Hasta La Ideas The Adventures of Star Wars Figurines in Nature Archives

May 22

"Will we work in a completely digital environment, like characters in a game?" asks Martin van der Linden

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Following the popularity of his series of video blogs for VDF, Tokyo architect Martin van der Linden has created a special movie about the post-coronavirus office, in which he wonders whether physical workspaces will become entirely digital.

“Will we soon move into a digital world, in which our avatars work and communicate without having to leave the bubble of our homes?” van der Linden asked in the latest video from his popular One Minute Architecture YouTube channel.

“Is our world going to be one in which we work in a completely digital environment, like digital characters in a game?”

Van der Linden explores the impact of coronavirus on offices

Van der Linden, the founder of Tokyo-based Van Der Architects, asked the questions at the end of the video, which speculates on what permanent impact the coronavirus pandemic might have on office spaces.

“Today, with the coronavirus crisis, companies are facing new challenges of how to use their workspaces,” van der Linden said.

“Working from home has, for many of us, become mandatory and we must ask ourselves: ‘Do we still need an office as a physical workspace?'”

In traditional offices “the hierarchy of the company can be read in the layout “

Throughout the video, van der Linden analyses different office environments in terms of whether the tools and spaces employees use are physical or digital.

He starts off by looking at traditional offices, before the mass adoption of digital technologies, which he describes as “analogue-analogue” because neither the spaces people worked in nor the tools they used were digital.

“The analogue-analogue office is an office in which you can literally touch everything,” he said. “The business is physically there, from the desk where the employees sit, to the paper in the filing cabinets that proves the very existence of the analogue corporation.”

“The hierarchy of the company can be read in the layout of the office,” he continued. “The newly hired staff sit close to the door, the managers sit at the end of the row, close to the window. The aim is to move up the corporate ladder towards becoming a senior executive.”

“The digital naturally expresses itself in a more flexible office layout”

According to van der Linden, the onset of digital technologies created more open, flexible spaces.

“Digital companies grow fast and with their hectic expansion comes an often flatter organisation,” he said. “It is well known that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook sits on a normal desk amongst his employees in the open office.”

However, while digital technologies changed the spaces in which people work, they did not diminish the importance of physical spaces in our work culture, van der Linden said.

“The digital naturally expresses itself in a more flexible office layout,” he explained. “But there is still a heavy emphasis on the physicality of the office, as the social factor of not only bringing people together in one place but also as a centre for learning and personal growth.”

Coronavirus has turned the workplace “upside-down”

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing many people to work remotely, there is now much more emphasis on digital spaces, according to van der Linden. He describes the transformation as workplaces moving from being “analogue-digital” to “digital-analogue”.

“Yes, the home is still a physical entity, but the digital and analogue enablers are upside-down,” he said.

“Now, the emphasis is on the digital. The communication tools and team-sharing software that has already been used in the analogue-digital space is now the main tool. When you speak to a colleague, you do it through the digital, not in person anymore.”

“We spend more and more of our time in the digital,” he added.

Post-coronavirus office spaces

In recent weeks, many architects and designers have put forward proposals for how buildings and infrastructure can be adapted to allow people to safely return to the office.

Weston Williamson + Partners recently outlined plans for a social-distancing workplace, while design studio PriestmanGoode has proposed expanding bike storage on trains to make it easier for commuters to social distance.

But in the video, van der Linder suggested we might end up embracing an entirely digital future if the virus cannot be eradicated.

“So far, the creative solutions that are being brought forward are all focussing on trying to reverse the digital-analogue back to the analogue-digital,” he said.

“It might well be, with the easing of restrictions, that in August we are back to the same situation as we were in March this year. But what shall we do if we can’t find a vaccine against Covid-19?”

One Minute Architecture

Van der Linden was one of the earliest Virtual Design Festival collaborators, teaming up with us to present a selection of eight of his best short architecture movies.

Many of the videos explore the architecture of Tokyo, where van der Linden is based. “Even after 28 years, I found Tokyo endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy making videos of its architecture, and its rather mysterious urbanity,” he said in a specially created video introducing the collaboration.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020 and is sponsored by German bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Grohe.

