Sparse, atmospheric production opens “Stone Soup,” the sixth track from Mourning Due, the new LP from Oakland-born rapper Nappy Nina (aka Simone Bridges). As Bridges trades lyrical, relaxed raps with musician and activist Moor Mother, drums burst midway through the song which ends in elegant keys. The result is shape-shifting and poetic, a prime example of an artist forging their own lane.
The textured design helps obscure the plants in a way that creates visual drama, while also creating a mini greenhouse of sorts that allows sun to reach the plant’s leaves in a wonderful, diffused manner.
Meet Hazy, an office shelf that works as a planter-holder as well as a base for a whiteboard. With an aesthetic that’s best described (by the designer no less) as high-quality Nordic style, the Hazy has a clever way of being minimalist and clean. The shelf itself is rather simple to look at, with a choice between horizontal or vertical columns on which you can mount things. The vertical columns let you attach planters (simply by screwing them in place) one above each other, so that water trickles from the upper planters to hydrate the lower planters, and a fluted glass panel helps obscure the planters in an aesthetic and curiosity-engaging way, doing the job of frosted glass. If you want something more functional and utilitarian, switch over to the horizontal shelves and swap out the glass panel for a whiteboard and you have yourself something that’s much more productivity-focused.
Designer: Studio TZEN
Hazy creates a building block of office furniture that can be used in a variety of ways. You can have multiple units in your office, with some being planter-holders, and others being shelves with whiteboards. Wheels on the base of the Hazy let you move it around, orienting it in ways that either help decorate or dissect your office space into smaller chunks. Hazy was designed by Italy-based Studio TZEN for Onmuse, a global interior decor brand.
The post Plant-shelf with textured glass helps add greenery and a sense of mystique to your interior space first appeared on Yanko Design.
Architecture studios Kuehn Malvezzi, Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes have created an insect zoo and museum in a glazed sawtooth-roof building with interior spaces that emulate the experience of being a bug.
The Montreal Insectarium is part of Space for Life, a science museum district within Montreal’s Olympic Park that also houses a planetarium and botanical garden.
Founded in 1990, the insectarium contains habitats for living bugs, galleries for the display of preserved specimens, and interactive spaces that evoke the experience of being an insect.
Its new building was designed to embody a novel approach to learning about the natural world. By bringing people in close contact with bugs, the museum hopes to transform the public’s relationship with insects.
The project was designed by the architecture team of Kuehn Malvezzi, Pelletier de Fontenay and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes, along with landscape firm Atelier Le Balto, after it won an international competition to design the museum in 2014.
“Opening at a crucial moment for rethinking relationships between human and non-human biology, the new Montreal Insectarium represents a critical new approach for museums of natural history,” the design team said.
Its design concept was rooted in the idea of an authentic fusion of architecture and nature and informed by a detailed analysis of science museums, orangeries, greenhouses and other buildings related to the natural world.
“While there is a rich history of buildings devoted to nature, these buildings are interlinked with the exploitation and transformation of the environment”, said Kuehn Malvezzi.
“Acknowledging the destructive history of this conceptual separation between humans and other natural life, our design subverts museological norms and expectations,” the studio added.
The Montreal Insectarium consists of three key elements. The main component is a two-storey glass building with a rectangular plan and sawtooth roof.
Just to the side is a domed structure “that erupts through the earth as a planted mound,” the studio said.
Fronting the building is a pollinator garden and entry plaza, where butterflies can be found fluttering around.
“The garden blurs the functional divide between the building’s interior and exterior,” the studio said.
Upon entering the main building, visitors pass through a hall and then wind through a series of dark rooms with installations and displays.
Spaces are meant to “disorient human senses in different ways and to mimic the sight, sound and movement of insects”, the studio said.
One space features a field of climbable rods, where visitors can experience the strategies that insects use to move on different surfaces.
Another area is a warren that can be navigated by ducking, crawling and squeezing through holes.
