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News: Finnish design company Marimekko‘s classic floral print will appear on the livery of two Finnair aeroplanes as part of a collaboration that also includes a range of textiles and tableware for use onboard.

A Finnair Airbus A340 featuring Marimekko’s signature Unikko floral print from 1964 is already operating between Helsinki and Asian destinations, and another aircraft in Marimekko livery will appear next year.

From spring 2013 all of the Finnish flag carrier’s aeroplanes will use the Marimekko for Finnair tableware collection, which includes teapots, cups, plates and napkins.

“We hope that Marimekko’s sympathetic Unikko poppy flowers flying up in the sky as well as our other iconic prints as a part of the in-flight experience bring joy to people around the world,” said Mika Ihamuotila, Marimekko’s President and CEO. “I believe that the Marimekko and Finnair design collaboration will bring to hectic and often grey air travel joy, peace of mind and beautiful memories.”

The Marimekko products will be available for purchase by Finnair customers for the duration of the three-year collaboration.

Several national carriers have recently teamed up with home-grown design talent to give their services a local touch. Earlier this year we reported on news that Dutch designer Hella Jongerius was creating new cabin interiors for KLM, while fellow Dutch designer Marcel Wanders produced a set of tableware for the Dutch airline in 2010. Before that, Australian designer Marc Newson teamed up with Qantas Airways to design its First Class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne airports.

See all our stories about aircraft »
See all our stories about tableware »

Here’s the full press release from Marimekko:

Marimekko and Finnish airline company Finnair are teaming up to enhance the air travel experience with a new design partnership. From spring 2013 all Finnair aircraft will feature a Marimekko for Finnair collection of textiles and tableware, featuring Marimekko’s classic patterns. The Marimekko for Finnair collection is specially designed to add a light and fresh visual and tactile dimension to the onboard experience, while lightening the airline’s carbon footprint as well.

Two of Finnair’s long-haul aircraft will also wear livery based on Marimekko designs. An Airbus A340 featuring Maija Isola’s iconic Unikko floral print from 1964 is already operating between Helsinki and Finnair’s Asian destinations, and it will be followed by another aircraft in Marimekko livery in spring 2013.

“Finnair has a strong design heritage, and this cooperation brings our design thinking to a new level,” says Mika Vehviläinen, Finnair CEO. “Our goal is to become a design airline, and bring our customers unique experiences for all five senses. Cooperation with Marimekko is an important step towards this target. Finnair aircraft will become roving ambassadors of timeless Finnish design and creativity, giving our customers a special experience when they fly with us.”

”We hope that Marimekko’s sympathetic Unikko poppy flowers flying up in the sky as well as our other iconic prints as a part of the in-flight experience bring joy to people around the world,” says Mika Ihamuotila, Marimekko’s President and CEO. “Lately, we have wanted to connect Marimekko’s colourful design and fashion with surprising parties and forms of art, such as ballet, modern dance or visual arts. Now it is time to do something unforeseen up in the sky. I believe that the Marimekko and Finnair design collaboration will bring to hectic and often grey air travel joy, peace of mind and beautiful memories.”

During the three-year collaboration, an exclusive selection of Marimekko design products are also available for Finnair customers in in-flight sales and the Finnair Plus Shop.

In addition to adding value to the customer experience, both companies look forward to the collaboration helping build more awareness of their brands. Both companies have a long established presence in Japan but are growing rapidly in other Asian markets, China in particular.

“Finnair is a natural partner for Marimekko, as in my opinion it has been the first airline in the world to lift up design and place it strongly at the center of its service,” continues Ihamuotila. “With our collaboration we want to show how design can help improve the well-being of people in different moments of life. Furthermore, our design collaboration with Finnair supports our growth strategy, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, which is one of Marimekko’s key market areas.”

“Both of these brands are about bringing positivity, high quality and peace of mind to customers,” adds Vehviläinen. “We believe this collaboration will help generate new experiences and lasting, positive memories for a whole new generation of Finnair passengers in Asia.”

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News: architect David Adjaye has topped a list of Britain’s most influential black people, ahead of Olympic athlete Mo Farah, the shadow business secretary and the Archbishop of York.

