Hasta La Ideas

Interest in conservation and small scale development is growing in China, according to Shanghai architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, whose conversion of a former colonial police station opened in the city this month (+ movie).

The Design Republic Commune, designed by Neri&Hu, contains a new flagship store for the architects’ design retail brand Design Republic, as well as a centre for exhibitions and events.

Neri explains how restoration projects like this are common in the west, but that in China you are more likely to find entirely new interiors within historic buildings, which he describes as a “bling-bling experience”. However, he insists that interest in conservation is growing.

“The western media likes to portray China as this big behemoth, bigger, better, richer, crasser version of America,” Neri says. “[But] you would be surprised. Because there is actually a group of people that are interested – even in the government, even in the business sector, even in the banking sector – in the small, the delicate, the things with meaning and purpose.”

This aspect of China has not been highlighted, he adds, “because it doesn’t sell newspapers”.

The Design Republic Commune features a restored exterior while the interior retains traces of its previous incarnations in the form of sections of exposed beams, brickwork, plaster and timber laths as well as salvaged signage. ”I think it’s very important for people who come into a historic building to have certain pieces of reality, to be able to touch the inside of the building,” adds Hu.

See more images of the Design Republic Commune in our earlier story, or read our interview with the architects about how Chinese architects need to develop their own design manifesto.

See all our recent stories about Shanghai »
See more stories about Neri&Hu »

Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.

The post “The western media likes to portray China
as this big behemoth” – Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie filmed by Dezeen, east London designer Paul Cocksedge describes his discovery of the interesting forms created when polystyrene cups are heated and how he used the process to create a pendant lamp.

Cocksedge first experimented with polystyrene cups ten years ago at the Royal College of Art as part of a project set by Ron Arad, who asked students to “grow a product”.

Above: image by Mark Cocksedge

“I placed the cup inside [the oven] and something really beautiful happened,” he explains. Heat distorts the shape of polystyrene while strengthening it, and Cocksedge made a movie of the process in reverse that looked like the cups were growing.

Above: image by Mark Cocksedge

He then built a large number of deformed cups into a sphere to create his Styrene lamp. ”As a designer we always search for form and interesting aesthetics, but this was like a dream come true because the heat was doing it for me,” he continues.

Above: image by Mark Cocksedge

The custom lamp he contributed to the Stepney Green Design Collection is 90cm in diameter – almost twice the size of the designs sold commercially – and was previously on display at the V&A Museum in London as part of an exhibition on British Design. Cocksedge has a studio in London Fields, east London, not far from Stepney Green.

The Stepney Green Design Collection consists of 10 products selected by Marcus Fairs of Dezeen from creatives who live near to VIVO, a new housing development in the east London district. The project also includes objects chosen by east London bloggers Pete Stean of Londoneer and Kate Antoniou of Run Riot.

Above: Styrene on display at the British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age exhibition at the V&A, 2012

The collection is on show at the Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, Whitechapel, London E1 4UJ, from 10am to 10pm every day until January. After this, the objects will be given to VIVO residents.

See all the items in the Stepney Green Design Collection here and watch the movies we’ve featured so far here. The music featured in the movies is by American designer and musician Glen Lib. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.

The post “Heat-shrinking the polystyrene cups created
beautiful shapes” – Paul Cocksedge appeared first on Dezeen.