Monolithic volumes against gradated backgrounds and staircases that lead to nowhere are depicted in the architectural paintings of Iranian artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo, which are set to go on show in London next month.
Ghadyanloo’s solo Spaces of Hope exhibition is organised by Shoreditch-based Howard Griffin Gallery, and will take place at the Ambika P3 space in Marylebone from 2 March 2017.
The City of Hope (120cm x 180cm)
The artist’s work is heavily influenced by the architecture of 20th-century modernists like Le Corbusier and their utopian visions, as well as elements of surrealism.
Ghadyanloo evokes dramatic three-dimensional spaces using acrylic paint on canvases, ranging from around 1.5 metres to 4 metres in width.
Genealogy of Isolation (Seclusion)
In many of his paintings, architectural volumes are placed in abstract landscapes or against coloured backgrounds.
Others feature more detail, including the doglegged staircases suspended within three vertical voids – but which lead nowhere – in his Early Redemption painting.
Early Redemption
Shadows and light on the surfaces depicted in the artworks contribute to the architectural feeling.
Some of the images feature groups of people, adding a sense of scale to the geometric masses portrayed, while others are uninhabited for the viewer to interpret the size of the spaces themselves.
He has painted over 100 giant murals across his home city of Tehran between 2004 and 2011, and recently worked at a similar scale across the full side of a building in Boston.
Deadened Profits
The London exhibition will include works completed over the past year. It is curated by gallerist Richard Howard-Griffin, who previously put on a show of graffiti fantasy creatures by street artist Phlegm at his east London venue.
“I am independent person trying to push the limits of what can be done with a big exhibition and do some break out big shows, with new artists like Mehdi,” Howard-Griffin told Dezeen.
Spaces of Hope (140cm by 210cm)
He said that it is increasingly hard for independent gallerists like himself to put on exhibitions of this scale. Rent at his space on Shoreditch High Street has doubled in 2017, and expansion overseas has also proved challenging.
“I am not funded in a major way and right now have no staff in the business in the UK – it’s just me,” he said. “I am stretched to the financial limit to stage this large-scale show in central London. If this show does not go well it will wipe me out.”
Nights of the City of Hope
Architectural artworks have been the subject of a variety of recent exhibitions worldwide.
Isn’t it great to learn something new! This past Sunday we took my son to the National Museum of the American Indian for an hands on crafts event and then we wandered the exhibits.
When I think of Native American woodworking I mostly think of carved masks and totems. Which, depending on age and where they came from and their purpose range from simple to spectacularly sophisticated. Over the years and several visits (their collection is spectacular) I have developed an appreciation for how sophisticated the Native American level of craft can be. What I didn’t know was that basic forms of furniture were also made. (and generalizing this is pretty stupid as Native American culture and crafts spans a couple of thousand years and hundreds of different tribes with different cultures and traditions). The first picture is of a stunningly beautiful box of bentwood, with ivory decorations. Sort of like a shaker box but made by Tiffany. Sadly I didn’t have a pen and the picture I took of the caption didn’t come out. It’s 19th century I think.
This second image (sorry about the quality of the picture – through glass in a dark hall) is of what I would call a blanket chest (it’s not a religious object). It gave me the idea for the blog entry because of the really subtle carvings. I have no idea of the construction. The picture does not do it justice.
A annoying thing about these pieces is the reminder, yet again, that I still have a long way to go.
A wall of masks. The one in the center is modern; I don’t know about the others but I think they are much older.
Finally we have another mask, carved into the marble of the building. The building the museum is housed in was the old Customs House which was built in 1907 (architect Cass Gilbert) and is one of the most spectacular buildings of the 20th century anywhere.
Note: In case you are curious I started making furniture because the stuff I liked I could not afford to buy. I also in general like making things. Museum exhibits make me curious about the world around me. I also find constant inspiration for both project ideas and just ideas about esthetic every time I wander through the halls of a museum. So I try to do that a lot.
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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.
Classic on the outside, state-of-the-art on the inside, the Blink Smartwatch makes an incredibly bold statement for India’s premier Smartwatch from a start-up. It pits itself against the big players with features to match and even takes on traditional watches with its timeless design.
The Blink smartwatch puts user experience and interaction take center-stage. Instead of superimposing Android Wear on a classy looking watch, the Blink comes with a custom tailored Marvin OS that takes inspiration from rotating celestial objects, bringing a sense of awe every time you interact with its interface.
Marvin truly empowers users, bringing computing muscle to the watch, rather than allowing it to be a lowly extension of your phone. The OS allows you to navigate, schedule, exercise, interact directly with apps or calls, and voice input literally gives you a Jarvis on your wrist. Plus, the watch comes with its own internal memory that’s capable of holding up to a 1000 songs.
