After initially studying literature, Kane decided to apply the “critical thinking and analytic skills” she acquired to pursue a career in curation. She spent the first few years after graduating working for companies with a technology-focus, allowing her to gain a crucial awareness of the progressive digital landscape.
As curator of digital design at the V&A, her daily role involves the “care, display, interpretation and research of the digital design collection.”
She works closely with senior curator Corinna Gardner to “think through what it means to live with digital design today and what conversations we should be representing.”
Kane said the museum tends to employ people who are “curious, open, and rigorous in their thinking”.
“We also have a lot of people on board who have come to design, or curating, through a slightly different route; we have architects, magazine founders, artists and musicians in the team,” she said.
The curator’s advice to young people starting out in the industry is to “be kinder to yourself and ask for help more often”.
“You can have this anxiety that people won’t think you’re good enough if you ask for support, but it shows great maturity,” she added.
Architecture studio Volta has revamped an apartment within the Marcel Breuer-designed ski resort Flaine, adding a handful of Bauhaus-inspired details to its interiors.
Having already gone through a number of renovations, the apartment has now been redesigned by Paris-based architecture studio Volta to more closely reflect its “original spirit”.
It’s set inside the Cassiopeia apartment block in Flaine, a ski resort designed by Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer back in 1960.
The resort is located in the Haute Savoie region of the French Alps, and comprises of a series of pre-cast concrete buildings that are meant to complement the rocky backdrop of the surrounding mountains – it has previously been criticised because of its atypical alpine aesthetic.
“The strong will of the customers was to respect the Bauhaus spirit and its materiality as much as possible,” the studio told Dezeen.
“The Bauhaus movement was predominant in the design of the project. It has influenced its history, its choice of materials and its furniture. The challenge was to revive its influences in a contemporary context.”
In the south-facing living room, which overlooks the snowy slopes and mountain peaks, walls have been freshened up with a coat of white paint. An L-shaped blue sofa with mustard yellow cushions has been inserted in the corner, drawing on the primary colour-heavy palette of the Bauhaus movement.
Steel-framed armchairs akin to those designed by Breuer in the past have also been used to dress the space.
Slate floor tiles and a teakwood countertop have been fitted in the kitchen, which the studio hopes will help the space “meet the need for authenticity of a project in a natural environment”. Terrazzo also lines the surfaces of the apartment’s bathroom.
“Working in an environment as symbolic as Flaine was a real cultural treasure – [it was] a look back, an immersion in a strong page of the history of architecture,” added Volta.
This is not the only Breuer building to undergo a change – the end of 2018 saw the renovation of the architect’s Lauck House in Princeton. The current owners re-clad the home with cypress, rebuilt partitions that had been removed, and repainted it interiors according to Breuer’s original colour scheme.
The latest video in our Dezeen x MINI Living series features a concept for a modular housing system that allows residents to easily add extra rooms around the outside of their homes.
Designed by Peruvian architecture studio Arana & Suasnabar Architects, the design allows users to convert adjoining terrace space into additional rooms, according to their spatial needs and budget.
Each house is designed with a concrete base and central core
Each house is designed with a concrete base and central core, equipped with essential needs like electricity and plumbing for a kitchen and a bathroom.
A wooden terrace surrounds the exterior, to which walls can be added to form extra rooms, such as bedrooms or living rooms.
Users could convert adjoining terrace space into additional rooms
The architects told Dezeen the system was designed to be flexible and customisable to the needs and uses of individual residents.
“The houses are modular and flexible,” they explained. “The owner can choose the use of the new rooms, and the type of finishing material.”
“It is economical and easy to build,” they added.
These extra rooms could function as additional bedrooms for growing families
According to the architects, the houses could be specified for any resident or size of family, and could be extended with a second floor.
“The houses can be built on one level for a single family home, or on two levels for a bigger family or multiple families,” they said.
The houses could also be extended with a second floor
The proposal won the first prize in the 2017 Build to Grow competition, organised by the Peruvian Ministry of Housing.
Arana & Suasnabar told Dezeen that it aimed to design a way of living that steers away from Peru’s “monotonous and fragmented” social housing neighbourhoods, with a concept that is suited to individual needs and promotes social interaction with neighbours.
“The houses are placed in a way that creates public space between them, forming a large recreation area for the neighbours,” the architects said. “This will allow them to socialise with each other and identify with their neighbourhood.”
The architects claim that the proposal is “economical and easy to build”
This movie is part of Dezeen x MINI Living Initiative, a collaboration with MINI Living exploring how architecture and design can contribute to a brighter urban future through a series of videos and talks.
The Longgang Cultural Centre in Shenzhen, China, occupies a row of four angular red buildings designed by Mecanoo.