In one room, a large screen with flickering pixels mimics a fly’s vision. Another space has sonic vibrations that are transmitted through a grated floor and emulate what an insect feels in its body.
Kuehn Malvezzi emphasized that the museum is designed to be truly immersive.
“Unlike museums designed to contain changing exhibitions and displays, the Insectarium’s curatorial concept and its museological expression are held in the very architecture of the building,” the team said.
A large, light-filled vivarium is found on the upper level of the main building.
A walkway travels through a range of microclimates supporting different species of insects and plants. In total, the space holds about 175 species of insects and 150 different types of plants.
“Many of the insects, such as butterflies and caterpillars, move freely in the space and can be observed without barriers,” the studio said.
Other spaces inside the main building include a production greenhouse, a laboratory, a creative workshop, and employee areas.
Beyond the main building is the domed structure, where 3,000 preserved specimens are displayed in illuminated boxes. The displays are organized in two horizontal bands on walls covered with sprayed-on concrete, known as shotcrete.
“The presentation of these bands echoes the spatial and decorative effect of a frieze and, as with the 10-metre-high ceiling, gives the room a sense of ornamentation and grandeur akin to a classical religious space,” said the studio.
The team incorporated a range of sustainable elements, including shading devices, dynamic control systems, roof water recuperation, geothermal wells and the use of local, VOC-free materials.
The glass building’s orientation and materiality were chosen to allow for “maximum sunshine throughout the year” with heat recovered and redistributed to the rest of the building.
The building was designed to earn LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.
Other recent museum projects in North America include Studio Gang’s addition to the Natural History Museum in New York City and the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma by Johnson Fain.
The photography is by James Brittain.
Project credits:
Concept architects and museology: Kuehn Malvezzi
Concept architects: Pelletier de Fontenay
Concept architects, construction supervision: Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architectes
Landscape architects: atelier le balto
Electromechanical engineers: Dupras Ledoux
Structural engineers: NCK
Civil engineers: Genie+, Lévis
Sustainable development advisor: CIMA+
Indoor and outdoor signage: Kuehn Malvezzi with Double Standards
Execution and site supervision for museology: La bande à Paul
Special consultant for greenhouses: Capital Greenhouse
Tree preservation: Nadeau Urban Forestry
The post Kuehm Malvezzi designs Montreal Insectarium to subvert “museological norms and expectations” appeared first on Dezeen.
Handmade by Australia-based homeware brand Degoey Planet (helmed by Alexandria Degoey), this glossy phallic vase is crafted from stoneware clay and finished with a kitschy red gingham pattern (though other color schemes are also available). The result is functional, playful and a little raunchy.
A planner from Edmonton, Canada, has defended its 15-minute city plan after criticism from locals, saying that the plan uses age-old concepts and “will enable the City of Edmonton to support growth more efficiently”.
Edmonton’s principal planner Michael Strong has refuted the idea that the city’s plan to re-organise into walkable communities would restrict people’s movements, amid rising controversy surrounding the concept of 15-minute cities.
“There are not – nor will there ever be – any restrictions on moving from one district to the next,” Strong told Dezeen.
Misconceptions “have quickly spread across social media”
The city’s plans have recently being criticised with a viral video showing a group of protestors confronting planner Sean Bohle on the street, asking him if the plans were meant to make lockdowns easier.
“Misconceptions about district plans restricting and monitoring people’s movements have quickly spread across social media,” said Strong.
“It’s difficult to say where these misconceptions stem from,” he continued.
“Their concerns are counter to what kind of city Edmontonians have told us they want through our two-year public engagement on the city plan, as well as the existing plans our city council has approved to help achieve it.”
A new term for an old idea
The 15-minute city concept, which was devised by French-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno, proposes creating cities where people have access to key amenities by travelling no more than 15 minutes on foot or by bike.
However, it has become the basis of a widely debunked conspiracy theory that suggests people’s movements will be restricted. Last week, UK member of parliament Nick Fletcher said 15 minute cities “will take away personal freedoms” in the House of Parliament..