The sixth annual PowerList, which ranks the top 100 black professionals regarded as role models in their field, also named make-up artist Pat McGrath and The Wire actor Idris Elba in its top 10.

Adjaye, who rebuilt his practice, Adjaye Associates, after entering a company voluntary arrangement in 2009 to avoid bankruptcy, is the first creative professional to be awarded the number one spot.

In the accompanying PowerList report, the architect described his joy after winning a “once in a hundred years” project to build the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., currently under construction. ”We had to present to the most illustrious board, including Oprah Winfrey and Colin Powell. I was shaking like I’d just walked into the epicentre of the universe,” he said. “But we won unanimously. It was extraordinary.”

The announcement is another accolade for the Tanzanian-born architect, who was named Designer of the Year at Design Miami in 2011 and awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to British architecture. Adjaye was also shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2006 for the Whitechapel Idea Store, a glass-fronted community building in a deprived part of east London.

Earlier this year we reported on two libraries completed by Adjaye Associates in Washington D.C. – a timber and glass building with a chequered facade and an elevated concrete structure with yellow timber fins.

We also previously recorded a Dezeen podcast with Adjaye to coincide with Urban Africa, an exhibition of his photographs of African cities at London’s Design Museum in 2010.

See all our stories about David Adjaye »

Photograph is by Ed Reeve.

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News: a tool that lets businesses measure and predict the financial outcomes of investing in design is being developed by a research team in Finland, whose project leader says designers should talk numbers rather than aesthetics to appeal to prospective clients.

The Design ROI tool is a collaboration between 15 Finnish design agencies and a team of academics at Aalto University in Helsinki, which was established in 2010 in the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki School of Economics.

“What we’ve set out to do is to create a methodology and metrics to measure the economic impact of design,” project leader Antti Pitkänen told Dezeen. The team analysed more than 40 internationally published academic papers to find out what design strategies businesses are investing in, whether they are benefiting from that investment and how to quantify those benefits.

The researchers also identified four areas of design in which businesses might invest: products; brands; spaces, such as offices and shops; and services, which covers how well a business responds to customers’ needs.

The first prototype of the tool is a complex spreadsheet that calculates the multiple variables affecting the return on investment (ROI) that design can deliver.

“We haven’t created a holy grail, but we’ve really tried to understand the problematics behind design ROI as well as creating some kind of understanding of the ‘ballpark’ return on the investment,” Pitkänen told Dezeen. “So if I invest £100,000, do I get £100,000 back or do I get twice that, or ten times that?”

Although it’s impossible to predict the exact return on an investment, said Pitkänen, the Design ROI tool can indicate a positive or negative result and suggest approximate figures. So while good design brings benefits that can’t be measured, designers should be thinking more about the bottom line if they want to bring clients onside, he continued.

“Design can be approached in a number of different ways. We can look at it on a qualitative basis – something is better than something else, or more beautiful. This is something that designers and design agencies are very efficient in talking about.

“But we also looked at financial measures and other quantitative measures, like the number of visits to a webpage. And with the financial measures, we’re looking at how design influences more money coming into the company, or less money going out.

“We looked at all the benefits that design has, but we focused on the link between design and what effect it has on the bottom line. And not only is it beneficial, but it’s possible to measure it.”

He suggested that designers could attract more clients by avoiding subjective language about the look and feel of a design in favour of talking about the clear financial benefits of investing in design.

“The core of the problem is that design agencies talk to people through references, and what’s very important is talking about the numbers as well,” Pitkänen said. “Once you are able to create metrics and create objectives for projects, then we start creating a better understanding of what the final outcome is. That will also increase the appreciation on the client side of why they’re using design and when design should be used.

“So it’s very much a communication tool, making the client understand how and when to use design, not only ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’.”

The prototype tool marks the end of the first phase of the Design ROI project. For the next phase, the researchers hope to collaborate with businesses and designers to fine-tune the tool and develop it for wider use.

The full report is available to read and download online, although it is only available in Finnish.

Top image is by Shutterstock.

