Hasta La Ideas

The design world flocked to Milan last week for its design week. But soon the action will shift to China, which is about to leapfrog the west when it comes to architecture and design, predicts Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

China is fast becoming the world’s creative superpower. And it is doing it on its own terms. No longer an emerging nation that needs to learn from the west or copy its way to commercial success, China is in many ways already ahead of the rest of the world.

And it is moving fast. Bewildered visitors to the country talk about “China speed” – the incredible velocity at which buildings get built, products get launched, start-ups get started, technologies get adopted.

Dockless bike-sharing networks are a good example of China speed in action. The first provider, Ofo, launched in 2014 and within a couple of years millions of rental bikes, unlocked via a smartphone app, were visible on Chinese streets. The market subsequently contracted dramatically but the speed and scale of the rollout of an entirely new urban mobility service was astonishing.

Another example is WeChat, the app that combines social media, messaging, payment and web functionality that is streets ahead of anything we have in the west.

China is the leading global player in many other technologies of the future including solar power, battery technology, electric cars, facial-recognition tech and drones

Launched in 2011, it is now used by over one billion Chinese people, with new functionality being added all the time. Its seamless payments service has created a cashless economy where even credit cards are viewed as anachronisms and where restaurants are booked, friends invited, food chosen and the bill split and paid for with just a few taps of your phone screen.

The ubiquitous QR codes plastered over every surface in Chinese cities are the visible links between the physical world and the new virtual economy.

But China is also the leading global player in many other technologies of the future including solar power, battery technology, electric cars, facial-recognition tech and drones. The ambitious Made in China 2025 policy aims to make China a leader in yet more next-generation industries, leaving decisively behind its reputation as a cheap manufacturing base for foreign brands.

The battle to dominate sunrise sectors such as biotech and AI is in many ways a two-way fight between China and Silicon Valley. With e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba and Tencent, owner of WeChat, China has two of the biggest and most dynamic tech companies in the world.

And with moonshot projects like its plan to build a solar power station in space, China also has the potential to take global leadership on technologies to mitigate climate change, at a time when western drives to reduce emissions appear to be stalling (although a recent surge in construction of coal-fired power stations could undo China’s good-cop reputation).

Chinese soft corporate power is on the rise and its brands have started to become household names in the west. These include consumer electronics and telecoms brand Huawei, PC maker Lenovo, drone-maker DJI and cycle-sharing networks Ofo and Mobike. Video-sharing social network TikTok is the first app from China to find major global success.

China has the potential to take global leadership on technologies to mitigate climate change, at a time when western drives to reduce emissions appear to be stalling

The 2016 animated movie Kung Fu Panda 3 was the first international blockbuster to be co-produced by a Chinese studio, with one third of the film made in China. Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing app that beat Uber at its own game in China, plans to launch overseas.

Many other iconic western brands are now owned by Chinese companies, including car brands Lotus and Volvo, which are owned by Geely, and MG, which is owned by SAIC Motor. Motorola, Weetabix, Hamleys and Inter Milan and AC Milan also have Chinese owners. Less well known is Qumei Home Furnishing Group’s £480 million purchase last year of Norwegian furniture giant Ekornes, the biggest furniture manufacturer in the Nordic region and owner of the Stressless brand.

With technology driving the economy, serious architecture and design have often felt like an afterthought. When a showpiece building was required, the talent was imported. When a contemporary interior look was required, it was copied.

But that too is changing. A new generation of home-grown Chinese practitioners is gaining confidence, encouraged by the international success of the first wave of overseas-educated talents including architects MAD and Neri&Hu, and furniture and homeware brands Stellar Works and Zens.

With technology driving the economy, serious architecture and design have often felt like an afterthought

This year, Chinese designers are being feted at fairs around the world. Chinese architects and designers were notably present in the longlists for last year’s Dezeen Awards, with 62 firms making the cut, making China the fourth-most successful country after the UK, USA and Australia.

Meanwhile western architects and designers are being drawn to China in droves. Walking round the vast halls of the Design Shanghai fair and attending social events in the city last month month, I was struck by the number of people I know who have relocated to the country to take advantage of its dynamism and wealth.

Many have set up studios in Shanghai and Beijing. Many more were in town sniffing for opportunities that today seem hard to come by back home. Chinese returnees who have been educated or have lived abroad say the opportunities back home exceed those overseas.

Creative education is one area where China lags behind the west; qualifications from Ivy League architecture schools and establishments like the Royal College of Art are still considered essential for Chinese creatives from wealthy families.

