spaces inside the building are included as part of the scheme to purify the air and also serve as a therapeutic resource for the residents.
Super Normal by Yiren Mao
Yiren Mao has imagined what city living could be like following the pandemic. It separates the building into three towers that offer, residential units, offices, retail stores and other community facilities such as a library and outdoor dog park.
The middle portion of the building would house communal resources such as laundry and recreation space, with a co-working tower and living quarters in the adjacent towers. Restaurants, stores and a dog walking trail would occupy the building's lower levels.
Expedition Superman by Nameera Najib
Najib has designed a corporate headquarters for international toy company Hasbro, which is located in Providence.
Features of the colourful interiors include an exploratorium with a domed planetarium, play scapes with twisted slides and other interactive gadgetry that promotes play.
Vertical Thrills by Hongjia Zhou
Vertical Thrills transforms the historic building into an amusement park and tourist destination that could earn revenue. It involves opening the space up to install equipment for indoor skydiving, bungee jumping and a massive climbing wall.
In her drawings Hongjia Zhou has mimicked the style of the DC Superman comic strips in an homage to the building and its nickname.
San Francisco firms Síol Studios and Levy Art and Architecture have updated this house in the city's Noe Valley neighbourhood with a gridded glass extension and two rooftop decks.
Called Valley Street, the Craftsman-style house was renovated by Levy Art and Architecture with interiors by Síol Studios for a couple who is passionate about art. One is a tech entrepreneur, and the other is a community organiser.
The team created the 3,280-square-foot (306-square-metre) home with a combination of industrial and bold details to be representative of art and technology.
Valley Street was extended with a three-storey construction with steel beams supporting black-framed windows. Glass doors on two levels break up the geometric pattern.
Also, as is common in the hilly city, the house can be accessed on its front and rear sides. These are at two different levels because it is built into a slope.
The main level is on the top floor and comprises an open-plan kitchen, dining room and sitting area, a bathroom and a bedroom.
A corner of the dining room is wrapped by the black gridded windows, and doors open onto a patio with glass railings. "The view is disciplined by a larger grid present in the delicate mullions that span the windows on this floor," the team added.
Interiors feature grey cabinets and a combination of black, cream, wood and white furniture. The kitchen backsplash is patterned with a flower mural by local artist Jet Martinez that adds a pop of colour.
Walnut floors match a kitchen island made of wood, as well as wood beams left exposed overhead sourced from waterlogged piers.
"They [the beams] retain a resonant function, breaking up the long open plan without interrupting the continuous sightline out to the windows, nor the intentional acoustics of the wide-open entertaining space," said the team.
A suspended stair of walnut and steel rods to a sitting area with access to a deck on the rooftop that has built-in benches, a fire pit and a wooden Japanese-style soaking tub. A second staircase leads from this floor to the two lower levels of the residence.
"The junction between the stair connecting the public spaces and the one that moves down to the private floors marks a pivotal point in the project, where the home engages with the tension between the individual and the collective and the architectural implications of each," the team said.
"As you drop down, the home quiets."
The level below the kitchen contains two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a walk-in closet, gym, storage and a garage. The master bedroom is housed in the glazed addition and features expansive glass walls.
A family room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry and mechanical space are located in the basement. The team describes these spaces as "sheltered".
Exterior access is included on this lowest level, which is on the downhill side of the split-level home. Glass doors in the living room open onto a concrete patio and garden that is enclosed with a minimal fence.
US architecture firm Olson Kundig has installed large wooden shutters across the front of a house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming designed to take advantage of its mountainous landscape.
Teton House comprises a rectangular glazed volume stacked on top of a stone wall and garage unit that comprise the house's lower level.
Wood shutters, operable by a pulley system installed inside, span across the windows and can be opened and closed depending on the changing weather conditions.
Olson Kundig completed the 8,050-square-foot (748-square-metre) residence and accompanying small guest house to make the most of the availability of activities in Jackson Hole, a popular tourist destination for sports such as skiing and hiking.
"The house is a platform for the extreme experiences possible in a mountain climate – it acts as a preamble to the natural landscape just outside," said Olson Kundig design principal Tom Kundig.
At the back of the residence, a portion of the exterior is cut out to form a covered hallway where skiers can easily come and go from the house.
Off the corridor is a storage room with ample shelving, drawers and pegs designed to hold sporting gear such as boots and boards.
Inside the residence, the kitchen, dining and living areas and a guest bedroom occupy the ground floor, while three additional bedrooms and the master suite are on the upper level.
A combination of rift-cut oak, fir and walnut woods cover the ceilings, walls and floors.
In the kitchen, the refrigerator is covered with wood paneling blending it in with the cabinetry and counter. A black fireplace in the living room forms a focal point in front of the windows with views to the forest landscape.
The studio custom-built several furnishings for the house including wood tables used in the living and media room and bed frames.