Located on a long and narrow site in the Longgang district, the 95,000-square-metre complex comprises an art gallery, science museum, youth centre and bookshop.
Described by Mecanoo as an “urban connector”, the row of four-storey blocks join at roof level to create a series of sheltered public spaces.
“The cultural centre contributes a rich and varied cultural programme housed in an iconic urban connector,” explained the Dutch architecture studio.
“It connects the surrounding areas by subdividing the programme into separate volumes. The passages between these buildings, which align with the adjacent roads, provide access from the new business district on the west side of the building to the park on the east.”
Each building within the Longgang Cultural Centre has a unique form, but all increase in size with each storey and united by the same red facades.
“Sharing the same formal language, height and material, the volumes form a visually cohesive whole without an apparent front or back facade,” said the architecture studio.
Entrances to each building are placed under the sheltered areas between the buildings, in an arrangement that Mecanoo hopes will allow the occupants of each to “extend outdoors” and spill into the public square.
The science centre is designed for children and young adults, and is positioned bedside the youth centre, which is intended for use as a meeting space and place for extracurricular activities.
Meanwhile, the art gallery houses both exhibition spaces and an urban planning centre, and the largest of the four volumes contains cafes, restaurants and a bookshop, which will also be used for events.
Like their exteriors, the interior design each volume is consistent throughout the Longgang Cultural Centre, dominated by their exposed concrete structures.
“The concrete structure was carefully designed to become part of the visitors’ experience, wandering through the building is like viewing a cast concrete sculpture from the inside,” added the architecture studio.
Concrete is teamed with a mix of wood, dark metallic detailing, such as in science museum’s atrium where black staircases zigzag over wooden bleacher-style seating on the ground floor.
Longgang Cultural Centre first came into the spotlight in 2011, when Mecanoo won the competition to design the complex for the Longgang Government.
London-based creative studio Blond has designed a baby bottle with a fully silicone interior that it claims makes it one of the most hygienic bottles on the market.
Made from three components – a plastic lid, an ultra-wide silicone teat and a silicone bottle – the Borrn baby bottle’s defining feature is its sandwich structure which means that the contents of the bottle never come into contact with plastic, only BPA-free medical-grade silicone.
The structure is achieved using twin-shot moulding technology – an advanced moulding process which encapsulates the bottle’s plastic structure inside the silicone.
As a result the walls of the bottle are thicker than is standard, making it more durable. The silicone can also withstand extreme temperatures allowing it to be sterilised repeatedly with little or no wear.
“At Blond, we aim for a reduction in plastic waste wherever possible, as part of every project,” Blond director James Melia told Dezeen. “However, due to the nature and make-up of certain products, such as baby bottles; plastic and plastic-based materials will often still provide advantages over other alternatives.”
“In these instances, we believe it is important to design for longevity. As Dieter Rams would say: ‘Less but Better’. These bottles have been designed with this thought process in-mind.”
As well as thicker walls and a greater tolerance of high temperatures, the bottles come with different silicone lids that eventually replace the teat and covering lid. These lids can be attached to change the functionality for different stages of childhood.
“Essentially, the product can grow with the child and even be passed down to future children,” said Melia. “When the time does come to dispose of the product, Borrn will be offering a returns service. They will dismantle and recycle each component.”
Blond wanted the design of the bottle to eschew the typical child-like aesthetic associated with baby products and instead took cues from homeware and furniture design so that the design would appeal to parents.
“So many baby products are designed with a bubbly and child-like outlook. In reality, it is not the child who will be appreciating (or living with) the aesthetic, it is the parent,” said Melia.
“During the research stages of the project we were shocked to discover how many baby brands still opt for pink for girls and blue for boys. This is something we wanted to break-away from. So, we carefully selected more neutral colours to challenge these dated stereotypes.”
The more sophisticated gender-neutral design has a tapered shape that starts as an oval at the base and gently blends into a circle where it meets the lid.
“The bottle has been designed like this; to allow the parent to easily grip the bottle, to help mix formula, if used, and to prevent the bottle from rolling away,” explained Melia.
Other recently launched designs for new parents and babies include a cordless breast pump designed to be worn inconspicuously in any nursing bra and a breastfeeding bench for use in public spaces, to offer comfort and privacy to mothers when tending to their babies.
Media-artist duo Luftwerk collaborated with Mas Studio‘s Iker Gil to create the light show, which took place during of Barcelona’s Llum BCN and Santa Eulà lia festival.
Named Geometry of Light, the installation was intended to animate and highlight the iconic design of the building, completed by Van der Rohe in 1929.
“Geometry of Light is an immersive intervention at the Barcelona Pavilion envisioned as a contemporary lens for this important masterpiece,” explained Chicago-based Luftwerk.