With the Blink’s design, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. A stainless steel watch body encases an AMOLED screen, which is then covered by a rotating bezel (think Samsung Gear) and a curved Gorilla Glass 3 on top of it all to make your wrist-bound computer near shatterproof. The watch comes in silver and black body variants, with the option to switch between leather, metal, and silicone straps, allowing the same watch to don different avatars while still staying incredibly classy.
Make no mistake. The Blink, even as a first attempt from an Indian start-up can collide head on with the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Motorola. It comes with abilities that outweigh its competition, and with a price tag of Rs. 15,999/- ($240), the competition better run and hide. Let’s say a prayer for all other watch brands. For now their watch has ended. *Cue in the Game of Thrones theme*
First we carried our mobile phone everywhere. Then when phones could store music, we carried earphones everywhere. Now that phones have become miniature computers, the need to carry extra batteries with you has arisen. The O2 headphones concept for Audio Technica brilliantly combines wireless earphones with a power bank in a way that make the power bank a carrying + charging case for the earphones.
The case comes as a rather dapper looking pocketable slab of matte black metal. The earphones wrap elegantly around the power bank and nestle in the two docking points on the power bank’s body. What an ingenious way to store earphones and supplementary battery power together!
Self-driving cars will need to “build up a relationship” with their occupants to reassure them that they are safe, according to BMW board director Peter Schwarzenbauer.
Speaking to Dezeen, Schwarzenbauer said that psychological barriers were now bigger obstacles to driverless technology than legal ones.
“I don’t think regulation, insurance and those kinds of barriers will hold back this kind of technology,” he said. “I think we are going to find solutions to overcome them.”
“But how do we give humans this safe feeling when they are being driven around by a robot? I think the psychological barriers are probably more important than the legal barriers.”
BMW board director Peter Schwarzenbauer told Dezeen that BMW is working with psychologists to help self-driving cars befriend passengers
Schwarzenbauer said he expected human-driven cars to be banned in urban areas by around 2030 to reduce accidents and improve road-use efficiency, adding that BMW is already exploring ways to overcome human resistance to the notion of being inside a robot.
“We are working now with psychologists in this area to find out what is the right approach to make people feel really safe,” he said.
Schwarzenbauer added that traditional car companies are battling with tech giants such as Apple and Google to lead the driverless vehicle revolution and dominate the way people interact with technology in all aspects of their lives.
However he suggested that these companies were more interested in putting their technology in other brands’ vehicles than developing their own cars.
“I’m not sure [Apple and Google] are going to build cars [themselves] but it seems that they are moving towards a kind of mobility concept,” he said. “They are trying to offer a mobility ecosystem that is part of their ‘connected life’ approach.”
BMW is determined to build its own solutions, he said, adding: “We don’t want to be dependent on one or the other tech company.”
Schwarzenbauer, 57, is the BMW board member responsible for the German car company’s MINI and Rolls Royce brands. He spoke to Dezeen following last month’s Utopia vs Dystopia festival at A/D/O, a creative space launched by MINI in Brooklyn, New York.
At a dinner at the festival, MIT robotics expert Kate Darling brought a Pleo robotic toy dinosaur to the table, which attendees instinctively petted and cuddled. For Schwarzenbauer, the incident highlighted how humans are able to form emotional bonds with mechanical objects.
Schwarzenbauer said that the way people respond to artificially intelligent objects such as toy dinosaur Pleo demonstrates how relationships can form between humans and robots. Image courtesy of Flickr user Travis Isaacs
“Our brain tells us this is a machine but at the same time you immediately build up a human relationship with this animal,” Schwarzenbauer said. “The question is, is there a way of doing something similar with your future robot car?”
Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Schwarzenbauer:
Marcus Fairs: At the A/D/O dinner you said you thought humans would be banned from driving in cities in the future.
Peter Schwarzenbauer: I can imagine that this is the direction cities are going in. If autonomous technology makes traffic safer than when humans are driving, then you will see as a logical step that in major cities, at least in downtown areas, you will probably only be allowed with autonomous cars.
One reason is safety and the other reason I think is that traffic can be organised much more efficiently with autonomous cars.
Marcus Fairs: How quickly will that happen?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: After the launch of this technology, which we think in our case is around 2021, it will probably take 10-15 years. We’re talking about 2030 and beyond probably.
Marcus Fairs: So in BMW’s case, autonomous technology will be fully ready to go in four years?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: We are ready to launch this technology in 2021. We are going to showcase how, in our eyes, the perfect autonomous car can look and function. It will be fully autonomous and of course it will be emissions free and fully connected.
Marcus Fairs: That will be a production car?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: It will be a production car yes.
