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International auction house Sotheby’s has announced its acquisition of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s   Marcel Breuer-designed building on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

Sotheby’s has announced its acquire the building and turn it into a flagship gallery for the brand in order to display collections of art and luxury goods to the public.

The company said that it would employ an architect to “review and maintain” the structure after it takes possession in September 2024.

Widely jnown as the Breuer Building, 945 Madison Avenue was completed in 1966 as an additional location for New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. Currently, it is being used as a temporary home for art gallery The Frick Collection

“This is a truly unique opportunity to reimagine an iconic and globally renown architectural landmark in the ideal location, which will further distinguish us as we continue to transform and innovate for our clients,” said Sotheby’s CEO Charles F Stewart.

The brutalist building features a facade of concrete panels facade that steps back from the street creating a series of cantilevers. Only a few windows dot the side, extruding at angles from the concrete.

At one end, a large vertical wall shields the building from the adjacent structures.

In its plans for maintaining the structure, Sotheby’s mentioned the “striking lobby”, a space with stone flooring and ceiling completely covered with an array of gridded light fixtures.

Sotheby’s said that after it completes its move, the structure will remain open to the public, who can view the auction house’s collections before items are sold to private owners.

Some have lamented the change from museum to auction house. Writing in Curbed, art critic Jerry Saltz said that “auction houses are where art loses its identity and its dignity”.

Saltz noted that the building itself with its limited windows and austere interior felt like a “temple” where art is meant to be viewed.

Marcel Breuer was born in Hungary in 1902 and moved to the United States in 1937. He constructed a number of buildings in his adopted country, some of which have seen changes in purpose over the years, including a brutalist office building in Connecticut that recently reopened as a hotel.

The photography is by Max Touhey. 

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Dezeen Showroom: Italian design brand SoldiDesign has released an egg-shaped waste and recycling bin that provides a playful and sculptural alternative to conventional bins.

Ovetto, named after the Italian word for egg due to its oval shape, contains three compartments to allow for the easy sorting and disposal of waste and recyclable rubbish.

Users can drop items inside through pushing on one of three circular hatches, with the sides hinging open to access and remove the waste when full. An integrated bottle crusher is hidden on the crown of the bin.

All the openings sit flush with the bin’s curved shell when closed, allowing for it to become a statuesque statement piece rather than a purely functional object that is usually hidden away.

“Gianluca envisioned a world where elegant design objects will improve recycling habits and allow positioning of the bin in stylish interiors, without compromising on the functionality of the product,” said SoldiDesign.

Ovetto bins are available in a series of different finish collections including Galà, which is characterised by its glossy finishes and rich colours. The bins can be used in both residential and workplace settings.

Product: Ovetto
Designer: Gianluca Soldi
Brand: SoldiDesign
Contact: anna.sala@at11.uk

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As foldable phones start to become a little bit more common, it will also become harder for brands to stand out from the growing crowd. There’s definitely still a lot of room for improvement, of course, but many of the features have started to become more standard these days, especially those surrounding the all-important foldable screen. The challenge is even higher when trying to put out a successor to a successful first attempt, with the stakes now higher and the competition even tighter. That’s the difficult task that Vivo had to face in coming up with a successor to its notable first foldable phone, and so we take the Vivo X Fold 2 for a good run to see if it manages to overcome the odds or if it is a victim of the brand’s own success.

Designer: Vivo

Aesthetics

At first glance, the Vivo X Fold 2 immediately sets itself apart with its distinctive and elegant looks. Circular camera bumps seem to be the new trend, but not all styles are as pleasant to look at. Normally, one that isn’t centered would look a bit awkward and unbalanced, but Vivo manages to pull this one off thanks to a neat visual trick.

The non-screen backside of the phone is made from two materials. There’s a vertical strip on the side of the hinge that’s made of glossy glass, serving as an accent to the rest of the surface, which uses that oh-so-familiar faux leather material. Beyond giving the phone a unique visual, it also gives the illusion that the camera enclosure is sitting in the middle rather than off-center. That said, that camera design is a bit of a mixed bag. Its stepped design and textured ring make it stand out a bit less despite its height, but that small LED flash ring sticks out like a sore thumb and breaks the visual flow of the design, not to mention the necessary ZEISS branding that sits like a blue wart below the camera.

The Vivo X Fold 2 is definitely quite a looker, especially in the eye-catching red unit we were given for this review. Compared to its predecessor, it’s supposed to be thinner and lighter, though you won’t be able to easily tell even if you have both devices at hand. It’s definitely on the thin and light side compared to other foldables, but it’s certainly not the top of the pack in that aspect. What it is, however, is large, and it is possibly one of the largest in the foldable market, especially when it comes to screen size.

Like many other foldable phones outside of Samsung, Vivo uses a well-known water drop hinge to help make the crease less visible while also allowing the phone to fold shut completely. In both cases, the Vivo X Fold 2 doesn’t disappoint, but it’s not exactly a groundbreaking feat either. It would be more shocking if it actually did worse since it’s a more or less established technology at this point. Fortunately, you really don’t notice the crease that much unless you intentionally look for it, and the bright and large 8.03-inch inner display will be enough to distract you with the way it shows your content in vibrant and crisp colors, even outdoors under the sun.

