Compact and round for board games and intimate conversations, this flexible table gracefully stretches to become a long dining or boardroom surface without adding pieces or moving parts. Paper set in resin creates a kind of lattice structure that enables Friction to adapt to different needs, stable in either extreme form or anywhere in between. Stretched to its limit, it is 12 feet long and can seat up to 8 people.

Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it aims to accommodate groups of different sizes using simpler means than conventional slot-panel shape-shifters. Over 50 slats were slotted into the framed, calibrated and aligned to allow the surface to expand and legs to move seamlessly as it does. Like a wooden picnic table, gaps form in between slats, but these are narrow enough not to be a bother for most applications.

The form may be new but the design draws on vintage techniques and technologies. “Its grain and texture are derived from the fibres of the paper and the alternating orientation of the layers,” explains Heatherwick. “The resulting surface has a rich tactile quality and a naturally mottled colour which ages gracefully over time.”

This approach reveals something about the construction to users as well. “At any point in between, the surface is opened to reveal the internal lattice feature and offer a larger table top. Whilst the table construction represents the utmost precision and engineering, the finishing process of the table is much like traditional, hand-crafted furniture.”

A group of students from the University of Tokyo have created the world’s first work of 3D pen-drawn architecture, extruding thermoplastic filament to generate a structurally-stable arch installation.

A digital tracking system helped builders connect rods with extruded supports, generating a lattice-like system of interconnected trusses (resulting in a kind of lightweight, smaller-scale space frame). The combination of rigid rods and fluid connectors helps the whole structural network, providing tension as well as compression capabilities.

The handheld device enabling the extrusions operates much like a hot glue gun or static 3D printer, heating the constituent material and making it malleable before it hardens upon deployment. Unlike large-scale printers, this approach enables minute on-site work by anyone trained to use the machine, reducing costs and complexity.

“Technology has traditionally been used to automate and replace human labour,” design team member Kevin Clement, said in an interview with Dezeen. “The issue with this approach is that it fails to take advantage of human intuition during fabrication. We believe our approach can bridge the current dichotomy between machine and human-made production.”

Sports stadiums can be contentious, particularly when located in the heart of a city, but this design works in various ways to reduce disruptions to urban fabric, slotting seamlessly into its surrounding context.

Designed by international architecture and engineering firm Arup, the AC Milan 48,000-seat soccer club stadium in Italy is wrapped in commercial (shops, bars, hotels and restaurants) programmatic elements that work with but also independently of sporting events. Additional public-purpose elements include rooftop decks, micro-parks and playground for children.

Reinforced with soundproofing and a plan to sink its base into the ground, adding these architectural buffers on all sides helps reduce noise pollution for blocks on all sides as well as providing street-level continuity for those walking and driving through the city. Mark Wilson compares it to a combination of historical fortifications and suburban shopping centers: “around the stadium’s heart, architects will build a castle-like perimeter of restaurants, a hotel, and a sports college. From the street, the stadium just looks like a block-wide mall.”

The stadium itself features a spectator-optimized design intended to provide the best view possible for all visitors as well as a removable roof to allow for play in various conditions.

There are many structures that arguably should stand out from their surroundings – civic buildings like city halls, for instance – but sports stadiums rarely look good in and of themselves, and far too frequently interrupt what is going on in the cities around them. Typically, “even the most beautifully designed stadiums are an eyesore. They’re sprawling moles protruding from the skin of an urban environment, distended to accommodate a wide footprint of seats low to the ground.”

This project asks a question that goes to the heart of how we think of buildings, asking: what if architectural shapes and structures could be more than just stable but also smart, responsive and flexible?

Translated Geometries “is a performative prototype which exploits the Shape Memory Polymer (SMP) properties in order to generate responsive architectural behaviors” – it explores how heat, light, air and humidity can be utilized to deform and reform architectures. For instance, at higher temperatures the material is made more fluid, hardening into a new (or reverting to an original) shape when cooled.

A project of IAAC (the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) students, tutors and faculty, this origami-like demonstration model uses triangular modules and responsive intersections to expand a surface to more than four times its original area.

A very early-stage iteration to be sure, there are many possible applications yet to be explored, perhaps first in larger demo versions then eventually in architectural facades and structures. Imagine buildings (or doors), for instance, that opened up naturally by day and closed at night, or let in light and heat when cool but converted to passive cooling via wind when too warm.

Sitting in a single position for long periods is not just uncomfortable but also a health hazard, but is the solution to be found in a single form or something more pliable and adaptable?

London designer Kirsi Enkovaara (images by Aava Anttinen) explores plasticity and comfort in this project titled The Body, a thesis work completed at the Royal College of Art.

The idea is in part to avoid presuppositions about ‘best ways’ to sit or lie down, letting a user bend and twist their furniture into shapes suitable for different activities and allowing for various positions of rest.

The structure itself is composed of canvass and filled with rice, giving it the right combination of flexibility and rigidity to support a person while also allowing it to be reshaped on demand.

From the designer: ‘The Body’ encourages a person to find their choice of sitting by discarding learned cultural norms. Trusting in their touch, movement and the feelings that arise in reaction to these in order to create the most comfortable way of sitting. The structure of ‘The Body’ is made from canvas and rice allowing it to be formed into reconfigurable rigid structures.

“The project started from an interest in emphasizing the psychology of sitting. When we are sitting or laying down we are less aware of our surroundings and in a more relaxed state. This is why the construction of the seat needed to reflect the qualities of human touch, the tactility and safety of which provides us with great comfort.” Many of her other works, both of art and design (or somewhere in between), likewise explore different relationships between ourselves and everyday objects.