Hosting a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, VDF is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Find out more here or email vdf@dezeen.com for details or to join our mailing list.

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May 22

"We want to see real meaning and problem solving that resonates" say designers Glenn Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg

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With the deadline for Dezeen Awards 2020 only 11 days away, we’ve been in touch with some of our judges to find out what they’d like to see in this year’s entries.

Canadian designers Glenn Yabu and George Pushelberg, founders of Toronto and New York-based design studio Yabu Pushelberg, will be seeking design that has an original language.

“We are looking for fewer Instagram moments,” they said.

“We want to see real meaning and problem solving that resonates. Winners will reflect innovative talent with an understanding of how subtle gestures have the power to make or break an environment.”

Glenn Yabu and George Pushelberg have joined this year’s panel of 75 judges and will be judging the interiors categories alongside 25 other industry professionals including Adam Nathaniel Furman, Joyce Wang, Michelle Ogundehin and Pierre Yovanovitch.

“We are optimistic that the trend this year will be original, considered design,” they continued.

“Not to make it all about Instagram moments, but we hope those submitting can find deeper substance that moves beyond the obvious.”

Glenn Yabu and George Pushelberg founded their studio in 1980. It has since become a multidisciplinary practice with an emphasis on interior design and employs more than a hundred creatives and professionals. The firm’s projects span across architecture, interiors and landscapes, as well as lighting, furniture and graphic design.

The duo’s recent projects include the Moxy Chelsea Hotel, a pop-up store for Goop in Toronto and a furniture collection designed in collaboration with furniture brand, Henge.

“Awards and accolades provide validity to clients, a greater possibility to meet new clients, all the while bringing attention and awareness of your project and studio to an international stage,” said the two designers.

“To submit an award is to emit studio pride and bring people together. To win is a celebratory moment of acknowledgement for the team who has worked so hard to make the project a success,” they added.

Enter Dezeen Awards 2020 now

Entries close on 2 June at 23:59 BST. Submit your project or studio today so you don’t miss the deadline!

If you have any questions you can contact our awards team at awards@dezeen.com.

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May 22

Spectacular Design of a Korean Shopping Center

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Un bâtiment spectaculaire vient illuminer la ville de Gwanggyo, au sud de Seoul.

Entre les immeubles de bureaux classiques, la façade d’un grand magasin coréen haut de gamme attire l’oeil. Conçu par OMA/Chris van Duijn, le centre commercial Galleria possède une façade en mosaïque de pierres et une série de fenêtres géométriques pour un rendu spectaculaire. Le bâtiment dispose également d’un jardin sur le toit.

Le bâtiment serait inspiré du lac Suwon Gwanggyo, un espace vert urbain qui entoure un petit plan d’eau.

May 22

Chloe Cushman’s striking illustrations are filled with nuance

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In just a few carefully applied brushstrokes and a modest palette, Chloe Cushman produces incredibly nuanced portraits that capture far more of a subject’s character than some of the most photorealistic artworks out there.

Whether depicting Angela Merkel’s sobering, reserved expression or the piercing stare of author Fran Lebowitz, Cushman’s knack for distilling the elements of a person’s character is clear. The Toronto-based illustrator’s instinct has already landed her commissions from leading stateside publications, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Colourful yet considered, Cushman’s choice of tones and her deft application of texture come together to create endlessly intriguing illustrations that feel fleshed out without the fuss. Even in her more abstract creations, there is a sense of richness with minimal colours, as seen in her illustrations to accompany reviews of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized.

Below, she discusses her love/hate relationship with portraits, building a “visual vocabulary”, and the highlights of her career so far.

Top image: Bodies in Motion for the Atlantic. Here: Fran Lebowitz for the New Yorker. All images by Chloe Cushman

Chloe Cushman illustrator — Illustration for a New Yorker piece on MOMA’s Judson Dance Exhibition

Creative Review: Were you always creative from a young age?
Chloe Cushman: The arts were a huge part of my childhood. Neither of my parents are visual artists, but their love of the arts more generally, specifically the theatre, encouraged my creativity from the start. Growing up, my drawings usually went hand-in-hand with writing. More often than not there was a story to go along with the pictures. I think, sadly, the idea of whether or not you’re artistically ‘talented’ gets ingrained really early on, especially in the case of drawing. I definitely picked up at a young age that I ‘could’ draw, (as if anyone ‘can’t’) – but there’s no substitute for discovering the joy of making things, and losing yourself in it.

