Hasta La Ideas

The Dezeen team jets off to Milan next week for the yearly furniture fair, where we’ll be filming interviews at our Dezeen and MINI World Tour Studio. We were all about the chill-out tracks earlier in the week, but now Salone is nearly upon us we thought we better start getting in the party spirit. This thumping house track by UK-based DJ Will Matiu does the job nicely.

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by Will Matiu appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architects and designers including Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Ross Lovegrove, and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have sent an open letter to Milan’s mayor calling for the reinstatement of architect and editor Stefano Boeri (above), who was sacked last week as the city’s councillor for design, fashion and culture.

In the letter, signatories including Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, French design duo Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and Domus magazine editor-in-chief Joseph Grima expressed their “regret and disappointment” over Boeri’s sudden exit.

“This unmotivated dismissal seems to us inexplicable,” states the letter to Mayor Giuliano Pisapia, which was also signed by architects Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Bjarke Ingels of BIG.

“Stefano Boeri is one of Italy’s foremost cultural exponents: he has taught in universities in Italy and abroad, curated exhibitions, designed buildings and written books that have been translated into many languages.

“Thanks to Boeri’s many initiatives […] Milan had finally succeeded in reaffirming itself forcefully on the international stage as an epicentre of art, design, fashion and culture.

The letter closes by urging the mayor to “put personal differences aside” and reconsider his decision to dismiss Boeri.

Trained as an architect, Boeri had relinquished a teaching post at Politecnico di Milano and resigned as editor-in-chief of Abitare magazine in order to become a councillor for Mayor Pisapia, to whom he had narrowly lost in the primary round of the mayoral election.

Since taking up the role in June 2011, his efforts to promote Milan’s reputation for art, design and culture included Piano City, a scheme encouraging piano-playing residents to perform concerts in their living rooms, and Book City, a festival of readings, author talks and literary events.

He also organised major exhibitions of artists such as Picasso, Bramantino, Jeff Wall and Marina Abramovic, another of the letter’s signatories.

His unexpected departure comes just a fortnight before thousands of international guests descend on the city for the Salone del Mobile and numerous other design events and exhibitions taking place alongside it – see all news and products from Milan 2013.

We previously reported on a complex of buildings completed by Stefano Boeri Architetti in northern Sardinia.

Here is the letter and the full list of signatories:

March 27th, 2013

Dear Mayor Pisapia,

It is with regret and disappointment that we learn that Stefano Boeri was dismissed from his position as Councillor for Design, Fashion and Culture for the city of Milan.

Thanks to the energy and commitment of Boeri, and despite the deepening of the gravest crisis to have faced Italy since the postwar years, since 2011 Milan has succeded in projecting an image of renewed cultural vibrancy and dynamism onto the international stage. Thanks to Boeri’s many initiatives — citywide events such as Book City and Piano City, or international exhibitions of internationally renowned artists such as the Marina Abramovic, Picasso, Bramantino, Alberto Garutti and Jeff Wall — Milan had finally succeeded in reaffirming itself forcefully on the international stage as an epicentre of art, design, fashion and culture.

This unmotivated dismissal deprives Milan of one of its greatest assets—an individual who possesses the intelligence, energy, motivation and global network of relationships needed to make Milan an unrivaled protagonist of the European cultural scene of the 21st century. Stefano Boeri is one of Italy’s foremost cultural exponents: he has taught in universities in Italy and abroad, curated exhibitions, designed buildings and written books that have been translated into many languages. As such, this unmotivated dismissal seems to us inexplicable.

In this moment of grave crisis, we urge you to put personal differences aside and, for the good of the city, reconsider your decision.

Yours sincerely,

Marina Abramović – Artist, New York
Iwan Baan – Photographer, Amsterdam
Tatiana Bilbao – Architect, Tatiana Bilbao Architects, Ciudad de Mexico
Daniel Birnbaum – Director, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Petra Blaisse – Landscape Architect, Inside Outside, Rotterdam
Erica Bolton and Jane Quinn – Directors, Bolton Quinn, London
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Designers, Paris
Maurizio Cattelan – Artist, Milan
Teddy Cruz – Architect, Teddy Cruz Architects, San Diego
Chris Dercon – Director, Tate Modern, London
Elizabeth Diller – Architect, New York
Jimmie Durham – Artist, Berlin
Okwui Enwezor – Curator, Munich
Amos Gitai – Film Director, Tel Aviv – Paris
Joseph Grima – Editor in chief, Domus, Milan
Zaha Hadid – Architect, Zaha Hadid Architects, London
Nikolaus Hirsch – Dean, Städelschule Frankfurt
Li Hu – Architect, Beijing
Bjarke Ingles – Architect, Bjarke Ingels Group Architects, Copenhagen
Rem Koolhaas – Architect, Rotterdam
Koyo Kouoh – Art Editor, Dakar
Armin Linke – Photographer, Berlin
Ross Lovegrove – Designer, London
Qingyun Ma – Architect, Shanghai
Michael Maltzan – Architect, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Los Angeles
Giancarlo Mazzanti – Architect, Mazzanti Arquitectos, Bogotà
Shelley McNamara & Yvonne Farrell – Architects, Grafton Architects, Dublin
Mohsen Mostafavi – Dean, GSD Harvard, Cambridge
Alexei Muratov – Journalist, Moscow
Jean Nouvel – Architect, Paris
Hans Ulrich Obrist – Co-director, Serpentine Gallery, London
Julia Peyton Jones – Director Serpentine Gallery, London
Bas Princen – Photographer, Amsterdam
Edi Rama – Artist and politician, Tirana
Anri Sala – Artist, Paris
Tomas Saraceno – Artist, Berlin
Milica Topalovic – Architect, Zurich