“It’s a new term for a very old idea,” said Strong, citing the church-centric districts of 17th and 18th-century cities.
“Cities are embracing the 15-minute city idea because it is an easy way to explain an old concept.”
Edmonton’s district plan comes from a general City Plan that was adopted in 2020. Most of the plan takes into account planning and design changes needed to meet the city’s growth as it approaches two million residents. It references mostly new developments as the city grows.
It includes provisions addressing amenity disparity between communities and estimates the cost of updating existing infrastructure.
Expansion of roadways inefficient
Under the plan, the city would install transit systems. Its goal is for 50 per cent of the transportation needs of the city to be fulfilled by public transportation.
Bike lanes and walking paths will also be integrated into the new development.
According to the plan, the city will continue to use the existing roadways, adding transit and biking routes when possible, but will limit the expansion of roads for motor vehicles because of its “inefficient” use of limited resources and constrained space.
“District plans will give Edmontonians easier access to meet most of their daily needs, including school, employment, shops, recreation and more, within a 15-minute walk, roll or transit trip from their home,” said Strong.
“It’s about changing the way Edmonton plans and supports development and growth to move us closer to our vision for a more connected, prosperous, healthy and climate-resilient city.”
Other cities that have implemented plans like this in North America include Portland, which in 2010 began to orient the city around 20-minute communities.
Recently, architecture studio ODA released a 15-minute plan for a new development in Astoria, Queens.
The post 15-minute city an “easy way to explain an old concept” says Edmonton planner appeared first on Dezeen.
Photographer Sachi Cunningham’s surfing images are stunning—not only because of the composition and skilled surfers depicted in them, but also because she dares to get shots nobody else does. One of the only photographers to swim at Mavericks (the infamous surf break in California known for its dangerous waves), Cunningham braves the impact zone, currents and sharks—all with a 20-pound camera—to get the shot before diving under to escape the powerful, crashing water. She also stands up to gender inequality in a space where men are paid and represented more than women. “I started shooting photos of women on waves because I never saw photos of women surfing. You don’t have to know anything about competitive surfing to know that when you see an image of a woman on a big wave for the first time, it changes what you think is humanly possible,” the photographer tells The New York Times, where you can learn more about her methodology and how she advocates for women in the surf space.
Image courtesy of Sachi Cunningham
Sometimes, when we use small items at home, in the kitchen, or at the office, we don’t really pay attention to what materials are used, as long as they fulfill their function. But now that people are more conscious about where things come from and how they are produced, there are some product designers that have been coming up with great concepts that use minimal materials and are cost-efficient. As to whether they can become actual consumer products is still up for debate though.
Designer: Theodore Simon
It’s still pretty interesting though to look at these designs and concepts and see the possibilities. This minimalist and monomaterial kitchen scale was created as a diploma project at ECAL, a university of art and design in Switzerland. This entire scale was made from just plastic and is composed only of two parts, which will make it easier to produce and can also facilitate an easier recycling process even though it’s made from plastic. The concept for the scale is from ideas from micro-engineering and production.
Normally, scales are made from different materials as well as various parts to achieve its functionality of weighing ingredients and other materials placed on it. But with this concept called Lari, Simon was able to use the elasticity of plastic to just use one material and use just two parts. The first part is a tray where you place the item to be weighed and is linked to the base through two flexible parallel beams. The second part is a flexible indicator that is able to calibrate to zero and moves the tray by sliding in the base.
The look of the scale itself is as minimal as its parts and materials. The two parts are like puzzle pieces that you can connect in order for it to function. The accuracy of the scale though is something that may have to be experimented more on, if somebody is able to grab this concept eventually.
The post Minimalist weighing scale design uses one material and just two parts first appeared on Yanko Design.
UK architecture and engineering studio Atkins is the latest studio to have been officially announced as working on The Line megacity in Saudi Arabia.