CR: Can you tell us about your education?
CC: I studied English literature and contemporary philosophy at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia for my undergraduate degree. I never thought about going to art school – I was too in love with the idea of a traditional liberal arts education. After that, I studied Illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Before that programme I had no real idea what a career in illustration was. Art school was essential for gaining some understanding of the job and the industry, but I still think of my first degree as the foundation of what I do now, especially for editorial and conceptual work. For me, illustration deals in ideas and references as much, if not more so, than rendering. You need to build your visual vocabulary out of something.

CR: Who or what do you think has influenced your illustration style the most?
CC: The influences that have had the greatest impact on my direction tend to straddle the line between design and illustration, like the work of Milton Glaser, Saul Bass, or Paula Scher. I’ve always looked to iconic poster art for inspiration. This is more about spirit than style, but Maira Kalman’s work and career is a real inspiration when I think about what illustration can be. And Christoph Niemann, of course, not just for his work, but for his insights into the creative process and struggle. Outside of the industry, Kathe Kollwitz is a longtime touchstone. My longest standing influence is probably Matisse, since he was my favorite artist as a child, and is still who I look to for colour inspiration.

Chloe Cushman — Cover for the New York Times Book Review, accompanying Salman Rushdie’s review of Namwali Serpell’s debut novel The Old Drift

CR: What has been your favourite project to work on so far in your career?
CC: Illustrating the cover of the New York Times Book Review for the first time was a personal highlight. I’ve always loved the Sunday Times, and especially the books section, so I was thrilled to be asked. The book was Namwali Serpell’s debut novel The Old Drift, which was an embarrassment of riches in terms of imagery, and the review was by Salman Rushdie (no pressure). But most importantly, art director Matt Dorfman is a joy and a privilege to work with.

CR: Do you think there’s been a specific commission or project that felt like your big break?
CC: The piece I illustrated for the New Yorker on tensions between Angela Merkel and Trump felt like a breakthrough for me. The assignment was a particularly tricky combination of portrait and concept illustration and there were many agonising roughs before the final. The simplicity of the image, and the balance of substance and style I think I achieved in the final illustration, are what I’m always striving for in my work.

CR: What draws you to portraits in particular?
CC: I have a real love/hate relationship with portrait illustrations. Capturing a likeness can be incredibly frustrating, but I love the puzzle of getting to the essence of a particular face, and how that semblance can reveal some element of the person’s character. The real challenge is capturing a likeness without crushing the life out of it. There’s a big difference between a portrait that is accurate or realistic, and a face that has life on the page. Also, I just can’t turn down a good face – if you look at my portfolio, you can probably tell I have a type.

CR: The colours are often really striking in your work. Can you tell us how you devise your palettes?
CC: I tend to stick to a limited palette in my illustrations. This wasn’t a conscious decision in the beginning, but over time I’ve found it helps me unite the intellectual and practical sides of my process. Colour is one of the most powerful tools you have as an illustrator to get across the concept and tone of a piece. A simplified palette forces you to be that much more intentional with your colour choices. I love the graphic appeal of bold colours, but in the context of an illustration I’m always trying to be purposeful with their impact.

CR: What is the creative scene like in Toronto?
CC: This is a hard question for right now. Also, I grew up in Toronto, so I never feel like I can have an unbiased view of the city. The arts scenes here are chronically underrated, but it’s still very hard to say it compares to London or New York, specifically for something as niche as illustration. Whenever I visit New York I definitely feel like the industry and community for what I do exists there in a way it just doesn’t anywhere else. More than once I’ve connected with other Toronto artists for the first time … while in New York. Everything is more diffuse here, so you need to make more of an effort to be part of that community – I know I do!