A wood staircase leading up the floors is lined with slender metal rods on one side to match a railing attached to the opposite wood wall.
Other features include a home theatre with lounge seating and large screen, extensive wine storage room and bike shop are located on a lower level designed for recreational use.
The detached wooden guest house is situated at the back of the property. Inside the unit, which is modelled on the main residence, there is a bathroom, small kitchen space and a combined living and sleeping area.
Architects need to be designing new building typologies to replace prisons that "were built to hurt people", says architect Deanna van Buren, who established her non-profit firm to bring an end to mass incarceration in America.
Van Buren told Dezeen the current infrastructure designed for the criminal justice system does not work and that architects should instead be focusing on creating new building types.
"Prison represents punishment and control and security," she said. "They're not about care. They're not about rehabilitation. They're not about restoration."
"Don't worry about making those prisons and jails better, there's a whole lot of infrastructure that has to get built to end mass incarceration."
Communities "just want to demolish" prisons
Van Buren founded her Oakland practice Designing Justice + Design Spaces in 2011 with the aim of building spaces that help to bring an end to mass incarceration in America, where more people per capita are incarcerated than any other country.
Her firm designs spaces for restorative justice, in which the damage of a crime is mended through meetings between the victim and the offender.
It also works on redesigning existing prions and jails. However, she believes that these structures are often too difficult to repurpose, making demolition a better option.
Designing Justice + Design Spaces project Restore Oakland is billed as "the first centre for restorative justice and restorative economics"
"Even the work we're doing to reimagine or repurpose prisons and jails is very hard to do because they were built to hurt people," she said.
"We're finding even with our community organising partners, they just want to demolish them, and I can't say that's not the best solution. I honestly can't say it's not the best way to move forward sometimes because they're so difficult to repurpose."
"Architects have to rethink their business models"
For architecture studios to implement change they may have to rethink their business practices and focus less on making profit from wealthy clients said Van Buren.
"Architects have to rethink their business models," she said. "You know that you're a for-profit entity and you're taking money from wealthy clients and you might have to start to rethink how you do things so that you can practice in a way that's more equitable."
"Architects also have to do some inquiry, they really need to do their own unconscious-bias inquiry, they need to understand the context within which we're living, they need to question the systems that they're working for," she added.
Van Buren's firm has completed several projects that demonstrate the ideals of restorative justice including Restore Oakland, which is billed as "the first centre for restorative justice and restorative economics".
The centre features spaces for Alameda County's restorative justice system and incubators for businesses from low-income communities of colour.
The firm is also transforming The Atlanta City Detention Centre into the Center for Equity for the local community, which will including facilities for wellness facilities, skills-building and crime prevention, and pop-up rooms offering halfway houses for people re-entering communities.
In addition to areas for restorative justice, Restore Oakland includes spaces for non-profit organisations and the wider community
Van Buren is now developing these ideas into a larger concept for Detroit, which is a campus that will include housing, fabrication spaces, workforce development space and non-profit office space.
"It's really a holistic approach to development that brings communities what they actually need so we can cut the pipeline to prison at the root of it," she said. "Those projects really matter."
Below is an edited transcript of the interview with Van Buren:
Eleanor Gibson: Could you start by telling me a bit about yourself, how you got into architecture and what Designing Justice + Designing Spaces is?
Deanna van Buren: I wanted to be an architect since I was nine years old. It was so obvious. And then, you know, I practiced professionally for maybe 10 years in a more traditional context as an architect.
I noticed that in the early 2000s people were not just practicing anymore for the wealthy, but the other 99 per cent. I wanted to do that. It took a while, but I started my firm in 2011 with a sort of intense focus on designing for restorative justice.
I started my own design studio realising that, while we could design things, and make some beautiful, pictures, we didn't know how to pay for them. The things that we were thinking about were new, there was no financing structure for it, no traditional way of paying for it. We had to start to think about the real estate development aspects of the work and the financing aspects of work as well as the design. That's how Designing Justice + Designing Spaces became what it is today. We formed a non-profit of both real estate developers and architects.
Eleanor Gibson: What is restorative justice? And how does that look in terms of architecture and design?
Deanna van Buren: Restorative justice is a philosophy that instead of what we do now, where it says a crime has been committed, who wants to be punished? It's a crime against the state. Restorative justice says that there's been a breach of relationships and that the person who's been harmed is the focus and their needs must be met and that those who have committed the offense are accountable for that, and they have an obligation to make amends and repair the damage if possible.
The environments we've created and developed are much softer
So that brings them together in pretty intense dialogue, where they create a plan to address the offender's conduct so that people can move forward. It can be used in a whole range of cases, everything from murder to sexual assault. It's been used all over the world, they are old practices.
When we go look at what they look like, it really kind of depends on the culture within the context of which you're working. You have to look at what the cultural context is, and begin to work with people to start to understand, where do people most feel comfortable coming into intense dialogue like that? What qualities does the space have to have?