Atkins, which is part of conglomerate SNC-Lavalin, was officially announced as a delivery partner for The Line after signing a five-year contract.
“Intent is to radically transform the way major infrastructure projects are delivered”
The architecture and engineering studio will provide project and construction management consultancy services that include the design, procurement and commissioning of the project.
“The Line is a truly ground-breaking, world-first project and we are proud to have the opportunity to bring our global engineering, digital and net-zero expertise to help create a lasting legacy for the Kingdom and its people,” said SNC-Lavalin‘s Philip Hoare.
“As a delivery partner organisation, we will work closely with Neom and our partners to seamlessly connect people, data and technology to drive innovation, value, efficiency and certainty on the project,” Hoare said.
“Our combined intent is to radically transform the way major infrastructure projects are delivered and The Line, with its vision and complexity, provides a great opportunity to demonstrate what our industry can achieve.”
Few Neom companies officially announced
Despite the scale of the project, with The Line planned to be 170-kilometres long, Atkins is one of a limited number of companies that have been officially announced as working on designing and building the mega city.
Alongside Atkins, US studio Aecom is listed as a partner on the Neom website.
The designer of Neom is widely understood to be US studio Morphosis. The studio was one of several named within a recent exhibition of The Line in Riyadh. However, the exhibition did not make clear the extent of involvement of each studio it named, and several featured told Dezeen that they are no longer working on the project.
The Line will be one of 10 regions within the vast Neom project. We recently wrote an explainer of the project that outlines its major elements.
Other studios that have been officially announced as working on Neom include UK studio Zaha Hadid Architects, Dutch practice UNStudio, US studio Aedas, German studio LAVA and Australian studio Bureau Proberts, which are all working on the design of the Trojena ski resort.
Along with being one of the world’s largest projects, Neom is also one of the most controversial. It has been criticised by experts for its sustainability and liveability claims.
It has also been under scrutiny for its human rights record, with human rights organisation ALQST reporting that three people who were forcibly evicted from the Neom site in 2020 had been sentenced to death.
Speaking to Dezeen, Amnesty International’s Peter Frankental said that companies working on Neom were facing a “moral dilemma” and should “think twice” about their continuing involvement in the project.
The post Atkins appointed as delivery partner for The Line in Neom appeared first on Dezeen.
EDCs are the living embodiment of “big things come in small packages”. EDCs are the kind of smart little tools that are always great to have in your backpack or tool kit. You never know when one of them could come to your rescue, helping you out of the trickiest situation, or to even pop open a bottle of beer, when you need to unwind after work. These little superheroes can make a world of difference while completing tasks – whether big or small. And, we’ve curated the best EDC designs we’ve seen in a while! From a fully-functioning balisong-style pocket knife to a 10-in-1 Titanium Multitool EDC – these are the EDC designs you definitely need by your side.
I know the term ‘forever’ can get thrown around a little loosely while discussing EDC durability, but it’s precisely what designer EDC Monster had in mind while designing the Titanium Multi-Function Pry Bar. Crafted from Gr5 Titanium, this pocket-friendly tool is lightweight, versatile, and ridiculously durable.
It sports 10 different tools that cover every scenario from fixing your bicycle to escaping your car, and from cracking open a bottle of beer to writing a letter… all of which encapsulate that ‘forever’ aspect, including the last bit, thanks to the fact that the Titanium Multi-Function Pry Bar comes with its own Forever Pen – a special metallic writing instrument that can write forever, without using ink or graphite.
The fully-functional Invictus Bali-Ti is a knife that deserves to be a part of your EDC arsenal! What makes this knife distinctive are its Terrain 365 branding and of course its construction. The sleek pocket knife features 6AL-4V titanium handles & a pocket clip and has a blade made from rustproof Terravantium. The Invictus Bali-Ti is a beautifully crafted, high-performance tool built to last in the wilderness!