Ergonomics

Now that the once ridiculed “phablet” has become the standard smartphone size, even for Apple, it is nearly impossible to use smartphones these days with a single hand. That is especially true for foldable phones, which transform into small tablets that you really need two hands for. When folded closed, however, the phone’s doubled thickness makes it even less comfortable to use with a single hand, no matter how large your hands might be.

This is probably truer for the Vivo X Fold 2 simply because it is larger than any other foldable phone. When folded, the 6.53-inch external display makes the surface area even less unwieldy. Fortunately, the phone’s textured back gives it a better grip than others of its kind. If you’re the type to still worry, though, Vivo includes a protective back case in the same color and, amusingly, the same vegan leather material as the phone itself.

The one thing that’s a bit easy to do with one hand is to unlock the phone. Thanks to housing an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor in the middle of the screen, you don’t have to fiddle with power buttons located on just one side of the phone. This is already a rare sight on foldable phones, but even more impressive is the fact that the Vivo X Fold 2 also has a similar in-display sensor on the inner display.

Performance

The Vivo X Fold 2 is equipped with top-of-the-line hardware you’d expect from a premium flagship this time of the year. That means a beefy Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of storage. What all these figures mean in practice is that it won’t be lacking in power, handling anything you throw at it with aplomb. There is, however, one caveat where the phone gets quite warm when playing graphics-intensive titles. It’s not hot enough to burn your skin, but it might make you want to pause the game a bit, especially since it would eventually affect frame rates.

The phone is equipped with a dual battery that totals 4,800mAh, quite a generous capacity as far as foldables go. Given the power and the two displays, however, you are going to see a shorter uptime compared to normal slabs with the same battery size. Vivo makes up for it with a 120W ultra-fast charging capability that’s one of the fastest in the industry, foldable or otherwise. Unfortunately, that may have come at the price of Vivo downgrading the USB-C port from version 3.2 of its predecessor to an older 2.0 technology. Not only does this mean it has a slower data transfer rate, it also loses the ability to output video through that part. The latter is probably less important to most people compared to faster charging times, but it’s still an unfortunate downgrade nonetheless.

The crowning glory of the Vivo X Fold 2 is, of course, its foldable screen, which is currently the biggest in its category. It has quite an impressive performance, especially when it comes to brightness, but its size does come with a price. It has an overall lower pixel density, and while you won’t be able to make out individual pixels, more discerning eyes might notice the step down in quality compared to other foldables. Fortunately, that doesn’t take away from the enjoyable viewing experience, whether you’re watching videos or reading documents.

Foldable phones haven’t exactly been at the height of mobile photography, mostly because of the sacrifices that have to be made in terms of design and price. Vivo, however, is quite known for its smartphone cameras, especially with its flagship X family, so you’d expect that the X Fold 2 would rise above the rest in this regard as well. Just like the rest of the phone so far, however, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. It definitely takes impressive photos and videos, but they won’t sweep you off your feet, especially when it comes to close-up shots.

The main 50MP camera might not sound like the greatest, but it gets the job done without breaking a sweat. Images have plenty of details, and colors are bright, perhaps even too vibrant for some tastes. Vivo has again partnered with ZEISS for the optics as well as some special camera modes, and those turn out to be more color accurate. The main camera delivers plenty of detail, even in low light, to the point that the dedicated Night Mode might look redundant as long as there is enough illumination from the surroundings.

Left: Regular Shot; Right: ZEISS

Regular (1x)

Night Mode

ZEISS

Unfortunately, the other cameras are less impressive. The 12MP ultra-wide is so-so, and it’s no better nor worse compared to other 12MP ultra-wide cameras you’d find on most smartphones these days. Things take a rather sad turn with the telephoto camera, though. Where there were once two, there is now only one, and Vivo removed the one that was actually more interesting. There is no longer a periscope telephoto camera, leaving only a 12MP shooter in its stead that is capable of doing a measly 2x optical zoom. Many “main” cameras are capable of that much, which makes this camera feel redundant. As for output, it’s decent enough to be usable, but it’s a few steps short of what fans have come to expect from Vivo.

Ultra-Wide

1x

2x (Telephoto)

As for software, the Vivo X Fold 2 comes with Origin OS based on Android 13, which is the China-exclusive flavor that Vivo ships on its phones. This means that there is no Google Play Store pre-installed, though you can definitely install it through other means and get access to your favorite apps. Alas, Origin OS is also filled to the brim with other pre-installed apps, but that, too, is the norm for phones coming from that market. The even bigger concern, however, is how the custom Android experience feels a little rough around the edges as far as support for foldable features is concerned. Given it’s just the company’s second stab at the form factor, it’s a bit understandable, and it will hopefully push out improvements quickly while the phone is still actively supported.

Sustainability

While the Vivo X Fold 2 is able to set itself apart from the others in terms of design, it isn’t that different when it comes to its effects on the environment. The choice of vegan or eco-leather is definitely a good one, but its positive effects are quite minimal compared to the other materials that make up the phone and its packaging. Vivo’s super-fast charging requires a proprietary charger, so it’s unavoidable to ship one in the box.