And so in the work that we've done, the environments that we've created and developed are much softer than the sort of institutional environments that we see when you think of a courthouse for example. The place we did in Syracuse has a domestic feeling. There's always a kitchen, food matters. You know, like when the last time you got excited to go to the courthouse to get some great food, right? They don't go together.
Restorative justice is part of the process. The reintegration of landscape and nature into the environment is really important because of the way it supports our nervous system, you need to have objects and colour and texture to touch and to look at that also helps the nervous system. If you've ever been in a conflict you know you go into fight-flight freeze, because that's just sort of our natural biological instinct. You want to support that in the environment, by providing places for people just to calm down.
There are a lot of things that you need to do but these are some basic strategies that can get embedded into the place. And also they just feel very domestic. It's much cheaper and easier to make an environment like that than to build a courthouse.
Eleanor Gibson: Recently there's been more of an emphasis on calling for an end to mass incarceration in America. How do you see architects playing into that? How can they be proactive?
Deanna van Buren: There's a lot, a lot, a lot of things to do. I mean, this is what I've said, like, don't worry about making those prisons and jails better, there's a whole lot of infrastructure that has to get built to end mass incarceration.
I'm working on documents that will outline what a lot of these building types are. And, you know, I'm up to 60 building types you have to create, so get ready. There's a lot to do. Right? You don't need to worry about that. There's plenty of work for all of us.
Are you gentrifying neighbourhoods through your actions? Are you building out racist structures?
Architects also have to do some inquiry. They really need to do their own unconscious bias, inquiry, they need to understand the context within which we're living, they need to question the systems that they're working for, like if you take on a client, who is this project for? Who are you accountable to, if you begin to engage was harmed by the quiddity harms? Are you gentrifying neighbourhoods through your actions? Are you building out racist structures in your building?
Those are a lot of questions that have to happen in terms of execution of your work and architects have to rethink their business model. You know that you're a for-profit entity and you're taking money from wealthy clients. And you might have to start to rethink how you do things. So that you can practice in a way in a way that's more equitable.
Hopefully, our system will just become more difficult. But there, you have to begin to work for folks who don't, who don't have anything, and who have been marginalised and oppressed for a long time. I'm accountable to the people I work for. And I have to be clear about my goals and intention, and be really careful about the way that I work, which means really engaging them in the process. So I do a lot of community engagement work.
Eleanor Gibson: For some people a world without prisons or jails might seem kind of inconceivable. How would you describe it working? Is it possible?
Deanna van Buren: I think we're seeing now that it is quite possible. And that, you know, you look at a jail, for example, some of the jails across the country, they're letting out 60 per cent of the population. So if you can do that, in a month or two, why were they in there in the first place?
So it just raises a lot of questions, as I think over 70,000 people were released out of our institutions. And there was a time where we had just a fraction of the people we see in there today. I'm curious about in the future.
There will be probably some people who do need to be separated from society. And then what is that place that you create for them? I don't think it's a prison. I think it would be something else that's quite different. And you would call it something different and would function differently.
If you look to New Zealand, where they really instituted restorative justice for over 20 years, they're just not building them anymore. They don't use incarceration at all. And you see this decline in the building of that infrastructure, we don't need it anymore. We didn't used to have them. These are relatively new building types if you look at the history of humanity. And they're not effective and they don't work, and now we realise we have a public health issue so we can do something different.
Eleanor Gibson: Can you tell me a bit about some of the projects you're working on like the Atlanta City Detention Center.
Deanna van Buren: We have three types of projects that we do. The Atlanta City Detention Center is an example of our repurposing and reimagining work. And that is we support municipalities, organisers, to close facilities and repurpose them or reimagine them whether you demolish them. They'll do feasibility studies on what you can do. And that's something that we do around the country.
Right now we're building out something call mobile refuge rooms
The second bucket of work we call restorative reentry. So that's trying to build out the infrastructure to support folks re-entering their communities from prison and jail. That is everything from sort of mobile infrastructure to working on campuses, and right now we're building out something call mobile refuge rooms, which are pop-up rooms for folks reentering the community that give privacy and dignity because they don't really have that right now. Often they'll come and they're 10 in a room, it's not safe. They're really not. They're really not nice institutions.
These environments we had been building but now of course of Covid-19 is more necessary than ever because there's just more people coming out. They're also great for social distancing and for observation and quarantining. So we're working on those.
And then the third bucket, which is most of our work is restorative reinvestments in community. Where we need to really focus right now is things like Restore Oakland, the country's first centre for restorative justice restorative economics. The community owns the building and there are spaces for restorative justice spaces for people to get job training. They need a job, they need education, spaces for the community to organise. And so that was completed last year.
