Kultivate has partnered with Crystal Stone on Dare to Design, a unique design project to be showcased at the  Architectural Digest Home Design Show and The Artist Project NY in March.

The Architectural Digest Home Design Show and The Artist Project NY have offered Crystal Stone and fellow stone company International Stone Collections the opportunity to showcase two stone bar centerpieces designed specifically for the show! The Dare To Design contest launched to give designers of any rank the chance to have their bar designs chosen to be fabricated and showcased at the event in March!

There is no cost for entry, and the deadline is February 25th.

The exhibition Francisco Mangado Architect will be on view in the Juana Mordó Hall of Madrid's Círculo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Circle) from February 22 to April 10, 2011.

Through models of building projects and digital representations of interior fixtures and urban furniture pieces, the show presents a large part of the Navarrese's output as an architect and industrial designer in the past years. A documentary-interview then takes us on a tour of his major built works and makes us privy to some of his deepest-held opinions and reflections. Finally, the catalog in the form of a notebook bequeathes us with a selection of his sketches, diagrams, drawings, and writings.

Image courtesy Francisco Mangado Architect

+ Some other Francisco Mangado Architect‘s projects published in +MOOD.

Dress Code, render courtesy Complex City

Dress Code is an elementary school designed for the community of Fréchy in SWITZERLAND. It is surrounded by farming areas and nearby hills.

Under the idea that once the program and the function are defined, the architect's job consists in dressing up architecture; Dress Code was conceived. It gives a major importance to the facades and to the way the building is seen externally. Visual communication is a key point, especially considering that school is the first source of knowledge for youngsters.

Dress Code, render courtesy Complex City

The architect's objective is to bring to architecture the ductility and smoothness of fabrics and the delicacy of the sewing lace. This is a very sensible work that started by developing an irregular mesh using as a reference handmade pieces of embroidery; then a module; generating finally, a skin.

Dress Code, render courtesy Complex City

By creating a mesh that is organic on its shape, the covering of the building acts like a textile covering. The membrane filters the exterior and creates a cellular connection between the exterior and the interior. It let us see through the outstanding sights of the surroundings as well as it keeps us safe inside. Like clothing it controls temperature reducing excessive heat and cold, it controls the inner environment. The regularity and porosity of the skin was determined by the solar and wind exposure of the building.

Dress Code, render courtesy Complex City

Interiors were designed to be playful and attractive to children by being generous in space, color, light and shapes. This projects shows to the highest degree the properties of the materials used.

No doubt this project is a delightful mix of fluidity, lightness are grace.

+ Project credits / data

Project: Dress Code
Location: Féchy, Switzerland
Architectural firm: Complex City | http://www.complexcity.fr/
Designer / architect: Olivier Brouillard
Status of project: Competition
Photo credit: Complex City

+ All images and description courtesy Complex City