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Brides and Bees by South African DJ Floyd Lavine blends techno rhythms with the sounds of soul music to create a track that’s smooth, laid-back and danceable all at the same time.

We used the track on our latest movie from our Dezeen and MINI World Tour, which you can watch here.

We discovered Lavine at the inaugural Design Indaba Music Circuit in Cape Town last week.

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by Floyd Lavine appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a call for submissions of events and activities for Cape Town’s stint as World Design Capital next year was launched during the Design Indaba conference and expo in the city last week.

Cape Town Design, the not-for-profit organisation set up to organise the programme, officially opened its first call for submissions during Design Indaba last week and designers have until 5 April to send in their proposals. The second and final call for submissions will open in July.

Proposals must be submitted online through the official website, after which a panel will select the ideas that best address the themes of social inclusion, African innovation and sustainability.

As the first African city to be chosen as World Design Capital, Cape Town is planning a programme of design-focused events throughout 2014 to draw attention to its efforts to use design for social, cultural and economic development.

Cape Town’s winning bid, based on the slogan “Live Design. Transform Life”, is focused on socially responsible design and how design could be used to tackle the huge imbalances in South African society.

The South African capital beat off competition from shortlisted rivals Bilbao and Dublin to be named World Design Capital back in 2011, following in the footsteps of previous winners Helsinki, Seoul and Turin.

Dezeen was in Cape Town last week during Design Indaba, where we filmed a movie with the conference’s founder Ravi Naidoo – find out more about Dezeen and MINI World Tour, which continues throughout 2013.

See all news and architecture from Cape Town »

Photograph shows World Design Capital 2014 flags flying in Cape Town.

Here’s more information from Cape Town Design:

Cape Town’s bid to be World Design Capital 2014 forms part of a broader vision to transform Cape Town, through design, into a sustainable, productive African city, bridging historic divides and building social and economic inclusion.

Cape Town was designated World Design Capital 2014 at the International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress in October 2011 in Taipei. This prestigious designation is bestowed biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). World Design Capitals recognise the value of design thinking, and are dedicated to using design as tool for social, cultural and economic development. Previous winners have been Helsinki, Seoul and Turin, and Cape Town won the 2014 bid against fierce competition from rival shortlisted cities, Bilbao and Dublin.

Winning the bid means that Cape Town gets to play host to a number of World Design Capital Signature Events during 2014, including an International Design House Exhibition, International Design Policy Conference and an International Design Gala, to name a few. This is good news for Cape Town, not just in terms of a boost in visitor numbers, but also because there will be loads of opportunities for our creative communities to get involved as exhibitors, speakers, delegates, partners and suppliers. Not to mention a myriad of inspiring events for all citizens to experience. Importantly, World Design Capital means that local initiatives will get the benefit of the global spotlight during 2014. Think more media, more exposure and many great networking possibilities.

The central theme behind the city’s successful bid, “Live Design. Transform Life”, focused on the role that design can play in social transformation in the city. It sets the tone and will now form the foundation for the development of an inspiring programme of World Design Capital-themed events and projects. Under the overarching theme, four themes have been developed to bring clarity and simplicity to the process of submission and curation of proposals – and later, to help to allocate content and to attract potential sponsors to the various platforms and WDC 2014 Signature Events. The themes are also designed to ignite the imagination of the public, and to contribute towards a greater understanding of the multi-faceted nature of design.

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its year as World Design Capital 2014 appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen is at Design Indaba in Cape Town all this week, for the first stop on our Dezeen and MINI World Tour. For the first year at Design Indaba, there is a music festival running alongside the main conference, which is showcasing a range of exciting South African musical talents, and we’ll be choosing some of our favourites to feature on Dezeen Music Project.

Spoek Mathambo will be closing the conference on Friday, which gives us the perfect excuse to feature his excellent ‘township tech’ cover of Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control.

Make sure you also check out the excellent music video for the track.

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by Spoek Mathambo appeared first on Dezeen.