Marcus Fairs: People have assumed that the main barriers to autonomous cars are technological and legal. But what about the human barriers? Will people feel safe? Will they trust their cars?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: I don’t think regulation, insurance and those kind of barriers will hold back this kind of technology. I think we are going to find solutions to overcome them. But how do we give humans this safe feeling when they are being driven around by a robot? I think the psychological barriers are probably more important than the legal barriers.
How do we give humans this safe feeling when they are being driven around by a robot?
Marcus Fairs: How do you address that?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: Well I’m not a psychologist but we are working now with psychologists in this area to find out what is the right approach to make people feel really safe. I guess partly it’s also a generational issue. I have a 19-year-old son. I don’t think that he will have an issue with jumping into a robot and being driven around. But elderly people who are used to being in control…
At the end of the day it comes back to going from being in control, to all of a sudden delegating this control to a machine. This makes it complicated psychology-wise.
It’s a little like flying. Most modern jets don’t need a pilot, but would people fly in an aeroplane without a pilot? Probably not. People would probably refrain from doing it. So on the car side it’s hard to judge how long this will take to be accepted by society.
Marcus Fairs: How do you start to break down those barriers?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: Our approach is that we will need to offer a mobility concept for you as a person – for Marcus specifically – and this mobility concept for your neighbour or your friend could be completely different.
Marcus Fairs: So people will need to form relationships with their cars – or the car will need to form a relationship with the user and respond to the user’s psychological needs.
Peter Schwarzenbauer: That’s a really interesting topic to be honest. I am fascinated by this myself. You saw it at dinner when we had this robot dinosaur on the table. Our brain tells us this is a machine but at the same time you immediately build up a human relationship with this animal. The question is, is there a way of doing something similar with your future robot car? It’s really a companion that helps me to make my life easier. Is there a way of doing it?
I don’t have an answer for you but I think it’s very fascinating to really look more into this area and learn also. I think what we have to learn more about this area, how can it be that we really build up a relationship.
Marcus Fairs: But there will be other artificial relationships in your life, such as with your phone, and with domestic products like Amazon’s Alexa. So people might have a cluster of robot friends. How will they relate to each other? Will they merge or will there be a proprietary battle between the different technology providers?
Most modern jets don’t need a pilot, but would people fly in an aeroplane without a pilot?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: I think this is one of the key questions that I am not sure I can give you an answer to. One scenario could be what I call a “connected life”, where one companion, or avatar, or whatever you want to call it, takes care of everything in your life. Definitely some of the tech companies are following this route.
The other could be that you have specialised areas. This is what our target is. We think that nobody will be better at catering to your mobility needs than us. It’s not our vision to become one place to go which will resolve all your challenges in your life – this “connected life”. But we want to be the one where you go to for your mobility needs because this is where we think we can bring the biggest benefit to the table and make you happy about your personal mobility challenges.
Marcus Fairs: What about firms like Apple and Google? Are they potential competitors?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: I don’t know what Apple or Google’s plans are beyond what I hear and read in the press but I definitely would say that as a car manufacturer, we are taking them quite seriously. I’m not sure they are going to build cars but it seems that they are moving towards a kind of mobility concept. They are trying to offer a mobility ecosystem that is part of their “connected life” approach. The writing is on the wall. I think it is important for us to take this very seriously, and we do.
Marcus Fairs: You’re taking it seriously in the sense that you want to develop your own technology? Or you’re looking to partner with a tech giant?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: Yes we are taking it seriously because at the end of the day, what everyone wants is access to the customers. It’s all about consumer access and this is what I think the tech companies’ approach is. They can scale very quickly, they have huge capabilities to approach customers directly and this is something where we think we need to have our own ecosystem. We don’t want to be dependent on one or the other tech company. I personally would not like to work for a car manufacturer that becomes a supplier for a tech company. I think we can do this on our own and create this mobility ecosystem.
I’m not sure Apple and Google are going to build cars but it seems that they are moving towards a kind of mobility concept
Marcus Fairs: Besides setting up A/D/O, MINI has also started exploring urban living with its MINI Living concept. Why is MINI investing in these kinds of initiatives?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: The MINI brand was bought by BMW in 2001 to do exactly what MINI is doing now, to reach out to a more urban-minded, young, open crowd, which of course a mainstream brand is not sufficient for this kind of target group.
I think you saw it with the people who came to the A/D/O event – these are people who have different views maybe, very progressive thinkers, very open-minded people. I think this fits extremely well with the MINI brand. This adds potential, if you look at us as a total group, it’s perfect with MINI because we can get to people that BMW cannot. It is a perfect set up, if we would have target groups that overlap too much, it wouldn’t make sense from a group perspective.
Marcus Fairs: So how does A/D/O fit into MINI’s strategy?