A Balisong aka a butterfly knife is a type of folding knife that originated in the Philippines. It has penetrated into other markets, including the US, where Terrain 365 is perfecting its design for everyday use. The Balisong has the potential to be used as a threatening weapon, which means its use is illegal in certain countries. Thankfully, there is nothing so illegal about the Invictus Bali-Ti, which draws its design cues from the Invictus folder. It measures 8.125 inches when fully deployed and folds down to roughly half that size to 4.125 inches when closed.
With a tiny 1.94-inch blade, the Microtech Exocet Dagger is actually legal to carry in most states, making it the perfect EDC to have on you at all times. The dagger features an OTF-style (out-the-front) drop-point blade made from CTS 204P steel that’s perfect for piercing and carving outdoors and doing things like opening boxes indoors.
The blade retracts into the Exocet’s rather comfortably compact aircraft-grade aluminum handle, which also has a pocket clip on one side that doubles up as a money clip, letting you carry your cards and cash with you. I imagine taking out your money for a mugger would be a pretty interesting event, given that your de facto wallet also doubles as a blade!
Inspired by the hinge detail on their popular Provoke Karambit line, the Provoke EDC by Joe Caswell for CRKT brings the same opening mechanism to the traditional spear-point pocket knife. The knife features an aluminum handle with an anodized finish, a D2 steel blade, and CRKT’s signature Kinematic
opening style that makes the Provoke such an object of beauty.
The Provoke’s all-metal design instantly gives it a sense of rugged reliability. Hold it in your hand and play around with it for a bit and you soon realize it’s a highly-capable serious piece of EDC that’s designed to function really well under even demanding conditions. The Kinematic mechanism lets you deploy the knife with a single thumb, revealing the 2.5-inch satin-finish D2 blade that has remarkably high resistance to wear and tear.
In a world that’s still somehow stuck to the boring bifold or the cramped MagSafe wallet, the Mbacco Wallet offers a fun alternative. It’s compact, but still has enough space to store cards, cash, and keys… and comes with a lively accordion-inspired design that does a great job of organizing your cards and other belongings by priority or category.
Although designed to hold cards, the Mbacco Wallet doesn’t have any strict rules – it’ll hold cash, keys, memory cards, and pretty much anything that’s up to 2.6mm thick and about the size of a credit card. The wallet’s fun accordion-inspired design holds anywhere from 5 to 9 cards, although it can be pushed to the limit to store as many as 12 cards without really breaking a sweat or becoming bulky like the kind of wallet George Costanza carries around.
How often have you found yourself running late to work or school only to notice, you don’t have the keys on you? Struggling at the last minute, in and out of the rooms, you realize the keys were hiding deep within your pant or jacket’s pocket. This is essentially why carabiners make attractive keychains to let you hang the keys at home and carry them safely in the loop of your plants.
For the benefit of Gen Z, which fancies modern and trendy equipment, the new version of the Bolt Carabiner V-II begs gawk. Designed by EDC Apparatus, the Bolt is not an ordinary auto-locking or twist-locking carabiner; this one instead has a trigger on the opening side, which you slide down to open the gate. The rugged carabiner also sways from the regular D shape carabiners, it features a Question mark form factor, with an opening in the bottom to hold the keys for you.
Called Grenade, this interestingly-shaped EDC functions as an alarm clock, an outdoor lamp for camping, and a productivity-enhancing gadget. The term ‘Grenade’ may set off certain alarms in our nervous system in today’s day and age, but this truly handy EDC has much more to it than simply its problematic name. You can carry this nifty design in your backpack, and we promise you it’ll come in handy in a variety of situations – anytime during your daily routine or during your outdoor adventures.
Alright, coming straight on to the Grenade outdoor lamp designed for Claymore by Wonjun Jo – it is a small package with big features. The timer on the gadget can be used for setting morning alarms, scheduling tasks, setting up goals, or simply setting up countdown timers for cooking food. The alarm function is quite unique as you go on turning the middle section of the grenade to set the timer limit. The chick accessory can be hung onto wires or any tether to provide ambient lighting inside the tent, in outdoor space, or even for your work-from-home desk setup.