Now we're about to start a new project in Detroit. We're buying the land and we will be developing a concept like that to be an entire campus of buildings that are going to be able to support daily needs like retail to hyper urgent housing for folks coming out of prison, to fabrication spaces and workforce development space and nonprofit office space.
If we get the financing right, the community can invest in the project, so they have equity, right. It's really a holistic approach to development that brings communities what they actually need. So that we can cut the pipeline to prison at the root of it and those projects really matter. They can impact on our models, others to copy.
Eleanor Gibson: You talked about a racist structure, what do you mean by that?
Deanna van Buren: The systems that we have, our criminal justice system, our educational system, our healthcare system, structural racism is embedded into these systems. As a nation and globally, hopefully, have we have started to wake up to that as a fact.
So what happens is we just build that right there, the things that we believe about people, things we believe as a society, get built, get put to the built environment, and we can see that in all forms of architecture.
If you demolish it and they're not there anymore, what would that do to stop this?
Prison represents punishment and control and security. They're not about care. They're not about rehabilitation. They're not about restoration. Those are a different set of values or beliefs that will look quite different.
One of the challenges we have now is to unbuild that. Even in the work we're doing to reimagine or repurpose prisons and jails is very hard to do because they were built to hurt people. And so we're finding even with our community organising partners they just want to demolish them, and I can't say that's not the best solution. I honestly can't say it's not the best way to move forward sometimes because they're so difficult to repurpose. What happens is, even when they close them down, they become immigration detention facilities, right, because that's what they're built to do, to detain.
If you demolish it and they're not there anymore, what would that do to stop this? So, you know, I'm torn and we look at both things, but you can sort of see how things get so rigidly built. Architecture is, you know, it's really there. It's hard to take it down once you got it up.
Nearly 300 pounds of paper was cast in large holes in the ground before being flipped over to create the Agg Hab prototype home on a Texas ranch, which the designers claim is one of the "world's largest, self-supporting, papier-mache structures."
US design-build studio I/thee and curatorial platform Roundhouse completed two structures called Agg Hab, short for Aggregate Habitat, on a cattle farm in Clarendon, Texas, as part of an artists' residency.
Large holes were burrowed nearly two metres deep into the ground to form casts for the papier-mache domes, which are made out of nearly 270 pounds worth of recycled paper and 200 litres of non-toxic glues.
The team said the protoype is an example of an eco-dwelling due to the materials used.
"Most of the project was made out of recycled papers, and the adhesives were all handmade by our team on-site using no animal products or toxins," I/thee co-founder Neal Lucas Hitch told Dezeen.
Once set, the paper shells are four millimeters thick, 20 feet long (six metres long) and eight feet (2.4 metres) wide. They are then flipped over to rest on top of the excavations to create enclosures that are nearly three metres tall.
"Together, the holes, matched with their respective shells, create a semi-subterranean house in which the negative and positive expressions of a series of excavated forms take on a reciprocal relationship to create multiple habitable spaces," the team added.
"The house stands unofficially as one the world's largest, self-supporting, papier-mache structures."
Agg Hab features a series of openings in the paper structures that form apertures to let in natural light and doorways to enter inside.
A slope is carved into the earth to create a ramp that leads inside the semi-subterranean structure.
"As light filters in through the openings, it reflects off the glossy paper, producing an almost ecclesiastical, yet somehow sublunary, environment," said the team.
"As people move into the spaces, they become enveloped in a primordial experience – as if gestating in the womb of mother earth or stowing away in the belly of a whale just below the surface of the ocean."
Agg Hab was created as part of this year's Oakes Creek Residency, which is held annually on a Texas ranch owned by cowboy-artist, John Robert Craft.
Photography is by Neal Lucas Hitch and Sarah Aziz .
Project credits:
Project team: Neal Lucas Hitch, Noémie Despland-Lichtert, Brendan Sullivan Shea, Martin Hitch, Kristina Fisher, Maxime Lefebvre, Julia Manaças, John Robert Craft, Charlotte Craft
This house in California's Silicon Valley, designed by local studios Pacific Peninsula Architecture and Leverone Design, is built with blocks of Texas split-cut limestone.
It is located in Atherton, which one of the wealthiest towns in the US, giving it the name Atherton Contemporary.
Chunky limestone walls break up sections of wood-framed windows to form the exterior of the house, which the team said is "more about texture than colour". A stone wall next to a glass front door also appears to slice through the residence.
Measuring 14,000 square feet (1,300 square metres), the house is built onto a sloped site and rises three storeys. It is accompanied by a detached guest house, outdoor swimming pool, various places to lounge outside and a grassy garden with many trees.
Inside, natural light floods in through the large expanses of glass, while the stone is complemented by pale walls and wide-plank oak flooring in a grey hue.
Upon entering via glass doors is a foyer, where gaps in the golden-coloured limestone provide access to a formal dining room and a hall.