CR: What would be a dream story or brand to work on?
CC: Book covers and theatre posters will always be dream projects to me. I’m also a sucker for doing work in a series. I’d love to do cover illustrations for a series of Shakespeare editions. Really anything with great source material to dig into and an excuse to read a lot before starting a project. Illustrating the short fiction in the New Yorker would also be a dream assignment, especially if, say, Zadie Smith wrote it.

Taking Charge in the NBA for the New York Times Sunday Sports, part of The 1619 Project observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery

chloecushman.com; @chloecushman

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May 22

Collection project by the Museum of the Home will document domestic life under lockdown

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London’s Museum of the Home has launched a UK-wide project that calls for members of the public to submit photos and personal accounts of their living experience during the coronavirus pandemic.

Stay Home invites people to share up to five images of their lockdown living quarters, and asks them to answer seven questions about how the health crisis has altered their mental, physical and emotional attitudes towards home.

Submitted images so far capture the quotidian routines of lockdown, including people enjoying meals with loved ones via video calls, children painting rainbow posters to show appreciation for the NHS, and messy bedrooms and kitchen tables that have been turned into impromptu desks for working from home.

Some photos show cheery scenes, like a young girl feeding her pet chicken, while others nod to darker moments of the pandemic – one image shows a handwritten “no-entry” sign that’s been put up in front of a basement, possibly warning of an infected family member.

The project was initially tested out by the Museum of the Home‘s staff – who are said to have found the process “cathartic” – before launching officially on the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine platform.

“Although a photograph can tell a thousand words, we also felt it was important to have written and audio testimonies alongside these images in order to capture a candid picture of what life at home in the UK looks like under current conditions of confinement,” said Tamsin Ace, director of creative programmes and collections at the museum.

“We have found that people are very open to share their experiences and are excited to have the chance to be part of a unique historical record of home life at a time of self-isolation and social distancing,” she told Dezeen.

Diverse areas of society are being encouraged to participate in the project – from city dwellers to people residing in the countryside, key workers, those living alone, and parents who are having to achieve the tricky balance of childcare and work.

Selected entries will be displayed as part of the museum’s permanent Documenting Homes Collection, which chronicles the ways in which people have lived in the UK over the past 100 years.

“The Museum of the Home has been collecting personal testimonies and objects from members of the UK public since the early 1900s, but Stay Home is the first project where the Museum has been so responsive and rapid in our approach to collecting,” explained Ace.

“We felt it was important to capture this extraordinary moment in time, where we are all experiencing such a dramatic change in our day-to-day home lives.”

The Museum of the Home itself has joined the roster of cultural institutions across the globe that have been impacted by the coronavirus.

The museum, formerly known as the Geffrye Museum, was set to re-open its doors this summer following an £18.1 million renovation. It will see the addition of brand new galleries to the building, as well as a library of archived exhibition items.

Although the opening will unfortunately have to be pushed back until late 2020, the museum team believes that the concept of home has “never been more important”.

“I believe that the appreciation for our homes will grow, because over the last few months the home has been adapted to work as an office, a gym, a restaurant and a school, showing how versatile and adaptive both the space and we can be,” added Ace.

“The home is no longer a space for solely relaxing and entertaining, but it is also now home to a multitude of uses.”

Other cultural and creative institutions have also created lockdown projects, including children’s activities and a daily record of artists’ work during the pandemic.

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May 22

Bill Posters creates deepfake music video for Lil Uzi Vert

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The promo is directed by Yasha Gruben and produced by Bill Posters’ company Big Dada Limited which specialises in what it describes as “broadcast-quality, synthesised media content”, ie deepfakes. Posters gained notoriety and sparked debate for his work last year when he released a series of films that appeared to feature famous figures from Kim Kardashian to Mark Zuckerberg.

For the new film, Lil Uzi Vert appears to make ‘Boom’ calls to multiple celebs, and viewers are shown endless scenes of scrolling online content where the rapper appears as characters from history.

“We hoped we could create something really timely and unique and attempt to push the boundary of digital storytelling using this kind of technology within a hip hop music video,” says Gruben. “All around the world people are on lockdown and each day we all disappear into the rabbit hole of the internet looking for stimulation, connection and entertainment whilst feeling not quite like our normal selves. So this became the central concept for the video.”