Peter Schwarzenbauer: I think that A/D/O is a way of reaching out to the target group in a completely different approach. I personally think that especially this target group for MINI, let’s say the classic marketing tools – advertising, TV spots – is probably not the right way of positioning a brand like MINI. This is why I would say if you want to be an urban brand, our internal way of seeing is, MINI should be a brand, we strive to find solutions for a brighter urban life, this is our approach.
Scottish architect David Burgher has developed a new virtual reality tool that mimics the visual impairments experienced by dementia sufferers to help architects design better spaces.
Burgher, an architect at Scottish practice Aitken Turnbull, worked with researchers from the Dementia Centre and the Glasgow-based CGI company Wireframe Immersive to create the tool named Virtual Reality Empathy Platform (VR-EP).
The VR-EP kit comprises a laptop with high-performance graphics, a virtual reality headset, games controller, camera and bespoke software programming.
Those wearing the virtual reality headset are able to experience some of the symptoms of dementia, including dimmer lighting. Burgher hopes the tool could be used to gauge appropriate lighting levels, room layouts and way-finding to improve design of care homes, hospitals and sheltered housing.
“People with dementia can have perceptive and cognitive impairments, which is compounded in older people who see the world in a much hazier way,” Burgher told Dezeen. “This can lead to anxiety, confusion and disorientation.”
“VR-EP replicates these visual impairments through a digital filter process in a fully immersive and interactive virtual reality environment.”
Over 800,000 people are currently living with dementia in the UK, with the number expected to grow to 1.7 million by 2051. The cost of care is estimated at £26.3 billion per year, outstripping that spent on cancer and heart disease together.
Burges believes this figure could be minimised by designing “dementia-friendly” spaces from the outset, helping those with dementia to live more independently and reducing the number of accidents.
“As well as reducing anxiety, the improved design offers a better, safer and more independent quality of life. Dementia-friendly design doesn’t have to cost more,” said Burgher. “In fact, by using VR-EP, designers will get it right first time and therefore reduce costs.”
“It can reduce risk of accidents and aggressive behaviour, improve staff recruitment and retention, and save on the significant costs associated with dementia care.”
Aitken Turnbull Architects and Wireframe Immersive hope to adapt the virtual reality tool to give architects empathy for a range of sensory disorders and export it for use across Europe, China and the US.
Eastwest Architecture has sunken a compact gym into the garden of an east London home, featuring bright birch-lined interiors and a mirror wall that creates the illusion of a larger space.
The London-based architects were commissioned by a homeowner in Walthamstow to design a space to workout at home, compensating for the lack of gym facilities in the local area.
The Garden Studio Gym was slotted into the rear of the client’s garden, and designed as a multifunctional studio that can be transformed into an office or calming room for yoga.
“The form of the gym was to be abstracted so it would represent a modern twist of the traditional garden shed,” architect Dean Smith told Dezeen.
The architects had to comply with strict building regulations that dictated maximum roof heights, and consequently lowered the ground floor of the building to ensure ceiling height was not comprised.
The sunken studio, which is accessed by steps recessed into the lawn, therefore features a high ceiling that caters for skipping and jumping.
The architects adopted a simple palette of just four materials for the design, helping to keep the project to budget.
The predominant material is charred cedar, in which the exterior of the gym is clad. But to ensure the dark wood cladding doesn’t appear too imposing the main wall is punctured by a large window, exposing the contrasting interior.
Three of the gym’s internal walls are covered in birch plywood panels, which are enhanced by yellow lighting to create a warm-looking interior that aims to motivate the clients to cross their garden to exercise.
The remaining wall is covered by a full-height frameless mirror, which helps to create the illusion of a larger space.
Teamed with the mirror wall, angled skylights maximise the amount of light inside the sunken structure.
Finishing touches to the project include a discreet door lintel – reminiscent of a typical garden shed – and a hidden connection for the punch bag which makes it easily removable to adapt the space.
Bina Baitel is an artist and designer with an odd take on material. Her work often ranges into the whimsical and fantastic, but this piece feels a bit sinister. The Lash Clock doesn’t just remove normal markers for time telling from the clock’s face, it adds slowly undulating hair.
The quiet format and imprecise organic feel are an interesting pairing given our usually mechanized treatment of time. Sculptural merit and all, this piece and its material play seem to raise my neck hairs.
South Korean start-up Dot will begin shipping their Dot smartwatch in March of this year to 100,000 customers (40,000 more are on the waitlist and can expect delivery in 2018). The timepiece has been under development since 2014 and the most recent……
For her beautiful new track “Midnight Oil,” singer/songwriter Holly Miranda has been joined by 28 other voices who unite under the moniker New Asylum Choir—including icon Ani DiFranco and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio. A cover of an obscure Cris Williamson……
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