“It highlights and expands upon the architectural and material features of the structure.”
Considered a seminal work of the modern movement, the Barcelona Pavilion is famed for its minimal floor plan that is based on a formulaic grid system.
It has exotic marble walls and floors that extend out from its interior to form a continuous space, blurring the boundary with the outside.
The Geometry of Light installation was developed as an extension of this grid-like structure, to enhance the illusion of its physical boundaries.
“The projected grid of light animates the floor that extends beyond the steel-framed glass walls, accentuating the flowing space that permeates through the interior and exterior,” added Luftwerk.
The projections were choreographed to change, scanning different parts of the pavilion in time to an ethereal soundtrack by sound designer Oriol Tarragó.
As well as tracing its internal walls, they extended out into the two adjoining water basins, and across Georg Kolbe’s iconic Alba sculpture.
Following its debut in Barcelona, Geometry of Light will be installed at Mies van der Rohe’s one-room Farnsworth House retreat near Chicago as part of the third Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Geometry of Light is not the first installation to alter the appearance of the Barcelona Pavilion. In 2017, architects Anna and Eugeni Bach made it more minimal than ever by covering all of its walls with white panels.
This captioned movie shows how pods made from easy-to-assemble, CNC-cut wooden panels by Aldworth James & Bond, designed by Reed Watts, are providing temporary accommodation for homeless people.
London-based architecture studio Reed Watts, created the “low-tech” modules offer accommodation to people who might otherwise be sleeping on the streets.
Melike Altınışık Architects has unveiled plans for a Robot Science Museum in Seoul, which will be built using robotic construction techniques and drones.
Robots will be used to construct the curving metal facade of the building in the South Korean capital, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government has commissioned to educate the public about robots.
Parts of the structure will be moulded, welded, assembled and polished by robots. Robots will also be used to 3D-print the concrete landscaping around the museum.
Drones will be used for mapping, site inspections and to control robotic construction vehicles.
By involving robots in the construction of the spherical structure Melike Altınışık Architects (MAA) plans to showcase the potential of robotic before the museum even opens.
“[It] is not only going to exhibit robots but actually from the design, manufacturing to construction and services robots will be in charge,” said architect and MAA founder Melike Altınışık.
“In other words, the Robot Science Museum will start its first exhibition with its own construction by robots on site.”
Using robots to build the Robot Science Museum’s facade, the architecture studio added, would also save time and money.
Construction exhibitions will begin in 2020, and the completed museum is due to open its doors in 2022. The Robot Science Museum is one of several museums being built as part of the renovation of the Chang-dong area of Seoul.
Founded by Melike Altınışık in 2013, the Turkish architectural practice is best known for designing the Istanbul Çamlıca TV and Radio Tower, which is currently under construction.
Several architects are experimenting with the time-saving potential of robotic construction. Archi-Union Architects built a conference centre in  Shanghai in just 100 days using robot-assisted design and construction methods.
Called 139 Schultz, the 2,800-square-metre apartment building was completed by CPDA Arquitectos for the city’s San Rafael neighbourhood. It contains 21 apartments across the five top levels and two levels of parking at the base.
A double skin defines the street-facing elevation, which is slightly angled. The inner layer consists of red brick, while an outer screen that fronts balconies is made of red-tinted concrete.
With openings of various sizes, the external screen mitigates solar heat gain and helps ensure privacy, while still allowing sunlight to penetrate the interior. It also acts as a buffer against street noise.
Brick and concrete were used for other walls throughout the complex. Balconies are lined with red metal railings, while black aluminium provides the window frames.
The 21 units in the complex range in size from 60 to 120 square metres. Apartments lining the front of the building have two bedrooms, while inner units have a single bedroom. Finishes include tile flooring, exposed brick and white walls.
The building features a variety of light wells, terraces and balconies, along with open-air corridors and staircases. These devices work together to usher in fresh air and natural light, and also lend to the building’s irregular form.
“The exterior shape of the building, generated from this varied arrangement of spaces, is incomprehensible from the inside,” said CPDA Arquitectos. “However, the form is free and ductile, as if an interior force pressed the walls outward.”
Mexico City‘s San Rafael neighbourhood was established in the 19th century. The bohemian area features a mix of historic and contemporary architecture, including residential buildings by legendary Mexican architect Luis Barragán.
If the residents of Neo Bankside had won their legal battle against Tate Modern‘s rooftop viewing platform, it would have set a dangerous precedent for London, says Owen Hatherley.
It’s not often that a judgement of any kind in Britain goes against the interests of private property and in favour of the untrammelled enjoyment of a public space. For that reason if nothing else, anyone who actually enjoys living in cities should applaud Tate Modern’s victory over the residents of Neo Bankside.
