Dezeen Wire: Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is to build an eco-housing development next to London’s Olympic park in Stratford. A spokesman for Ikea has claimed that the 1,200 home scheme featuring its own water power plant, school, health surgery and nursery will be “the newest and most interesting development in the whole area” – London Evening Standard
Dezeen Wire: Design Matters, an online design talk show and podcast has won the People’s Design Award, voted for by the public and organised by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Design Matters was created by branding expert and author Debbie Millman and features interviews with leading creatives such as Stefan Sagmeister, Steven Heller and Neville Brody.
Bill Moggridge, director of the museum said of the winning entry: “Design Matters harnesses the power of online radio to communicate insights about design, great design minds and the lives of designers. I’m thrilled that the public has chosen to honor it.”
Here is some more information from the Cooper-Hewitt:
Design Matters Wins the 2011 People’s Design Award
The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum presented its sixth People’s Design Award to Design Matters, a show about design and culture, Thursday, Oct. 20, at its 12th annual National Design Awards gala in New York. White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard and musician and fashion designer Pharrell announced the winning design and presented the award to Design Matters creator Debbie Millman.
After thousands of votes were cast during the course of the People’s Design Award competition, Design Matters emerged as the public’s favorite design. Offered as a free design podcast, Design Matters features interviews with designers, artists and cultural leaders, including Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Kruger, Malcolm Gladwell, Eric Kandel, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, Michael Arad, Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher, Steven Heller, Jonah Lehrer, among others.
Launched in 2005 on Voice America Business Network, Design Matters is now exclusively published on Design Observer and all broadcasts can be downloaded for free on iTunes. Under the editorial direction of William Drenttel, Design Observer encompasses five channels of programming and publishes more than 400 essays and features a year on design, urbanism, social innovation and visual culture.
“Design Matters harnesses the power of online radio to communicate insights about design, great design minds and the lives of designers,” said Bill Moggridge, director of the museum. “I’m thrilled that the public has chosen to honor it.”
Previous winners of the People’s Design Award include Marianne Cusato, designer of the Katrina Cottage, Toms Shoes, the Zōn Hearing Aid, the Trek Lime Bicycle and the Braille Alphabet Bracelet.
About the People’s Design Award
Launched Sept. 21, the People’s Design Award website received more than 100 nominations and thousands of votes. By logging on to www.cooperhewitt.org, users were able to browse and vote from the existing nominees or upload images to nominate a new object. Among this year’s nominees were the High Line, the iPad2, the Aqua Building and WordPress software.
The People’s Design Award is part of Cooper-Hewitt’s largest public education initiative, National Design Week, Oct. 15 though Oct. 23. The museum offers a series of public programs and a range of online resources for students, teachers, design professionals and the general public to celebrate the important role that design plays in all aspects of daily life. In recognition of the importance of design education, organizations and schools nationwide also will sponsor events during National Design Week.
About the National Design Awards
First launched at the White House as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the awards were established to broaden awareness of the role of design in daily life by honoring individuals in all areas of design, as well as its patrons and supporters. The National Design Awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including lectures, roundtable discussions and workshops. For more information, visit www.nationaldesignawards.org.
About Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational programs, exhibitions and publications.
Dezeen Wire: architectural researchers Arch-Vision have published a report demonstrating that demand for sustainable building materials across Europe is increasing.
The survey of 1,200 architects found that customers in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain were willing to invest more in sustainable materials, although demand has decreased in the UK and Italy.
The following information is from Arch-Vision:
Increasing willingness to invest in sustainable building materials in Europe
The demand for sustainable materials in Europe is growing. Principals do not only ask more for sustainability, but they are also more willing to invest in it. These are some of the results of Q3 2011 report of the European Architectural Barometer, a quarterly study among 1,200 architects in Europe.
The architects from almost all countries, besides the UK and Italy, are reporting that more principals are starting to ask for sustainability products.
The highest willingness to invest in sustainable materials is found among the principals in Germany (53%) and France (52%) – either because in the long run, investments like this pay of, or because their customers understand their benefits.
In Germany, France and the Netherlands, the demand for sustainable material has advanced most visibly compared to the Q 3 2010 survey. In Q3 2011, more principals asked and were willing to pay for sustainable products than in Q3 2010 when respectively: 26% of the German, 26% of the French and 26% of the Dutch architects had experienced demand for sustainable materials with principals ready to pay for.
In Spain, the importance of sustainability is also growing among principals (from 5% in 2010 to 22% willing to pay the price for it in 2011).
Diminishing numbers of principals ready to invest in sustainable materials can be observed in the UK and Italy. The market in Italy is going through one of the most difficult periods for the sector, which might possibly cause this downfall.
