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Smart Water Table by DAS

3 empty water bottles patiently stood next by my desk awaiting their fate.  My office building does not recycle plastic. As I toyed with disposal possibilities that created mounting alarm in my business partner, I took a closer look. The shape of a Smart water bottle is very elegant, and the side with the semi transparent caps has an especially strong aesthetic quality.  Recycling a potential contributor to a land-fill as inexpensive furniture seemed an obvious, if not original idea!   Our office waiting area lacked a coffee table - and this seemed a natural fit. The objective for this project was to create a table out of reused and reclaimed materials

The base of the table consists of Smart water bottles melted together with a Weld-On plastic adhesive.  The table top is a slab of Varia Ecoresin which is in turn made of 40% pre- consumer recycled content from the 3-Form reclaim program. The reclaim program reuses and recycles materials removed from installations or panels damaged in production. It prevents panels from entering the landfill and extends their useful life. By filling the bottles with colored beads (recycled), crumpled fabric or light powder, the tables can be uniquely customized to an individual's taste - and yes, if they are willing, to their mood!

The table top slab stays in place with its own 25 lb weight. It's semi-transparency matches that of the bottle caps.  The basic element of the base is a frustum of nine bottles each - three frusta are used. Depth and sculpture are introduced by offsetting selected bottles and flipping their direction.  The pattern created in this manner appears as two triangles and a seemingly suspended truncated triangle in the middle.  The outer two triangles book-end a flattened U that supports the middle triangle.  The spaces between the supports is used to store newspapers, magazine and books. 

Another option as a table top is plywood painted with chalk paint. It adds color and can be drawn on.

Similar to Duchamp's Readymades, this design moves the water bottles from garbage to a functional piece of design in a new context.  While not tailored for mass production, it uses leftovers from mass production as its components and provides a high level of contextual customization.

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The Construction of our Micro Apartment

More images will follow, but here is a little taste. The General Contractor is testing our foldable wall and bunk beds during construction.

The Beginning

Resource Furniture beds and lower cabinets are installed

Red cabinet and soffit cabinets are being installed

Bathroom/ medicine cabinet door

Sliding panel for painting is installed

All cabinets but movable kitchen island are in

Folding wall in front of bunk beds in open position

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Micro Apartment Design

Foyer and Gallery Space




















Early in 2014, the owners of a small Manhattan studio approached DAS Studio with a request to convert their 320 sqft space into a high-functioning micro-apartment. The desire was to have all the functionality of a full-sized apartment within the footprint of this tiny studio. On taking on this challenge, we identified the minimal design objective of needing to incorporate four fully functional spaces into one room - a dining room seating 12, a master bedroom, guest room for two. The owners also needed enough storage space for their extensive china collection, hanging space to display their art collection, including a 4' x 10' painting and room for an entertainment system. Further, space needed to be accounted for a work desk that could be separated from the sleeping area in case one of the owners were still asleep. We set out to achieve all the above while still creating a space that was open and generous.


The following renderings showing the different possible apartment configurations. Photos of the apartment will follow soon.


During day time a living

During night time a master bedroom with guest bedroom option
During day time master bed becomes a couch and guest beds collapse behind folding wall
During night time master bed opens over couch and guest beds pull out behind folding wall 
Daytime configuration with couch and sliding panel/ art wall
Night time configuration with master bed and folding wall




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Weidlinger House Kickstarter Campaign

Help the Cape Cod Modern House Trust save this important modern house, and transform it into a home for creativity and learning.

Go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1506263890/weidlinger-house-restoration to help restoring this important architectural gem.

Weidlinger House Restoration
Due to a lack of resources from the Park Service, this irreplaceable piece of our cultural heritage ended up abandoned and slated for demolition in the pristine landscape of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT) has obtained a lease and begun a full restoration, which we hope to finish, with your help, by July, 2014. This Kickstarter campaign is to raise $50,000 toward that goal.