In response to people actually using the 10th floor viewing platform in the Switch House, Herzog and de Meuron’s monolithic brick extension, residents of these three towers of luxury flats – built when the extension and its viewing platform had already received planning permission – had tried to get it closed, citing the alleged invasion of privacy that came with people being able to see inside the winter gardens of their flats.
Surprisingly, if entirely reasonably, the judge in the case ruled that they could do something very simple: get some curtains.
If it had gone the other way, the precedent set would have been alarming; why not close the public steps up to Wren’s Monument, in case anyone using it can see inside the dealings of city office blocks? But it’s worth reflecting on how we got to the situation where the residents actually thought they had a case.
If it had gone the other way, the precedent set would have been alarming
Tate Modern was the spur for an extremely radical transformation of the London Borough of Southwark. A couple of decades ago, despite its partly central location, this borough had a surplus of council housing, and a riverside made up mostly of disused industrial buildings and warehouses. It was in places very poor, as it still is.
But then came the new Tate, with its monumental turbine hall carved out of Giles Gilbert Scott’s Bankside Power Station, and then City Hall, the Greater London Authority’s rented home. Between them, all along the river and then moving inland at the Elephant and Castle, dozens of new speculative then high-rise blocks popped up, including Neo Bankside.
With these, Southwark’s strategy shifted towards the dubious pseudo-science of trickle-down economics. As Enrica Colusso’s film Home Sweet Home details, rather than being an inner London borough whose purpose was to house and aid its largely working class population, Southwark re-imagined itself as a central London borough, whose purpose was expansion and growth.
Initially, that was supposedly going to pay for more and better social provision, but what has resulted instead has been a net loss of council housing stock and a massive rise in housing need. So far, so familiar. But the typology thrown up by this – the speculative flat, the stunning development – is a strange one.
The wealthy do not like to be reminded of the proximity of the poor
In his book on Boris Johnson’s architecture, Nincompoopolis, Douglas Murphy argues that there’s a certain cultural cringe in the way London presents itself. The capital’s dissonant, bombed-out and rebuilt townscape cannot compete with the epic vistas of Paris or Manhattan, so it has to constantly rethink its “offer” in order to retain the “high-value” individuals that a world city allegedly depends upon.
So when the industrial River Thames became a linear city of private luxury flats, they had to go some considerable way in distinguishing themselves from everything around them. Neo Bankside, for instance, may have the Tate as a neighbour and St Paul’s opposite, but there are council tenements barely a minute’s walk away.
The wealthy do not like to be reminded of the proximity of the poor, but the London County Council’s planning policies built them into the city pretty much everywhere except Mayfair and Belgravia, rather than dispersing them into the Banlieue as did Paris. So exclusivity, elevation, aspiration, distinction, are stressed in the design of each new tower, and are rammed home in the marketing.
The notorious Redrow American Psycho advert of 2015 was a particularly lurid – too lurid – case in point. One of the design aspects that helps the marketing along is the view: the floor-to-ceiling, dramatic vista of a glittering metropolis. In the Redrow advertisement, this view is presented as the reward for all the hard graft of working in financial services – sip your glass of wine as you look over the city, which you have now conquered, and which you survey as its master.
They’ve managed to do something unique in London, in giving it a free, public high-rise view
It’s an ironic reversal, as anyone who remembers the discourse around housing in the 1980s and 1990s, will recall these sorts of views being covered up in the renovations of council towers, both by councils and by residents, with floor-to-ceiling windows made smaller and residents getting the net curtains in. Rather than one of all-surveying triumph, the council tenant’s experience of the same view was imagined to be alienating and vertiginous.
In any case, the point of those windows in something like Neo Bankside is that they’re meant to be looked out of – they’re absolutely not meant to be looked in on. In the residents’ reaction to the Tate viewing platform, there’s a real sense of embarrassed entitlement: “I’m supposed to look at you, you’re not supposed to look at me!”
While it was hard before to see the Tate Switch House as a particularly public-spirited building, with much of its floor space given over to function rooms, it’s clear now that they’ve managed to do something unique in London, in giving it a free, public high-rise view. Most of the public places where you can actually see London are the rus-in-urbe skyline views of its parks – Parliament Hill, Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park – but here is a view where you can really see up close the sort of a place you live in. Before there was only the Monument, with its endless flight of steps. The high-security, booking-only Sky Garden of Rafael Vinoly’s egregious Walkie Talkie definitely doesn’t count.
Now, you can go to a space in the heart of the city where anyone, absolutely anyone, can go and have a good look at it, at its full extent – a view as essential to understanding it as the view from the ground. And for once, the rich can’t stop you.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