Westerners tend to be complacent about China’s ability to nurture home-grown creative talent, viewing the Chinese education system as one that does not encourage original thinking, since students learn by rote. Many observers have argued that this will hold back China’s desire to create its own IP to rival that of the west. However China is catching up with the USA in the league table of annual patent applications.

Westerners tend to be complacent about China’s ability to nurture home-grown creative talent

But there is a hunger for knowledge in China that extends beyond the classroom. Western business people who employ Chinese staff repeatedly express astonishment at how quickly they go from being bemused observers of creative decision-making to confident creative thinkers.

There is a hunger for architecture and design knowledge as well. The talks programme at Design Shanghai earlier this month, as well as the Festival of Design conference held in the city around the same time, were both packed to the rafters.

At a discussion panel I moderated at Design Shanghai, representatives of China’s new generation of design talents spoke of how hard work and humility have always been part of their culture. They are prepared to put in the hours required to succeed, but they are not naturally boastful.

People from cultures where bragging is the norm can wrongly interpret this humility as inadequacy. They are in for a surprise. I heard of one American brand that flew its senior designers over to meet its new Chinese design team. They were planning to train them up but were astonished by the presentation they were given on arrival: the local team was coming up with better ideas than the team back at HQ.

Meanwhile China’s ballooning middle class is developing a taste for high-quality design. Hotel chains and property developers are specifying certified products instead of knockoffs, and they are doing so in huge quantities. According to Stellar Works founder Yuichiro Hori, there were 762 openings of new high-quality hotels in China last year, and 54 in Shanghai alone. And they want their architects to specify original products, not copies.

This has led to a boom in sales for design brands. Most of these are from abroad, with European brands investing heavily in China, and looking beyond Shanghai and Beijing. Danish furniture and lighting brand Fritz Hansen recently opened its largest-ever standalone store in Xi’an. Fellow Danish brand Hay opened a store there the same week.

But Chinese brands are increasingly grabbing the action too. The Design Shanghai fair, the biggest in China, has grown exponentially since it was first launched in 2014, becoming the biggest of its kind in China. This year it covered a sprawling 35,000 square metres of the vast Shanghai Exhibition Centre.

Demand for design is now spreading from the major “first-tier” cites of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to second- and third-tier cities

In its early years the fair showcased just two local companies among the mostly western brands, but the percentage of home-grown exhibitors has grown dramatically, this year representing almost 25 per cent of the 400 exhibitors. This year, for the first time, Stellar Works used the fair to launch products in its home city, feeling the domestic market is now established enough to be a platform to rival Milan.

With a population of 1.4 billion, China is home to 18 per cent of the world’s people. There are more Chinese than Americans and Europeans combined. Mandarin is the world’s most widely spoken language.

Demand for design is now spreading from the major “first-tier” cites of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to second- and third-tier cities. These are huge by western standards: Xi’an, the second-tier-status capital of Shaanxi province and the city where Fritz Hansen and Hay have just set up shop, has over seven million inhabitants.

This makes for a huge market. Stellar Works’ Yuichiro Hori told me he received an order from a dealer in a second-tier Chinese city that was as big as he would get from a European dealer in a year. A month later, the same dealer placed another, even bigger, order.

China’s size, wealth and velocity of change are creating unprecedented conditions for creativity

This cascade of wealth and sophistication is the latest stage in a 40-year process that has seen China undergo the fastest and largest urbanisation the world has ever seen, with 640 million people moving from the countryside to cities. China has achieved in 40 years what other industrial societies took 200 years to achieve.

China’s size, wealth and velocity of change are creating unprecedented conditions for creativity, but also there is a dawning awareness that the notion of creativity itself looks set to be transformed in the Chinese crucible.

In conversation with me in Stockholm earlier this year Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu said that China’s speed had created a time lag between theory and reality that has so far prevented a distinctly Chinese design movement or sensibility from emerging.

However she believes the emerging generation will bridge that gap. “The creativity of China defies all notion of the past,” she said. “There’s a new generation of creatives that are doing amazing work, exploring issues, exploring materials and exploring technologies. They are going to change the face of China.”

When asked whether the next genuinely new global design movement could emerge from China, her partner Lyndon Neri said: “Absolutely. It is bubbling. I don’t know what it is but we feel the heat from that bubble.”

Main illustration is by Another Design.

The post “China is fast becoming the world’s creative superpower” appeared first on Dezeen.