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News: Norwegian studio Snøhetta has won a competition to design a waterside opera house in Busan, South Korea.

Just like the celebrated opera house the architects designed in Oslo, the proposed building will have a slanted roof that extends down to meet the ground, allowing visitors to climb up to a rooftop public square. Here, marble panels will cover the ground surface and a rooftop restaurant will offer a view towards the mountains.

The curved walls of the building will be glazed and lifted at two corners to create entrances on opposite sides.

The auditorium will be positioned at the heart of the building and will be lined with sound-absorbing cherry to enhance acoustics. Other proposed spaces include a foyer, a function room, a VIP room, rehearsal rooms, a restaurant and a staff canteen.

The Busan Opera House is set to open in 2018.

Read about the Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta in our earlier story or see all our stories about Snøhetta.

Here’s some more detailed information from Snøhetta:

Busan Opera House

The Opera today not only represents our cultural identity, much more than that, it is there to form, shape and create our growing cultural awareness and manifestation. We set increasingly stronger demands to the institution; it is no longer just a passive playground for the elite but can become interactive, democratic, giving as much as it takes, responding to our ambitions and expectations. The Opera house can become the most essential cultural expression that we have in our developed urban societies.
The Opera in Busan is a place to meet, a place to be together in our common cultural context.

The Busan Opera house relies on our current experience of contemporary opera buildings, including the interactive attraction of an open and inviting typology.

Some of the functions, especially its one level and horizontal functional layout is based on Snøhettas experience of designing easy flow and communications within such a building.

The form of the Busan Opera house is derived from its own context and culture.

The basis for the lay-out refers to Kun (Heaven) meeting Kon (Earth) which again meet Kam (Water). The classical trigrams of these elements both describe this site exceptionally well, whilst they refer to the historical and philosophical relationships that are of great importance to Korean culture. The slight bending of the surfaces in Snøhetta’s design are the bars of the trigrams slightly deformed to touch and meet each other in a subtle manner.

The geometry of the building consists of two opposing curves. The lower arching curve bridges the site and anchors the project in the ground. The upper embraces the sky and the Opera is created within the interplay of these surfaces, where the earth touches the sky and the mountains touch the sea. The four corners of the building connect the city and the cultural landmark to the sea. Two of these corners are lifted to form an entrance from the city and an entrance from the sea. These entrances are linked in a continuous public space, flowing around the Opera house and out into the public plaza. The upper plane is lifted on the opposite diagonal to accommodate the programmatic volume and to create an exterior plane that both arches down to the City and the sea at the same time as it peels upwards to meet the sea and the sky.

The compactness and sustainable elements of the project have great importance on economy, sustainability and long-term maintenance of the building.

Building upon the typologies we have previously developed in Oslo the Opera in Busan is changing earlier perceptions of the relationship between opera institutions and its users and the public. By designing an open, inviting and participative building typology, Busan will mark the entrance into a new era of global contemporary architecture reflecting today’s values of equality and democracies, effectively contributing to civic and cultural life on a broad level.

Snøhetta will remain loyal to our contextual and landscape oriented designs also in the future, because we believe this typology to be the most relevant connector between a contemporary public and a contemporary architecture.

Details – unpacking the box:

Soft wrapping: Spanning between the two public planes and enveloping the public functions is the soft flowing skin, offering protection and transparency to the foyer within and linking the ground plane to the roof plane in an unbroken movement. The facade is constructed of panels of glass and marble supported on a two way system of cables spanning between the upper and lower surface. The glazed panels allow for transparency and view in the more vertical sections. The Marble panels form the pedestrian surface rising to meet the roofscape above.

Auditorium: The Opera hall is conceived as a musical instrument. Precisely formed to resonate with the operatic acoustics and resonance. As with the foyer wall the auditorium is to be constructed from solid panels of Cherry wood. The less reflective and with deeper tones, these continuous surfaces envelope and surround the public in an ever changing weave of surfaces, designed precisely to reflect and resonate with the performance on stage. The choice is made for solid materials to maximise the acoustic performance. Particularly the side walls and balcony fronts change in profile and angle to best reflect and resonate with music and performance. Centrally placed above the Parterre is the main lantern. Not in use during performances, this provides an ambient light before and after performances.