Beyond is an open-plan kitchen and living room. Another eating area, second sitting area with a grand piano custom made by Bosendorfer, an office, pantry, mudroom and two bathrooms are also on the ground floor.
A staircase with glass railings leads to a master bedroom, three additional bedrooms and a playroom for the children on the first floor. The master bedroom is complete with a walk-in closet, ensuite and private terrace.
The lower level of the home features a gym with a tub, sauna and steam room, as well as a theatre, lounge wine cellar. In various areas, glass walls bring natural light into the basement.
Outdoor stairs also lead to the pool above, alongside colourful flowers and plants in stepped pots.
The interior design of Atherton Contemporary features many custom-made pieces, and several others chosen by the homeowner.
"The client was involved in every aspect of the design, including making several trips to New York and Los Angeles for inspiration and furniture selection," the team said.
Details include a hand-blown glass lamp by American architect Marmol Radziner, a 500-year-old redwood sculpture and work by Korean artist Bernadette Jiyong Frank.
The foyer has a custom-made console with darkened rift oak and a lacquered underside, a sculpture by Peter Bouger, art by Hawaii-based painter Tom Lieber and a pendant by New York's Studio Van den Akker.
The dining room has a pendant and oval dining table by Hudson Furniture in New York, while the office has a custom leather desk with oak and a Scorpion lamp by Ochre.
Upstairs, the children's playroom has a fish tank, orange Arne Jacobsen chairs, a custom-made lacquered desk with stainless steel legs, a David Weeks pendant and an orange felt rug.
A custom fabric headboard, custom bedside tables and an Alison Berger pendant feature in the master bedroom.
Neri Oxman and her Mediated Matter Group have released a film of a silkworm-woven pavilion in Italy, in which the insects acted "not only as construction workers but also as designer".
The exhibition opened in February this year featuring a body of works by her Mediated Matter Group research department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but was forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A large robotic, loom-like jig was installed in a fabrication facility in Abano Term
The film shows for the first time the making of the Silk Pavilion II, which was the centrepiece of the New York showcase.
It begins in Italy with a facility in Teolo where 17,532 silkworms were sourced for the project, and then moves onto the installation of a large robotic, loom-like jig in a fabrication facility in Abano Term, where the silkworm-spun pavilion was made in 10 days.
After the jig is built, a soluble white knit is stretched across to form a base for the silkworms to lay their silk. The kinetic jig was programmed to periodically rotate in a clockwise motion so that the silkworms are forced to work in an upward spinning motion and lay evenly over the structure.
The jig rotated clockwise so that the silkworms were forced to work in an upward spinning motion
Oxman said this process provides an alternative to traditional harvesting of material from silkworms, in which the larva are typically killed.
"As the Silk Pavilion demonstrates, structures can influence silkworms to spin in sheets instead of cocoons," Oxman added.
"This project illustrates how this small, yet unique insect can act not only as construction worker but also as designer, in collaboration with a man-made structure that guides its movement and deposition of silk to create an enhanced form."
In total, the project used 17,532 silkworms and the jig was turned 15,000 times
The team installed a net underneath the jig to safely catch the silkworms as they metamorphosis during the process.
In total, there were over 15,000 rotations to create the pavilion in a horizontal format before it was then transported to New York City. It was then hung vertically in the Museum of Modern Art rising six metres tall and spannings five metres wide.
Others are the Totems sculpture built with melanin and Aguahoja, a five-metre-tall pavilion that was robotically printed out of a biocomposite made of pectin, cellulose, chitosan (a material derived from chitin) and calcium carbonate.
Silk Pavilion II was installed at MoMA as part of Oxman's Material Ecology exhibition
Oxman details the method for creating Aguahoja, called Water-Based Digital-Fabrication, in the Platforms section of the website, alongside other technologies she has developed with her MIT team to make the different projects.
Material Ecology opened on 22 February and was expected to run until 25 May before MoMA closed in early March due to the spread of coronavirus in New York City. The exhibition presented seven key projects.
Oxman, who was born in Haifa, Israel, moved to the US to study at MIT in 2005 and became a professor in 2010, when she also founded the university's Mediated Matter Group.
American artist John Pomp has created a coffee table with a glass top and chunky steel legs, designed to resemble a "suspended" body of water.
Pomp, who is based in Philadelphia, created the Tidal Rectangular Cocktail Table with a hand-poured crystal glass top with curved edges.
The top rests on two L-shaped legs that also have rounded corners but are made of hand-forged steel.
Pomp said he referenced water and ocean tides when creating the design.
"My passion for the ocean and its beautifully fluid nature is also found in my love for molten glass," he told Dezeen, adding that he is an avid surfer.
"I was inspired by the relationship between the ocean and moon, and I wanted this piece to highlight the soft curves and flowing lines found in the ripples of an ocean tide," he said. "It embodies a puddle of water suspended in a moment of time."