The Titanium Transforming Pocket Blade is a fully functional pocket blade through and through, in a sleek and compact form! In fact, it’s small enough to share space with your keys and has been blessed with some dashing good looks.
This cutting tool is laser-focused on delivering the precision, quality, and safety required for something that could cut both ways while still hiding a few tricks up its sleeves for good measure. And like all other multi-functional tools from Smart & Savior Designs, it still boasts of that hardened titanium body that will stand the test of time.
The Gerber Stake Out is a nifty multitool that’s perfect for all the outdoor adventures you undertake! It measures just 4.5 inches in the closed position and a maximum of 6.6 inches when the knife is being used. The super cool multi-tool conceals 11 tools and helps you with almost everything – from setting up a campfire to cooking a meal in the wilderness. The Scandi grind blade features a bottle opener, awl, Ferro rod striker, saw, file, and a pair of scissors.
There’s a tent stake puller for packing and getting the gear ready after setting camp during the nighttime. This is a very useful tool for campers as they can pack up tents in a way quicker time than normal. So, in a way, this utility is the USP of this multitool without any question. Add to the mix a ruler and pop-out tweezers, and you’ve got an all-purpose multitool convenient enough to carry with you all the time.
Looking like a prop from a sci-fi movie, the Grouper utility knife comes with a stunning design featuring a titanium construction, a parallel-linkage opening mechanism with ball-bearing pivots, and should you choose, an absolutely breathtaking rainbow finish.
The knife, which measures a mere 4.3 inches (110mm) when closed, comes with a carabiner clip on one end, and a tungsten carbide glass breaker on the other end. Open it out, and the now 6.2-inch-long knife reveals its TAJIMA V-REX II blade on the inside, perfect for opening boxes, slicing envelopes, or doing more rogue cyberpunk-worthy stuff like slicing wires and cutting seatbelts.
The post Top 10 EDC designs every guy needs in his tool box first appeared on Yanko Design.
In our ongoing quest to find collaborative cultural spaces that inspire social engagement as much as they encourage workflow, NeueHouse has become a multipurpose epicenter for COOL HUNTING. Though our NYC-based editorial team gathers at NeueHouse Madison Square each week, the other thoughtfully designed and carefully programmed outposts—including the brand new NeueHouse Venice Beach and its alluring rooftop oasis, Reunion—act as hubs for community.
Though it’s NeueHouse’s third Southern California location for creators, the 23,000-square-foot Venice Beach building is the first in the portfolio to sit just two blocks from the ocean. Bright and artfully imagined, this latest addition aligns with the architectural values of the other LA houses—from Hollywood, in the original CBS Studios, to Bradbury, in Downtown LA’s beloved landmark of the same name.
Anwar Mekhayech, co-founder of the highly awarded international studio DesignAgency (which had its 25th anniversary this year), developed the visual identity of NeueHouse Venice Beach. DesignAgency also spearheaded Bradbury, the restaurant and cafe at Hollywood and the 11th floor of Madison Square. “For Venice, we first walked the building three years ago,” Mekhayech tells us. “A lot of magic came from conversations with the owner, Tony Bill, a filmmaker with so many stories. Hanging out with him and hearing what used to happen on Market Street, it was so inspirational. It led to this sense that we could create a clubhouse of sorts in a special pocket of Venice.”
“It was a complete gut-job refurbishment with seismic upgrades,” Mekhayech says of the property, which previously provided office space for Snapchat. “Everything was boarded up and closed. There was no daylight. Our work was all about reviving the building and figuring out how to use the space.” To do so, DesignAgency combined two structures: 73 Market Street, the more historic corner building, and 63 Market Street, the warehouse building attached to it. Through this unification, they were able to activate the entire corner.