These and many other results and trends of the development of the European construction market can be found in the European Architectural Barometer, an international research among 1,200 architects in Europe. Four times a year, this study is conducted by Arch-Vision in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Besides indicators to forecast European building volumes, a topic is highlighted each quarter (in Q3 2011, the special topic is sustainability). Architects can be used not only as a reliable source for future building volumes information, but their role is very important as they have great influence on how projects are built and which materials are used.
Dezeen Wire: a tower on the site of the United Nations‘ campus in New York by Pritzker Prize winning architect Fumihiko Maki that has been on hold since 2004 has been given the green light to continue development – The New York Observer
Maki’s proposal for a long, narrow 35-storey tower on the same site as buildings by Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier was stalled by political arguments between the U.N. and the City of New York. The design will now need to undergo alterations ahead of a planning application and is due to break ground in 2013.
Dezeen Wire: architecture critic Jay Merrick lauds the forthcoming exhibition Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-35 at the Royal Academy in London and explains how the bold, fragmented imagery of this period has influenced contemporary architects from Zaha Hadid to Rem Koolhaas – The Independent
Merrick delves into the historical circumstances that informed the revolutionary approach to creativity of artists and architects such as El Lissitzky, Alexandr Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin, stating that “in a world awash with ‘iconic’ architecture, nothing comes even close to radiating the raw potency of this truly revolutionary form.”
Dezeen Wire: architects including Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Foster + Partners and Snøhetta have submitted plans to a controversial competition that proposes the transformation of a Victorian public gardens in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Models of the six shortlisted entries were unveiled at a public exhibition yesterday but Andrew MacGregor, secretary of the protest group Friends of Union Terrace Gardens, condemned the designs as an “absolute abomination” and said there would be rolling public protests by supporters who want to keep the gardens as they are – The Scotsman
Dezeen Wire: the Design Museum has announced that the building at Butler’s Wharf in London, which has been its home since 1989, is up for sale.
The museum will continue to present exhibitions at the building until 2014 when it will relocate to the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington, which is to be converted by architect John Pawson.
Here is some more information from the Design Museum:
Design Museum Building Up For Sale
The former warehouse building originally built in the 1950s and used to ripen bananas imported from the Caribbean, which is the current home of the Design Museum at Shad Thames, Butlers Wharf, London is up for sale through Cushman & Wakefield. The museum has occupied the building since 1989 and will continue its busy programme of exhibitions at the site until its new home at the former Commonwealth Institute opens in 2014.
The sale is the result of the Design Museum’s plans to relocate to the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. The move will give the Design Museum three times more space to show a wide range of exhibitions and showcase its collection. The ambition is to create the world’s leading design museum.
The Conran Foundation currently owns the lease of the Shad Thames building and has pledged to donate the proceeds from the sale of the lease to the Design Museum’s capital project.
Leading designer John Pawson will convert the interior of the Commonwealth Institute building to create a new home for the Design Museum. The scheme for the surrounding development designed by Rem Koolhaass’s OMA was granted planning permission in July 2010.
Dezeen Wire: American architect Frank Gehry has said that ”people are asking good questions” about his divisive design for a memorial to America’s 34th president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The proposal features large metal tapestries hung from 80-foot-tall columns and set in a landscaped park. At a presentation to fellow architects at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington on Tuesday evening, Gehry insisted that concerns voiced by the public and Eisenhower’s grandchildren about the concept and scale of the project would be taken on board ahead of a planning application on 1 December – The Associated Press
Dezeen Wire: here is a roundup of reports following the announcement that Danish company Bystrup have won the UK Pylon Design Competition, organised by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the National Grid, and the Royal Institute of British Architects.
In The Guardian, architecture critic Jonathan Glancey described the winning entry as “a spare and quietly elegant Danish design” but came across a dissenting voice in Flash Wilson Bristow, founder of Britain’s Pylon Appreciation Society who says ”The winning design is OK, but it’s a pole and not a pylon.”
The BBC spoke to architect Rasmus Jessing from Bystrup who said that the simple form was a reaction to the existing 1920s model, known in Denmark as the “grumpy old men” design.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne is quoted in The Independent, adding: ”We are going to need a lot more pylons over the next few years to connect new energy to our homes and businesses, and it is important that we do this is in the most beautiful way possible.”
You can see the full shortlist for the competition on Dezeen.
Dezeen Wire: The New York Times claims that Antilia, the 27-storey house in Mumbai owned by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is still acting as a pricey pied-à-terre, with Ambani’s family choosing to spend their time in a more modest 14-storey converted apartment block in the south of the city – The New York Times
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