If your job requires you to sit at a desk, you probably spend more waking hours at that desk each day than you do in your own home (or in any other part of your home, if that’s where you work from). If you love your job, this may not seem like such a bad thing, but it’s still worth maximizing your small space for ultimate productivity.

We asked design and productivity experts for advice on how best to structure, organize, and decorate your desk to create a workspace that serves you, keeps you on task, and makes you feel good about what you’re doing.

Focus on Functionality

Keep it simple and functional with items you use all the time. My desktop must-haves include a stapler; a jar of pens, pencils, and highlighters; a candle; and, most important, my planners. My life is in my day planner, so having that right next to me as I work ensures that I stay on task and plan accordingly when responding to emails. It also has all my important to-dos and papers right inside.

— Meghan Meredith, life coach and home organizer; Atlanta, Georgia

Practice Minimalism

Having a clear space helps you avoid decision fatigue. If you have a lot of clutter on your desk, it creates a lot of stimuli for your brain to constantly react and respond to. Likewise, if you have a lot of stuff in your space that you have to move and shift around, you’ll likely feel flustered and spend more time finding the things you need. Be intentional and selective about what goes where. If you have a lot of decor you love, consider switching it out weekly instead of trying to fit it all on your desk at once.

— Sarah Steckler, productivity expert

Organize Based On How You Work and Think

The way you set up your desk should depend on your job and mirror the flow of your thoughts and materials. If you’re a linear thinker or someone who works based on task categories (prospecting, invoicing, brainstorming), you might prefer to separate papers and other items based on type. If you’re a web thinker or work based on clients or projects, organize your desk that way, with a cubby or file assigned to each of those clients or projects. It all depends — do you want to focus on the process or the project? Adjust your workspace accordingly.

— Stever Robbins, executive coach and host of the Get-It-Done Guy podcast; Cambridge, Massachusetts

Bring your Values to the Forefront

Something I’ve always found helpful and have suggested to plenty of clients throughout my years is to put a reminder of your values front and center, whether that’s with a Post-it Note, a printout, or a computer screen background. That way, when you’re feeling overwhelmed and need to decide what to tackle next, you can use those values to help you decide what to do. For instance, if you value flexibility and haven’t had much lately, it might be time to reprioritize a bit so you remember to honor what matters to you. It’s really easy to get swept up in work and spend time on less important things.

— Kelly Poulson, life and career coach; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Use Multiple Screens to Keep you on Track

One thing I find that provides a significant advantage is the use of double monitors or very large screens. With the increasing demand to work in multiple applications simultaneously, having dual monitors allows that to happen and helps increase workflow efficiency by making data sharing between applications a breeze.

— Tristan Layfield, career coach; Detroit, Michigan

Add Green

Studies have proven that plants enhance how we feel in our interior environments. Some research suggests that being near plants can reduce stress, minimize anger, and contribute to well-being.

— Amanda Amato, interior designer; Pompton Lakes, New Jersey

Adapt a “Desktop Zero” Habit

Clutter isn’t evil during a project, but it certainly isn’t necessary all the time. That’s why I adopted the practice of “desktop zero,” just like inbox zero for email: At the end of a task or project, I clear my desk of everything I don’t need sitting out. This keeps my desk clean most of the time but allows me to be super messy when I’m deep in the middle of something important.

— Jeff Sanders, author of The Free-Time Formula and The 5 A.M. Miracle; Nashville, Tennessee

Put your Goals in Plain Sight

Your workspace should hold you accountable and inspire you. I love to have my yearly vision board right above my desk, as well as specific 30-, 60-, and 90-day goals posted on the wall for my life and business. I also like to have positive affirmations, inspirational quotes, photographs, and fun banners.

— Danise Sumner, owner of Busy Bee Productivity Coaching; Richmond, Virginia

Display Feel-good Photos

Bringing nonwork elements into your workplace through photos can help serve as a reminder that life is about more than work. And if you have photos on your wall from an experience — be it a trip to a beautiful national park or that roller coaster you went on with your childhood best friend — you are decorating your space with memories that spark joy. When your mood is better, you’re bound to have a more positive outlook.

— Abby Wolfe, career coach; Portland, Maine

The original write up by Alli Hoff Kosikhere on Medium.

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Indonesian designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo has created five new pieces of handmade furniture, designed to promote rattan as a high-quality material.

Called Tropicália Modernity, the colourful furniture collection features a lounge chair, a dining chair, a matching bench and stool, and a rocking horse.

Tjitrowirjo unveiled the collection at Milan design week, with his design studio and furniture brand AlvinT.