Creating the piece was a challenge for Pomp, and he and his team spent two years researching and developing the design. Kilns were custom made to create to finished product.
"We designed and engineered custom kilns and furnaces just to produce this unique piece of glass," said Pomp.
"Creating this Tidal Collection has been a true labour of love."
It is available in different glass finishes, with dark glazing called Smoke and a bright green glass version called Emerald. The metalwork can also come in brushed brass, brushed silver and brushed copper.
Pomp, who is trained in the Murano glass tradition, has been a glassblower for over 25 years. He and his wife Anne lead in a multidisciplinary studio in Philadelphia's Fishtown neighbourhood with about forty craftsman and artists.
Mississippi has voted to redesign its flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, making it the last US state to remove the controversial symbol that was used by southern states during the American Civil War.
Mississippi legislature passed a bill on Sunday 28 June to remove the blue saltire cross with white stars from its state flag.
A commission will now be established to design a new state flag that will include the words "In God We Trust", the official motto of the US that is used on all paper bills.
Public to vote on new flag design in November
The new flag design will be presented to legislature by 14 September and a colour picture or drawing will be placed on a ballot in a special election held on 3 November.
The design will be approved and enacted into law if a majority votes for it. If not, the design will be revised.
"If a majority of the qualified electors vote against the new design, then the commission shall reconvene to recommend another new design for the Mississippi state flag to be presented to the legislature during the 2021 regular session," the bill said.
The bill also commits the state to removing the current flag from all public buildings within 15 days.
The redesign comes amid a call to end the use of symbols of the Confederacy, which was established by seven slave-holding states – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas – in 1861.
The succession of these states led to the American Civil War, which was won by the northern states leading to the abolition of slavery in 1865 – emancipating millions of black slaves.
Confederacy symbols were adopted by white supremacists during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s and the use of the battle flag is now highly controversial.
Previous attempts to remove battle flag unsuccessful
The decision to remove the emblem marks the changing attitude towards the Confederate battle flag following several unsuccessful previous attempts to remove the emblem.
In 2001, a referendum held to replace the state's flag with a design created by an independent commission was defeated, with 64 per cent voting to retain the existing flag.
A move to remove the symbol from the Mississippi state flag was also pushed in 2015 after the racially motivated Charleston church shooting but was also unsuccessful.
Mississippi is the last US state to remove a Confederate emblem from its flag, with Georgia adopting a new flag in 2003 to replace a 1956 design that included the Confederate battle flag.
Its decision was made following the killing of African-American George Floyd in police custody, which caused anti-racist protests in every US state.
The movement, led by Black Lives Matter, has spread across the world and resulted in the tearing down of other symbols of racism, including the statue of a slave owner in Bristol, England, which Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft argued was "long overdue".
Located in a former car garage on West 3rd Street in the Beverly Grove area, the shop has floor-to-ceiling windows with black frames that usher light inside.
The space was stripped down, revealing wood beams that are now painted white. Commune then designed a series of display cabinets for showing items for sale.
"The interior is meant to say jewellery store rather than a dispensary," the studio said. "The result is light, airy and luxurious, yet casual... like Los Angeles."
A focal point of the interiors is an oval-shaped oak counter with rod-like Tambor detailing, which conceals drawers on the opposite side. Slender brass rods on this flower bar support a wrap-around mesh trellis overhead in the same golden material.
More glass displays are provided by free-standing vitrines with brass details and oak drawers.
"The store is laid out like a mini speciality store with areas for topicals, edibles, vapes, clothing and accessories with a central racetrack-shaped 'flower bar' showcasing the brand’s extensive strain offerings," said Commune.
Carrara marble clads another counter that is placed in front of storage cubes, also in brass, and filled with cannabis products. A refrigerator with beverages is next to it.
Rounding out the design are white walls, accent walls clad in oak, cement tile floors, globe light fixtures and potted plants.
Dispensaries are facilities that sell marijuana for medical or recreational use and are only located in US states that have voted for it to be legal. California became the first state to legalise medical marijuana in 1996. Another cannabis store in Los Angeles is Dosist, which features white slatted walls inside and out.
Commune was founded in 2004 by sister and brother duo Pamela and Ramin Shamshiri with Roman Alonso and Steven Johanknecht. In 2016, the Shamshiri siblings left Commune to launch Studio Shamshiri. Its other projects in Los Angles include Hollywood apartment complex El Centro and Ace Hotel in downtown.
British firm Foster + Partners has unveiled a masterplan for a site in Beverly Hills that will include plant-covered residences and elevated botanical gardens.
Unveiled by developers Alagem Capital Group and Cain International, One Beverly Hills is designed for a 17.5 acre (seven hectare) site that is home to the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills hotels.
The masterplan proposal develops the triangular site, which is located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, with an "ultra-luxury hotel" including 42 suites and 37 residences, two residential buildings with 303 units and a four-storey pavilion for shopping boutiques and eateries.