The video took a month to produce and features two forms of deepfake technology – a traditional method which places the whole face of another celebrity onto existing video footage, alongside a more groundbreaking method that creates animated video content from a single still image. Bill Posters and his team created lip sync videos that were used to create thousands of AI-generated animations from portrait photographs of celebrities. From this huge dataset the final AI animations were selected for the different parts of the lyrics with over 40 celebrities and cultural icons making the final cut.

“We had a lot of fun producing the content that sees Lil Uzi Vert reincarnated as a whole host of celebrities – both past and present, including leading figures from art history such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí,” says Posters. “And of course Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in there too as we heard they are huge fans of Uzi Vert.”

The budget for the music video has been donated to Protect The Heroes Foundation, a charity supporting doctors and nurses on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic response in New York City.

billposters.ch

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May 22

Architectural Renders that showcase a surreal future where nature rules our modern homes!

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We all know how beautiful nature is – we continuously draw inspiration from it and set up space outside our homes for things to grow in an organized manner. But what if nature decided to overrun our boundaries and step into our homes? It sounds scary, but the result imagined by designer Alexis Christodoulou (@teaaalexis) is strikingly beautiful! Alexis imagines a world where humans have taken a step back (maybe the quarantine is still ongoing there!) and let the flowers, grass, and all the other myriad plants enter our home. Surreal but beautiful, the untouched nature tells a story of peace and harmony in each of these landscapes!

We all love a sunken seating arrangement, but Alexis elevates that situation to a whole new level. Replacing a modern living room with a field of flowers, Alexis brings the escapism to your living room.

A minimal, pristine white corridor that replaces the traditional accent rugs with something even more traditional – a carpet of flowers with a pathway running through it! Let nature come in and rule our creations to make them even better.

Autumn flows through this balcony with hues of red to yellow flourishing in there! Just looking at this render showcases the warmth of this season. If only we could smell the earthiness in the air, we would be transported to that space.

Corals come out from under the sea to meet the land in this Greece-inspired render. Now just imagine sitting on that chair and watching the sunset, it would be one of the most beautiful sunsets ever!

Green is scientifically known to cool our eyes and calm us down. It is that feeling of calm that washes over you when you look at this wall of green outside your home instead of the boring old fence!

Titled Population 001, this place is the perfect setting for one! A setting designed to help you focus and grow, this place is all set for one individual to rule.

Usually leaving a window open invites bugs and some good old-fashioned dust. But in Alexis’s world, your bathroom gets overrun by a pink weed that makes the old white tiles look retro and fashionable.

Remember those dream sequences commonly showed in movies, where children run through a field of flowers with their hands running across the flowers…this render looks like a top view of that field, only with much cooler colors!

Greenhouses may be green (logically speaking) but this one is offset by hues of rust and bronze! Maybe this is what the greenhouse on Planet Mars looks like.

Is a pool a pool if it’s orange and not blue? I truly don’t know the answer to it but it sure looks surreal yet beautiful.

Each render by Alexis is an escape to a dreamland we want to be in, situated in a space overrun by nature, away from all the clutter mankind imposes on the planet and until that happens, we can count on more designs by Alexis to keep us going!

May 22

Spaceworkers interprets Romanesque architecture in concrete for Romanesque architecture interpretation centre

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Centro de Interpretação do Românico, or Interpretation Center for the Romanesque, in Lousada, Portugal, by Spaceworkers

Architecture office Spaceworkers has designed the concrete Centro de Interpretação do Românico museum in Portuguese village Lousada to explain the history of Romanesque architecture in the north of the country.

Built on the Romanesque Route – a collection of 58 medieval monuments in the Sousa valley in the north of Portugal – the interpretation centre was created to explain the local architecture to visitors.

Spaceworkers designed the Centro de Interpretação do Românico, which translates as Interpretation Centre for the Romanesque, so that the building would form part of that explanation. The modern concrete building’s form is derived from the Romanesque architecture it aims to help interpret.