Carpets make a warm comeback

For the past decade or so it has been ripped up and tossed out but now carpet is making a comeback. People are keen to cover their cold and draughty floorboards and sink their feet back in something with a bit more comfort, warmth and depth. From cut pile to shag, block color to swirly pattern, wall-to-wall carpeting is once again smothering wooden floors.

As for renters , a great rug renaissance is in full swing.

“While wall-to-wall carpets used to be passé, they are definitely having a bit of a moment now,” says Elizabeth Metcalfe, the author of New English Interiors: At Home with Today’s Creatives. “There is a nostalgic charm, but I think they also bring coziness and warmth to a space – a hugely appealing prospect when we’re faced with rising energy bills.”

Liza Laserow Berglund, the co-founder of the Stockholm-based rug company Nordic Knots, which has gained an almost cult-like following for its simple but striking designs, describes a rug in a room as “the fourth wall”.

“It frames a room,” she says. “People think about curtains but the floor really needs texture and warmth as well.”

One of Donald Trump’s first memos to staff was an instruction to change the Oval Office’s floor covering. As the Bidens were still packing up, the Democratic blue rug was being swapped out for a pale beige circular version, originally designed by Nancy Reagan for her husband’s time in office. Trump previously had installed it during his first term. According to White House aides, this time around pieces of the Resolute Desk had to be disassembled so the rug could be placed underneath it.

Lorna Haigh, the creative director for Alternative Flooring, a UK-based company that sells everything from sisal to chunky wool carpets, says this year carpet is going to “take preference over hard flooring”. Ruggable, which makes machine washable rugs in tufted and shaggy styles, reports a 67% surge in website traffic. Its most popular size is a generous 185cm by 275cm.

Even luxury fashion designers are championing the trend. At the recent menswear shows in Milan and Paris, the typical stripped-back catwalks were covered in plush overlay. At Prada, a giant scaffolding set jarred sharply with a tactile blue art deco-inspired carpet. It was sourced from Catherine Martin, a homeware brand owner and costume designer who has collaborated with her husband, Baz Luhrmann, on several films including Elvis (a carpet devotee who covered Graceland in a thick pile).

Prada’s co-creative director, Raf Simons, described the carpet as “alive” and “a reaction to what a set usually is”. Meanwhile, at Brioni models plodded along a burnt orange shag-pile rug while at Amiri, a brand best known for its streetwear-inspired pieces, there was an 80s-esque plush fawn-colored version.

After years of greige interiors where every listing on Rightmove has begun to blur into one, a maximalist backlash has begun. Social media is peppered with posts of floors in bold prints and saturated colours. At Ruggable it is colour-blocking designs, nature-inspired motifs and “AI-generated visuals” that “blur the lines between reality and fantasy” that are most popular. Metcalfe mentions rug combing, where rugs are overlapped or laid side by side to create a layered look as an emerging style.

Elsewhere, the designer Henry Holland has swapped out his beige stairs for a custom-made swirly brown and white patterned runner inspired by 90s rave culture. The Standard Hotel in London embraces the electric blue carpet while in Claridge’s newly revamped suites, the designer Bryan O’Sullivan has used floral art deco rugs. On Instagram, Alexa Chung described feeling “sick about how much I like this carpet” alongside a photo of a floral Heartsease patterned carpet at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire.

Martin credits the periodic nature of fashion as fueling the trend. “Everything in life is cyclical … naturally, the fashion or the desire for a different decorating style is swinging back towards carpet.”

Berglund, who has a rich honeyed color “Leo” rug in her bedroom with a matching headboard and curtains, describes it as very soothing. “Your home is your most intimate space. It’s your safe haven. With how the world is today it’s even more important to create something that you love coming home to.”

Source: The Guardian

Hurricane-proof skyscrapers vulnerable to less powerful windstorms

Tall buildings fare poorly in derechos*, say experts, raising questions over their resilience as climate crisis worsens

Skyscrapers built to withstand major hurricanes fare much more poorly in less powerful windstorms known as derechos, researchers have found, raising questions for cities worldwide over the resilience of tall buildings as the climate emergency worsens.

A team from Florida International University’s (FIU) civil and environmental engineering department studied the unexpectedly severe damage caused to buildings in Houston, a city with 50 skyscrapers of 492ft (150 metres) or more, during the 16 May 2024 derecho.

They found that the storm’s long line of fast-moving thunderstorms spawned “downburst” winds peaking at 90mph that bounced off the buildings and inflicted considerable damage, especially to the facades of structures designed to withstand stronger, category 4 hurricane-force wind speeds of up to 156mph.

The same buildings, by contrast, were virtually unscathed during category 1 Hurricane Beryl in July, when sustained wind speeds were similar to those of the earlier derecho, but without their more erratic, up and down nature, or explosive bursts at or near ground level.