All the items in the collection are made entirely out of rattan, a natural wood material derived from palm trees.

The material is traditionally woven into strings or textiles for use in furniture and homeware, but can also be a solid wood. Tjitrowirjo’s pieces feature solid rattan beams that have been bent into geometric shapes.

“All these pieces are basically my way of trying to explore the beauty of rattan,” the designer told Dezeen. “These are the modern contemporary version of traditional rattan.”

“It is seen as a cheap and cheerful underdog material that is heavily underrated. This is something we want to change,” he explained.

Indonesia is responsible for over 70 percent of all the rattan production worldwide. But according to Tjitrowirjo, almost all the good quality material is exported, both legally and illegally. He hopes to change this by encouraging Indonesian designers to start working with rattan.

“Rattan is a material that belongs to Indonesia,” he said.

Tropicália Modernity is designed to highlight the “exotic yet contemporary” possibilities of the material.

Each furniture item was coloured using a patented technique developed by German company Karuun, where the capillaries of the rattan are injected with colour and bulking agents – a process that makes the material firmer and water resistant.

“Rat­tan’s structure is compara­ble to a bundle of tubes. The rat­tan palm can transport wa­ter up to 200 me­t­res th­rough its long capillaries,” said Karuun.

“When the capillaries are injected wi­th various bulking agents, rat­tan is trans­formed from a wood wi­th limited use to a ver­satile, innovative mate­ri­al,” explained the brand.

The Bhuana Lounge chair has a two-pronged back and a caged, round base made of rattan beams. It comes in bright blue and pink.

The Malya Dining Chair comprises a series of curved rattan canes that form a petal-like shape. The individual beams are bound with a rattan wrapping. It comes in various shades, including bright red and pink.

The Loop Stool has a lattice framework with triangular legs that taper inwards. The matching Loop bench has a similar structure but is larger. They come in shades of pale blue and pink.

The collection also includes the Lumping rocking horse, which features a patterned body body made from rattan woven in two shades.

The Tropicália Modernity collection was on show at Palazzo Litta throughout Milan design week, which took place between 9 and 14 April. Also on show at the same venue was a mirrored pavilion designed by Chilean architecture studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen.

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How would you display your trophy if you won a Dezeen Award? We asked some of the 2018 winners to share their “shelfies”.

The trophies were designed by Dutch design studio Atelier NL and are hand-made from clay using traditional brick-making techniques. Each trophy came in a wooden presentation box and winners also received a printed certificate.

This year a further 39 trophies will go to Dezeen Awards 2019 winners in categories spanning architecture, interiors and design.

Enter now and start planning where you will put your trophy if you win!

“Traditional Japanese architectural style”

Fumitaka Suzuki of Yagyug Douguten, who won retail interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2018, displays his trophy in an alcove at his home in Nara, Japan.

“This is a traditional Japanese architectural style,” said Suzuki. “A tokonoma, or a raised alcove about the size of one tatami mat, is found at the back of a Japanese-style living room that has tatami flooring.”

Tokonomas are used to display objects of high aesthetic merit, such as flowers, hanging scrolls and Dezeen Awards trophies.

“On display amongst our prized curios”

John Wardle Architects displays its trophy on its reception desk, where visitors often comment on its striking design.

“Our trophy is on display amongst our prized curios, which include interesting materials, prototypes, models, and awards,” said Justine Makin. “It is up there because we are thrilled to have been selected as winners of house interior of the year.”

“We are also big fans of the physical design,” she added. “Brick is something we are big fans of. Few awards trophies are worth displaying, but this one is quite special.”

“The trophy gets many favourable comments from visitors to the office. The outcomes are to be felt long-term, with the Dezeen Award notable among our architectural and interior honours. Winning in the inaugural awards season also has its cache!”

“Serves as a great motivator”

Petit Pli, which won wearable design of the year, displays its trophy at its London studio, but co-founder Ryan Yasin keeps the presentation box at home.

“We love that the Dezeen Award trophy has two parts,” said Yasin. “We keep the trophy in our London Fields studio, where it sits front and centre on our awards shelf and serves as a great reminder of all that the Petit Pli team has achieved since 2017.”

He added: “It serves as a great motivator whenever we face challenges.”

The wooden presentation box “lives with me at home,” Yasin said. “Seeing it before I start the day and end the night after work is fulfilling and helps sustain my drive and momentum.”

“To win a Dezeen Award is just great”

Interior designer Casson Mann has won dozens of trophies over the years but it has found space on its awards wall for its two Dezeen Awards, won for interior project of the year and civic and cultural interior of the year.