To hone the aesthetic, DesignAgency committed to a simple palette. “It’s not too beach-y and it’s not too midcentury modern, but it hits those notes,” Mekhayech says. It’s really earthy, with those materials and textures.” Altogether, Mekhayech and his team worked toward a feeling.
“We had what NeueHouse wanted to achieve and we checked those boxes but it was really much more organic,” he says. “It was about a couple of design narratives that we were thinking about; but it was more about the vibe and the culture and the activity of the space. It flows very well. You can wander through the space, up and down, and into the gallery.”
Mekhayech notes that it all comes down to the details—and that it will take a couple of times for people to observe everything that comes together to make it magnificent. He also says that details, color and textures will vary depending on the time of day. “When you are there at eight in the morning, in comparison to six at night, it has a whole different feeling,” he says. “That’s part of NeueHouse: you are there sometimes for 12 hours. The way the light hits the space throughout the day is really magical.”
There are thoughtful attributes galore—from the numerous plants to the big garage doors that open out to the street (a structural element that will surely influence programming opportunities). Perhaps most powerful among these flourishes, however, is the art. More than 20 works grace the walls, with pieces ranging from a David Hockney original to Shizu Saldamando’s “Portrait of Taco,” and contributions by Alison Saar, Rebecca Campbell, Venice local Charles Arnoldi and his daughter Natalie Arnoldi.
Caroline Brennan (of the art and design studio Silent Volume), an architect by trade and a member of the founding design team at NeueHouse, curated the space. “The foundation of every NeueHouse space has been that it’s designed like a home,” Brennan tells us. “We ask ourselves, ‘How do you make everyone, from all walks of life, feel comfortable through design, materials and even plants?’ We take into consideration color, size and texture. Location is the final layer.”
Some of Brennan’s approach to art curation is about pushing boundaries and being provocative, some of it is also about being pragmatic and representational. “It’s a mix of mediums and artists. There are women, the Black community and LGBTQ+ artists represented. It showcases young and established artists. We wanted to make sure local artists were represented too.”
Brennan, much like Mekhayech, listened to the building’s owner. “We worked with Tony,” she says. “We looked at Venice today and the lifestyle of Venice and how it’s changed since Tony got the building in the ’70s. We also looked to the daylight the building receives. We didn’t want anything dark or heavy. We wanted the artworks to sing in these well-lit spaces.”
Brennan brought in Pamela Auchincloss of ELEVEN+, a collective of international women curators, as a curatorial collaborator (the two had also worked together on NeueHouse Hollywood and Madison Square). “I used NeueHouse Venice Beach as an opportunity to reinvestigate and reengage the local art scene,” Auchincloss tells us. “When we started, we were both in charge of the mood for the New York and Hollywood houses. We had a great opportunity to set the tone of each space. With Venice Beach, some of the filters and parameters were oriented around logistics but it’s really kind of a dance. Art is the foundation of creative enterprise. Part of the thinking in the art at NeueHouse is that it mines the creative process.” Pieces on display have been consigned for 12 months and the program is a living one that will continue to develop.
As with the design of Venice Beach, the art program also impacts programming. “It’s not just about making the space look pretty,” Brennan says. “It’s about how we can get the artist involved—how they can be involved with events and programming. The foundation of the art program is about community. The art itself is the gateway to these artists, but there is a huge focus on furthering the relationship.” The art is also impactful, an observation that applies to the other NeueHouse locations, as well.
“Community is at the center of what makes Venice Beach so iconic,” Martine Bury, the Vice President of Programming and Experiential, tells us. “Just think about the Venice artists and counter-culture figures—from the beat poets to skaters of Dogtown who’ve captured our imaginations. Programming for NeueHouse Venice Beach takes inspiration and direction from our resident members at the new house, many of whom are anchoring our activations from panel discussions to immersive art experiences to music performances.” Altogether, creative energy exudes from every wall of NeueHouse Venice Beach—and members get to bask in it beneath the Southern California sun.
Images courtesy of NeueHouse
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