Roof Level: The upper surface is a plane of reflection and contemplation set apart from the bustle of the ground. Open and accessible to all, the roof level enjoys un-rivalled views to the mountains and the ocean. This marble surface, punctuated by a grove of flowering trees is the setting for the Fly Tower Restaurant.

Level 4: The top level is dedicated to the administration. These areas enjoy views out to the rooftop atrium garden and direct vertical communication to both the Front and Back of house areas. In front of house there is a public access to the second balcony at this level.

Level 3: This level houses the Academy, rehearsal rooms and staff canteen. This allows for the contact and synergies between the rehearsals areas and the Academy. Direct vertical communication links these areas with the performance space, support areas and changing facilities.

Level 2: Here you find the VIP room. This level provides public access to the first balcony and is the location of the balcony restaurant and bar.

Level 1: This level is the location for the Function room. These facilities enjoy the views out over the foyer and direct access to the first balcony seats.

Level 0: This level is the location for main front of house foyer, restaurant and public entrance to the Parterre. The foyer space wraps around two sides of the building towards the sea. The foyer is entered either from the city side drop off, Parkside or from the Seaside board walk. The foyer provides entrance to all the main public facilities. The main conference hall provides a flexible space that can be utilised for all conference and banquet activities, as well as providing a 2nd stage option with flexible seating and stage possibilities. At level 0 Back of house contains the large rehearsal rooms, performance support, stage, stage making areas. All areas are connected to the main back of house corridor, loading dock and staff entrance.

Level -1: Back of house these levels are the location for the dressing rooms and orchestra rehearsals room. All areas connect directly by vertical communication to the stage and performance areas above. The Exhibition centre is located on this level with a direct entrance to the main foyer above. The public cloakrooms and toilets are located at this lower level.

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News: design fairs need to be better designed to provide a better experience to visitors, according the curator of the Interieur design biennale in Kortrijk, Belgium, which opened this weekend (+ interview).

Above: Audi shuttle service linking the Xpo and Buda Island locations

“A lot of them are not designed,” said Lowie Vermeersch, the former design director at automotive designer Pininfarina. “To have good design you also need to have culture; you need artistic aspirations.”

Above: layout of Interieur 2012

Vermeersch said that most design fairs are confusing, badly planned and too large for visitors to enjoy. “I sometimes get a bit frustrated coming back from Milan and feeling that even though I travelled a lot, I missed a lot,” he told Dezeen. “It’s a lot of logistics while you’re there, and a lot of planning. It would be better to just focus on exploring the design, and cut out all the logistic considerations you have to make to plan your day.”

Above: graphics made for Interieur 2012

Vermeersch, who was born in Kortrijk and became curator of the fair last year, has introduced an urban-style layout at the Xpo building on the edge of the city, that houses the trade fair part of the event, complete with boulevards, lanes and squares with bars and restaurants.

Above: cafe at Buda Island

In addition there is a cluster of exhibitions at Buda Island in the city. The two locations are linked by a continuous shuttle service provided by Audi, which is free to all visitors. “The whole visit should be pleasant experience,” said Vermeersch. “For me Interieur is a real design event, not just because it’s showing design, but also because it’s conceived as design.”

Above: cafe at Buda Island

Dotted around both the Xpo building and the Buda Island locations are a series of exhibits responding to the Biennale’s central theme, Future Primitives, with specially commissioned projects by designers including Troika, Greg Lynn, Nendo and Ross Lovegrove.

Above: Future Primitive installation by Greg Lynn. Image by Wouter van Vaerenbergh

In April we published a video interview with Vermeersch, in which he set out his vision for Interieur. The fair has taken place every two years since 1968 and is organised by the not-for-profit Interieur Foundation. This year’s event  runs until 28 October.

Above: Future Primitive installation by Greg Lynn. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Here’s the transcript of the interview, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in Kortrijk yesterday:

Marcus Fairs: There’s more and more design festivals, design weeks, design events and so on. It’s  intimidating and exhausting to visit them all. How can design events stand out from the crowd?