The Weidlinger House in 1953 soon after construction. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli
The Weidlinger House in 1953 soon after construction. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli

The same corner of the house as it looks today. Photo: Dave Kennedy
The same corner of the house as it looks today. Photo: Dave Kennedy
The House
In 1952, Paul Weidlinger bought this secluded parcel of land in Wellfleet. Inspired by his friend, the famed architect Marcel Breuer, who had settled just across the pond, he set out to combine his vision of experimental modernism with the particular requirements of a Cape Cod summerhouse.
The structure hovers over the landscape, a perfect platform for viewing the unspoiled pond and woods. While the three bedrooms and bath are enclosed and rest just above the ground, the open, expansive living space vaults into the air on X braced stilts, a 16-foot wide sliding door opening to the views. The four foot deep veranda surrounds the house, accessed by a flying ramp. The original palette of cobalt blue for doors and window frames and school bus yellow for the steel struts will soon be repainted.

A view of the veranda facing the pond. 1953. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli
A view of the veranda facing the pond. 1953. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli

The living room in it’s original state. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli
The living room in it’s original state. Photo: Madeliene Weidlinger-Friedli
 Paul Weidlinger
Born in Budapest in 1914, Paul Weidlinger apprenticed in Paris with LeCorbusier and London with Lazlo Maholy Nagy before coming to the US and starting his own practice. He specialized in the most daunting structural problems, including pioneering the earthquake and blast proofing of structures and was sought out by many of the giants of modern architecture to help realize their most challenging designs. Following his lead, after 911 his successor firm Weidlinger Associates Inc. was called upon to analyze the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers.
Why was the building vacant?
After the Cape Cod National Seashore was created in 1961, a number of important modern houses were bought by the Federal Government and fell into administrative limbo. The Weidlinger house (one of these) has been derelict for 15 years. Though it will soon be listed on the National Registry, protecting it from demolition, the house is in urgent need of restoration to stop further decay.

Our crew opening up the boarded up sliding doors facing the pond. Photo: Tom Weidlinger
Our crew opening up the boarded up sliding doors facing the pond. Photo: Tom Weidlinger

The pond side of the house today. Photo: Raimund Koch
The pond side of the house today. Photo: Raimund Koch
 The Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT)
Incorporated in 2007 as a 501c3 non-profit, CCMHT has secured a lease on the house and plans to resume work on the restoration in Nov. 2013, with completion planned for summer 2014. The Trust has already leased and restored two abandoned modern houses in Wellfleet owed by the National Park Service. Both were made possible by previous, successful fundraising campaigns. These houses act as artist/scholar residencies in the shoulder seasons. In 2012 we hosted six teams of finalists in our Add-on ’13 affordable housing competition (see our blog for details) The effort sought to bring fresh thinking to the Outer Cape’s serious housing problem. Past residents have included painters, film makers, composers, and researchers (among other disciplines). The houses also serve as premiums for membership. Members receive weekly stays in the houses in return for a partially tax-deductible donation. 

Please help us save the Weidlinger House and make it a laboratory for a new generation of problem solvers.
Please attend one of our upcoming events and learn more about the project:

EVENTS: 2013/14
Oct. 9th 
Launch of Kickstarter campaign to fund restoration of the Weidlinger House (Paul Weidlinger, 1953) by Cape Cod Modern House Trust.

Oct. 9th
Opening of Add-on ’13 exhibit.
Boston Society of Architects gallery
Co-sponsored by DOCOMOMO

Screenings of “Built on Narrow Land” Documentary by Malachi Connolly:http://www.narrowland.org/

Oct 9th, 6:00pm
Boston Society of Architects
290 Congress Street Boston, MA
(Along w/ opening on the Add-on ’13 finalist exhibit)

Oct 18, 6:15pm
Architecture and Design Film Festival
Tribeca Cinemas NY,NY
http://adfilmfest.com/portal/1462

Nov 2nd, 2:00pm
Cape Cod National Seashore Headquarters
50 Nauset Road Eastham, MA

Nov. 9th
End of Kickstarter campaign, re-start of renovation project.

May 2014.
Publication of Cape Cod Modern: Midcentury Architecture and Community on the Outer Cape, by Peter McMahon and Christine Cipriani, with photography by Raimund Koch. Published by Metropolis Books.

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DAS NEWS

Hello all - we are excited to share with you that one of our projects has been published in the August issue of "Design Bureau".  We want to thank everyone who made this project happen, with a special thanks to NILU Home Improvement for their beautiful, high quality construction work.

Design Bureau Magazine



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