Visual is by DBOX for Alagem Capital
The surroundings are transformed into 8.5 acres (3.4 hectares) of garden, with over 300 species of plants and trees, that Foster + Partners' founder Norman Foster said references the history of Californian city Beverly Hills.
"In its beginnings, Beverly Hills was agricultural flat land – a green oasis that fed a growing urbanity," he said.
"A century later, we have seized on this inspiration to create an organic architecture that merges with landscape, a large part of which is publicly accessible, creating a shared resource for the city."
Renderings of the project show a pair of rounded, glazed residential buildings wrapped by curvilinear white balconies and greenery. Three lower-level buildings have a similar aesthetic.
The Merv Griffin Way, a motorway that cuts through the site to link Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, remains open and is covered with a platform for the landscaped gardens above.
Landscape architecture firm RIOS has designed the green space with 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) of public botanical and sculpture gardens and 3.5 acres (1.4 hectares) of private gardens for residents and hotel guests.
In total, it includes nine distinct botanical gardens, pools and ponds and two one-mile-long walkways separating the public and private links around the landscape.
Moisture sensors are intended to be used to indicate when the plants need more water and stop when they have sufficient amounts of water, with the aim to be more efficient of water use.
"The richness of Californian culture owes much to its diversity of influences, which comes together with the urgent need for sustainability – particularly conservation and recycling of water for the greenery," said Foster.
He added that the concept forms part of "a green approach" across One Beverly Hills, which is designed to reach LEED Platinum and WELL certifications in recognition due to environmentally friendly design details and promotion of well-being.
To achieve this, buildings will feature low-embodied carbon materials, as well as "smart luxury" technologies, like circadian dimming, LED lighting and silent HVAC systems.
Visual is by DBOX for Alagem Capital
Foster + Partners has designed the masterplan with architecture firm Gensler acting as executive architect.
Other projects in the Californian city include the Greenhouse a residential complex, designed by Chinese firm MAD Architects to look like a village on top of a hill, which is under construction on Wilshire Boulevard.
American musician, producer and designer Kanye West has revealed a photo showing that the latest prototype for his low-cost housing for the homeless is under construction.
West posted the photo to Twitter showed several unfinished structures with curvilinear floor plans, wooden frames and domed metalwork.
Described in the caption as YZY shelters, they appear to be the latest prototypes of the prefabricated affordable housing, which would be the musician's first foray into architecture.
YZY shelters could be first Yeezy Home project
The image shows the latest mock-up of West's project, which follows a series of wood-lattice structures that he built on his property in California late last year.
These structures were demolished following reports that the musician failed to secure a building permit for them.
The YZY shelters will possibly be the first project from the architecture arm of West's Yeezy label, Yeezy Home, which he launched in 2018.
"We're looking for architects and industrial designers who want to make the world better," West said at the time.
Yeezy Home takes inspiration from Star Wars films
West revealed he intended to create low-income prefabricated housing or accommodation for homeless people in an interview with Forbes in July 2019.
He said he planned for the Yeezy Home units to take inspiration from the Star Wars films and might be used as underground homeless housing.
The news comes amid a wave of announcements from West, including his ambitions to run for US president.
Teller booths of a former bank building designed by Eero Saarinen in Columbus, Indiana are integrated into this white pavilion by architecture studio Oyler Wu Collaborative.
The Exchange is located next to the Irwin Conference Center, formerly the Irwin Union Bank, which was completed by modernist architect Saarinen in 1954.
The white pavilion references the geometries of the historic building and integrates three bank teller structures that were left on the site.
"The design challenge was to activate the space while relating a contemporary design concept to the historic building and existing site conditions," Oyler Wu Collaborative said.
"The pavilion defines a new public space on the site by completing the geometries implied by the three canopies, legacies of Irwin Conference Center's history as a drive-up bank."
It is built with wood and welded steel framing that comprises several rectangular volumes and cage-like elements that twist and lay within the structure.
The Californian studio prefabricated and painted over 30 parts offsite.
The 1,155-square-foot (107.3-square-metre) pavilion was assembled using the framing of the existing canopies on the site.
At its front, the ends of two teller roofs fit into the curving and angular wood parts. Several spiralling volumes formed with metal rods are positioned between the abstract wood shapes.
Each elevation is designed with a unique appearance and arrangement of parts, which the studio developed to showcase research on the relationship between solid and void objects, and lines and volumes.
Some sides are covered by wide openings for the public to enter through the pavilion to view the inside or to sit on the benches placed within the structure.
The Exchange was constructed in 2017 as the winning design of the J Irwin and Xenia S Miller Prize part of Exhibit Columbus, a biannual architecture and design festival that invites architects and designers to create temporary installations around the city.
The pavilion was scheduled to only be on display for the length of the festival but is still standing.