The results were published on Friday by the peer-reviewed science website Frontiers in Built Environment. The FIU study focused on five of Houston’s tallest and most iconic buildings but, the researchers say, it could have profound implications for cities elsewhere as the climate crisis and soaring ocean temperatures fuel stronger and more frequent severe weather events, including hurricanes, fires and floods.

They stress that the wind speeds in a derecho, which can vary from far below major hurricane strength to match or exceed it, is not as consequential as how that wind is dispersed. A “unique characteristic” of a downburst, they say, is how the wind blows outwards in all directions when it reaches the ground.

“When strong winds move through a city, they can bounce due to interference between tall buildings. This increases pressure on walls and windows, making damage more severe than if the buildings were isolated,” said Omar Metwally, an FIU doctoral student and the report’s co-author.

“On top of this, downbursts create intense, localized forces which can exceed typical design values for hurricanes, especially on the lower floors of tall buildings.”

Metwally called it a “one-two punch effect” that the FIU team predicts will become an even worse problem for states around the Gulf of Mexico, where a 0.34F rise per decade over the last half-century is twice the rate of oceans globally.

Amal Elawady, professor of structural and wind engineering at FIU, and the team’s leader, said the research would also have relevance in other countries, where regulations for building design and wind loads are often calculated primarily with hurricane categories in mind.

“It’s not only a US issue. Downbursts are also very common and very frequent in Europe and worldwide,” she said.

“How a building responds to a thunderstorm is different from the way they respond to hurricanes, so it’s something that needs to be considered, not just for the buildings, but also for the components, like the cladding, the envelope of the building.”

Metwally said he hoped the research would lead to a re-evaluation of regulations and design of future tall buildings, as well as urban planning, as officials became more aware of the complexity and potential negative outcomes of downburst events.

The FIU analysis focused on Houston’s Chevron Building Auditorium, CenterPoint Energy Plaza, El Paso Energy Building, RRI Energy Plaza, and Wedge International Tower, all built between 1962 and 2003 and between 518ft and 742ft tall. Construction standards require them to withstand winds up to 67 metres per second, or category 4 hurricane strength.

During last year’s derecho, facade panels were dislodged and cladding damaged, especially on corners and lower floors. Broken glass and other hazardous debris fell on to downtown streets and the aftermath brought significant socio-economic impacts including traffic disruptions, businesses temporarily closing, and a huge bill for clean-up and repairs.

The FIU team ran simulations of the downbursts and hurricanes on modeled replicas at the university’s Wall of Wind experimental facility in Miami, funded by the National Science Foundation. Suction on the sides of buildings was substantially more evident during downburst events, explaining the ripping away of cladding and broken windows that did not occur during the hurricane.

“It’s not likely that a tall building will fail under wind, either hurricane or downburst,” Elawady said.

“But it causes damage, debris and water intrusion, and once you have a broken window you have a change in the internal pressure in the building and then the total force on the building is different,” she said.

Ongoing and future FIU research will look at the effects of downbursts on transmission lines, lighting poles, telecommunication towers and low-rise buildings as well as more studies on skyscrapers.

“It’s a very complex problem that needs to be thoroughly studied, and we’re trying our best to better understand it,” Elawady said.

*A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms

Source: The Guardian

Housing program contractors back out due to low profit

In addition to contractors backing out, Castro identified other causes of delay, permitting, due diligence on site suitability and land ownership, and the lengthy construction period for vertical housing.

Some contractors have withdrawn from the administration's Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipno Housing (4PH) program due to low profit margins, causing delays in the construction of houses for Filipinos, Malacañang revealed.

"Maliit po kasi ang presyo na ibibigay natin sa taong bayan para i-avail ito kaya ang ibang contractors po ay hindi po sumasang-ayon na makisali or sumama sa gantong klaseng proyekto (The price we are offering the public to avail of this is low, so some contractors do not agree to join or take part in this kind of project)," Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a press briefing on Monday, March 31.

In addition to contractors backing out, Castro identified other causes of delay, permitting, due diligence on site suitability and land ownership, and the lengthy construction period for vertical housing.

"So ito po ay mga issues na hindi po ninanais ng administrasyon (These are issues the government did not want to happen)," she said.

Despite these challenges, Castro, citing information from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), reported progress in the implementation of the 4PH program.

Based on the DHSUD data cited by Castro, there are currently 90 ongoing projects nationwide in various stages of development and construction.

"Ang ilan po dito ay nabuo na po, nagawa na po, at ito yung magje-generate ng total of 259,365 housing units (Some of these are already completed and is expected to generate 259,365 housing units)," she said.

Additionally, 82 projects are in the pre-production stage, with 436 proposals still pending approval.

At least 8,000 housing units are scheduled for turnover this year.

President Marcos has previously acknowledged the ambitious nature of the 4PH target of 1 million housing units per year to address the backlog.

"We are aiming for 1 million homes. One million low-cost and socialized homes a year. It is an ambitious number, but we will try very, very hard," he said in November 2022. 

Source: Manila Bulletin