“Although our awards wall looks like it’s dripping in stuff, that’s 20 plus years of effort sitting there,” said Roger Mann. “For us to win a Dezeen Award is just great, and to have won two in your first year is brilliant.”

“We keep the Dezeen Award right in the centre”

Chiangmai Life Architects, which won civic and cultural building of the year, has given its award a special place on its awards shelf. Like the building that won the award, the shelf is made of bamboo.

“We have a purpose-made awards display made from bamboo and we keep the Dezeen Award right in the centre, at the heart of it,” said Markus Roselieb. “The display is in our main entrance room where all visitors pass.”

“I had my heroes sign my trophy box”

Daan Roosegaarde of Studio Roosegaarde won two awards, and he keeps them on a shelf in his office. At the awards ceremony, Roosegaarde asked attendees to sign his trophy box, turning it into a special souvenir of the evening.

“When I was there at the ceremony, it was really exciting for me,” said Roosegaarde, who won design project of the year and lighting design of the year.

“All my heroes were in the same room,” he said. “People like Thomas Heatherwick and Tom Dixon and and it was really like, wow! It was really fun to know that they are also very approachable and enjoyed the work. I had them all sign the trophy box!”

“It has pride of place in our office bathroom”

Dame won leisure design of the year for their reusable tampon applicator, and they have similarly repurposed their trophy as a tampon dish.

“Reusability is at the core of what we do, so we couldn’t let our Dezeen trophy be any different,” said Alec Mills of Dame. “It has pride of place in our office bathroom performing a very different, though no less important, function than it was originally intended for.”

The post “The Dezeen Awards trophy gets many favourable comments from visitors to the office” appeared first on Dezeen.

Audi has unveiled its AI:ME concept vehicle, an electric, fully autonomous car, which is designed to be a “third living space” and includes real plants.

Revealed at Auto Shanghai 2019, the concept car is fully autonomous, but also has a steering wheel to allow the user to drive when needed.

Audi described the compact vehicle as the “autonomous city car of the future”.

The German car maker developed the Audi AI:ME to be a small electric car that has an interior users would be happy to spend time in.

“The car is increasingly becoming a ‘third living space’ alongside our homes and workplaces,” said Audi.

“It is thus only consistent that the Audi designers did not subordinate the interior of the Audi AI:ME to the shape of the body. On the contrary, they prioritised the interior and made it the core of the whole vehicle.”

A compact car, which is 4.3 meters by 1.9 meters, the Audi AI:ME has a large interior area for its size.

Replacing the traditional engine with an electric motor allowed the company to reorganise the car and create a larger wheelbase – the distance between the front and rear axels – of 2.77 meters and a height of 1.52 meters.

Audi envisions the inside of the car being a calm atmosphere within the city – a “high-tech refuge during rush hour”.

Its temperature, ambient lighting and seat positioning are all adjusted to the user when they get in, while a noise compensation system completely suppresses the sounds of the city.

“We create a feel-good atmosphere by appealing to all of the users’ senses,” said Audi designer James Nissen.

Living plants will also be incorporated into the Audi AI:ME’s roof, described by the company as the first use of vegetation in a car’s interior.

“We use climbing plants across the see-through roof to bring a bit of nature into the big city. Aside from that, they improve the air quality,” continued Nissen.

The car is designed so that it can be autonomous in areas where this is allowed, and driven where required – this is known as level-four autonomy.

In areas where the driver is not required the car is reconfigured, with the steering wheel becoming a table.

“When the passenger switches to self-driving mode, the steering wheel folds down and a table folds out,” said Nissen.

The car also incorporates VR goggles for entertainment and magnetic cupholders and plate holders so that users can easily eat and drink.

Externally the car’s two main design features are side doors that open in opposite directions to allow easy access, and innovative headlights that will be used to communicate to other road users.

The LED lights are positioned high on the car to allow them to be easily seen by pedestrians or cyclists.

“In the future, the lights should replace eye contact with the driver and let the car inform its surroundings about what it is doing,” said Michael Horn, exterior lighting designer at Audi.

“We can communicate in complex situations that, without the lights, would absolutely require eye contact with the driver.”

Audi, a German car manufacturer owned by Volkswagen, is one of many companies developing electric cars and last year created an all-electric car based on a design used in the computer game Gran Turismo.

At the Geneva International Motor Show last month, manufacturers inducing Seat, Aston Martin and Citroën showed their eco-friendly mobility options.

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