Oyler Wu Collaborative is an experimental architecture and design practice in Los Angeles founded in 2004 by Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu.
Principal architects: Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu
Project leaders: Harrison Steinbuch, Hans Koesters, Lung Chi Chang Design and fabrication team: Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, Harrison Steinbuch, Hans Koesters, Lung Chi Chang, Clint Johnson, Andy Magner, Tucker van Leuwen-Hall, Irvin Shaifa, Dongwoo Suk, Thomas Lanham, Andrea Sanchez, Emilijia Landsbergis, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Suhan Na, Hsiyuan Pan Engineering: Nous Engineering, Matthew Melnyk, Katahdin Engineering LLC, Elizabeth Woolf
Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have sued the Trump administration in federal court to block an order that would mean all international students not attending in-person classes would be stripped of visas.
The institutions, which contain two of the world's leading architecture schools, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court in Boston today to halt a directive issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requiring that all foreign college students be enrolled in courses that include in-person classes to maintain visas.
"The effect is to create as much chaos for universities"
The ICE order reverses an exemption that was made on 13 March amid the coronavirus pandemic that meant students on nonimmigrant F-1 student visas were no longer required to attend most classes in person in order to maintain their status.
When the government made this decision it was "in effect for the duration of the emergency", the lawsuit argued, and has impacted the arrangments colleges have already made for the next term.
"The effect — and perhaps even the goal — is to create as much chaos for universities and international students as possible," said the lawsuit.
"Given that the pandemic continues to rage, with record numbers of infections in the United States every day, Harvard and MIT concluded, after careful planning processes, that, to protect the health and lives of their students, faculty, staff, and communities, they should offer most of their fall 2020 semester curricula online."
"We believe that the ICE order is illegal"
Harvard has limited undergraduate on-campus residency to 40 per cent of capacity, while MIT restricted it to the senior class and a small amount number of other students.
Under the new order, the schools would be required to overhaul upcoming programmes or risk losing thousands of international students.
"We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal," said Harvard president Lawrence S Bacow in a letter to the school community.
"It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others."
MIT is the world's leading architecture school according to global rankings, while Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) takes fifth place.
ICE's action comes as Covid-19 remains a major health risk, with over 131,000 deaths in the US caused by the illness, and 300,000 new cases since 1 July as lockdown measures ease.
The lawsuit said that the close confines of college campuses could become "super spreaders", with Bacow adding that if the campuses reopen and cases spike, they will be pressured to stay open or otherwise risk losing international students.
Eighty artists and activists have written cloud-like messages in the sky made from water vapour to protest immigration policy and mass incarceration in America.
In Plain Sight is a project founded by Cassils and Rafa Esparza that involves a group including the Black Panther Party's former minister of culture Emory Douglas, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, and artists Dread Scott and Bamby Salcedo.
In Plain Sight founded by Cassils and Rafa Esparza asks artists and activists to write messages in the sky to protest American immigration policy and mass incarceration
The messages were written in the sky with water vapour emitted from small planes flew above jails, detention centres and border locations in California, New York, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Georgia and Louisiana over Independence Day weekend, 3 to 4 July.
The phrase "Care not cages" written by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors flew over Los Angeles
Phrases included "Care not cages", "Health is wealth", "Stop crimmigration now" and "Arrest ICE" to protest the detainment and treatment of thousands of immigrants in detention centres under Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Artist Bamby Salcedo wrote "Stop Crimmigration now" which flew in Los Angeles
"As the planes soar, they will make visible in the sky what is too often unseen and unspoken on the ground: the appalling, profoundly immoral, imprisonment of immigrants," said In Plain Sight.
"In Plain Sight will help break through this wall of secrecy, exposing to public scrutiny the sites of detention centres, paid for with your dollars and operated in your name."
Dread Scott wrote the name of the first immigrant to die of coronavirus in a US detention facility, Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, over New York City
Several of the artists chose to write phrases in Spanish, Farsi, Urdu and Arabic while others wrote the names of detained immigrants such as "Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia", the first immigrant to die of coronavirus in a US detention facility.
In Plain Sight intends to create more messages over more locations this weekend.
At the end of each phrase is the hashtag #XMAP, the name of the website created as part of the initiative. The website provides information about the project and artists and also has an interactive map that shows where each message was flown.
To offset the carbon emitted by the planes the project has estimated that each 30 minute period of skywriting can be negated by planting five trees.
Several messages were written in Spanish and other languages including Farsi, Urdu and Arabic
Artist Sam Van Aken has offered his genetically-grown Tree of 40 Fruit, which produces forty varieties of stone fruit, to be planted near detention and incarceration sites.
Each message ends with the hashtag #XMAP, a website created as part of the project
Last month Dallas artist Jammie Holmes flew banners above American cities showing the final words of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on 25 May. The project coincided with the mass protests across the United States demanding racial justice.