Lowie Vermeersch: For me, value lies in compactness. Being compact means every visitor sees everything, so there’s no risk of getting lost in the overload of quantity that we sometimes see.

If you come to Kortrijk, the expo and the events on Buda Island are connected continuously by the shuttle service available for everybody, so there’s a kind of mental rest. You don’t even have to plan your visit. Everything is selected and curated, and it’s served to you on a pleasant scale. We don’t want to only select the big brands, we want to show people new things.

Secondly, there’s something also we worked very much on, that the whole visit should be pleasant experience. You can see very clearly in the expo that it’s not just a regular grid; it’s more a city plan with lanes, big streets, small streets, and squares with integrated bars and restaurants. So the whole thing is just a pleasant experience in itself.

Marcus Fairs: Do you think that design fairs are often unpleasant experiences?

Lowie Vermeersch: For me yes. I come from another type of business, automotive design, and I get annoyed when I lose myself between the numbers of the corridors. Every corner is a response to what you already expected. The unexpected is a big thing in not getting annoyed or bored. This is what we tried to do with the scenography: there’s unexpected corners, each time you turn a corner there’s a new setting. I think that helps to keep your sense also awake.

Above: Future Primitive installation by Nendo. Image by Wouter van Vaerenbergh

Marcus Fairs: Do you think that most design fairs are quite badly designed?

Lowie Vermeersch: I think, honestly, a lot of them are not designed. I think a lot of them start from more rational, economical thinking, which to a certain extent is in contrast with the fact that design has that rational economic part but it also has a cultural part. To have good design you also need to have culture; you need artistic aspirations. Interiuer wants to reflect that mix between the economical and the cultural, which design itself is. And for me Interieur is a real design event, not just because it’s showing design, but also because it’s conceived as design.

Marcus Fairs: How important is it for people to get out of the expo hall in a design fair, and enjoy the city? Because Kortrijk is actually a really pleasant little city.

Lowie Vermeersch: I thought it was very important. Again, it’s about creating different impressions, different experiences, so you stay awake. When I was asked to be curator, I thought that the city of Kortrijk, and especially this constellation of buildings that we have here on Buda Island in the centre of the city, had potential that was never fully explored before. They had been some editions [of the fair] where there were a few things in the city, but now with this edition we really want to show the potential of Kortrijk and I’m happy to see a lot of people discover Kortrijk.

Above: Future Primitive installation by Troika. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Marcus Fairs: What’s your experience of Milan?

Lowie Vermeersch: Milan is a must-go, but personally I sometimes get a bit frustrated coming back from Milan and feeling that even though I travelled a lot, I missed a lot. You can’t free up five days to go to see everything. And that’s sometimes a bit of frustration to me. It’s a lot of logistics while you’re there, and a lot of planning. It would be better to just focus on exploring the design, and cut out all the logistic considerations you have to make to plan your day.

Marcus Fairs: So the experience needs to be designed a bit better.

Lowie Vermeersch: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s a parallel with what design itself is doing. Any object is a means to create an experience So why should an event that wants to share that design, not be conceived itself like that?

Above: Future Primitive installation by Muller van Severen. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Marcus Fairs: How do you approach a huge event like Milan? How do you navigate it?

Lowie Vermeersch: This is personally something I feel: you go to Milan, you open the programme and there is such an abundance of things. It is impossible to go and see everything. So you have to make a selection based on the knowledge you already have, even though it’s more interesting to go and discover things you don’t know about yet. This is why here, on purpose, we mixed the whole thing together so that people will be surprised and confronted with some things that otherwise maybe they would not choose to go to.

Marcus Fairs: So, for example, the come to see the Ross Lovegrove installation because they have heard of him, and then they walk out and into something more unexpected?

Lowie Vermeersch: Exactly. This is a good example of how I created the Biennale. On one hand there is a mix of projects by Ross Lovegrove right next to totally unknown guys doing fantastic research on materials. But, from a content point of view they are linked to each other. It is both about really advanced technology that is so advanced that it touches nature, so from a content point of view, for me, they are related. But in terms of the consciousness of the public, they are not related yet.

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