Sustainability wouldn’t be so bad if the product is made to last, but even then, this foldable might raise some concerns. There is no formal IP dust and water resistance rating, not even a formal assurance of its durability under the most common accidents. Granted, there are few foldable phones aside from Samsung and Huawei that can make such promises, but it is also an opportunity for brands like Vivo to step up their game and prove that they’re no small fry when it comes to providing their customers with peace of mind.

Value

The Vivo X Fold 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a striking design that makes it memorable and attractive, and it also has the power to support all your mobile needs, from browsing to photography to gaming. The larger screens leave plenty of room for your content, or even two of them for the inner foldable screen. There are special features you won’t find in other foldable phones, like an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and a physical switch to silence notifications, ala the iPhone. We have a few complaints, of course, but nothing so glaring as to make the phone something to avoid.

That said, the biggest deal breaker for this stylish foldable is the fact that only a select number of people will be able to buy one in the first place. Never mind the roughly $1,300 price tag, the Vivo X Fold 2 isn’t even available in markets outside of China. Whether that situation will change, Vivo isn’t saying, but it will definitely need a more polished Funtouch OS experience to improve its reception in international markets.

Verdict

At this point, almost all the major smartphone players except Apple have entered the foldable smartphone market. The competition will soon be just as fierce as it is in the “normal” smartphone arena. With many of them having nearly the same hinges and almost crease-free displays, manufacturers will have to find ways to differentiate their products in other ways that create better value for their customers. That doesn’t always have to be new hardware or gimmicky features. Sometimes, just having a powerful and beautiful device is enough to get people to buy. Just ask Apple!

The Vivo X Fold 2 clearly tries to reach those goalposts. Its elegant design actually makes the off-center circular camera bump work in a simple yet memorable way. In addition to its powerful hardware, the foldable phone offers unique features as well, like larger screens and in-display fingerprint sensors that even industry leaders failed to offer. Unfortunately, Vivo seems to also have cut a few corners in the process, and while they’re not deal-breakers on their own, they make the experience less than ideal altogether. As a successor, the Vivo X Fold 2 definitely rises to the challenge, but Vivo will need to step up its game to really leave a lasting mark in this growing market.

Aki Ukita and JC Torres contributed to this review.

The post Vivo X Fold 2 Foldable Phone Review: Beautiful, Big, and Bewildering first appeared on Yanko Design.

Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno has changed the HVAC and electrical system of the Serpentine gallery in London, in an effort to make an exhibition for all the nearby species.

Titled Web(s) of Life, the exhibition presents some of the artist’s most recent and well-known environmentally focused works, while also encompassing interventions into the building itself.

These interventions aim to make the Serpentine South building housing the exhibition more porous and responsive to its setting in Kensington Gardens, challenging anthropocentric perspectives that only consider the interests of humans and not any other beings.

Sculptures made for the enjoyment of a variety of different animals are placed on the building’s grounds, facade and roof as well as inside the building, while complex webs woven by multiple types of spiders working “in collaboration” with Saraceno feature inside the dimly lit galleries.

“You see that many architectures today are somehow not so inclusive of what is happening on the planet,” said Saraceno, who trained as an architect. “I’m very happy to think that for the first time at the Serpentine, there are many spiderweb pavilions.”

“It’s a little bit about trying to think how animal architecture could enter into the discourse and how we need to have a much more equilibrated and balanced way of building cities today on Earth,” he told Dezeen.

To make the gallery interior more comfortable for spiders and other insects, the equipment that controls the building’s temperature and humidity has been switched off and some doorways opened to allow for free movement of both air and animal life.

Given the exhibition will run throughout the British summertime, this might mean some discomfort for human visitors – but within limits. According to the Serpentine’s chief curator Lizzie Carey-Thomas, the gallery will allow the staff on its floor to decide when conditions are too hot for them to work safely or for visitors to have an enjoyable time.

At that point, the gallery will close rather than switch on the air-conditioning, encouraging visitors to enjoy the installations outside in the park and under the trees.

A further intervention by Saraceno comes in the form of a new solar array on the Serpentine’s roof, which will power all the films and lights in the exhibition.

The destructive effects of lithium mining on the environment and Indigenous communities is a key theme of the exhibition. So Saraceno and the Serpentine are avoiding the use of a lithium battery and instead embracing the intermittency of solar power by adapting the exhibition’s energy use to the level of sunshine outside.

On cloudy or partly cloudy days, films will run less frequently and lights will be dimmed. On particularly sunless days, the films may switch to audio-only, while some lights will switch off altogether.

“The irony there is that on the extreme heat days with lots of sun, we will have full power but we won’t be able to open the exhibition,” said Carey-Thomas.

As the Serpentine South building is heritage listed, both Carey-Thomas and Saraceno say the process for making any alterations was complex and drawn out, with approval for the solar panels taking two years and other plans to remove windows and doors quickly abandoned.

The works within the exhibition include Saraceno’s Cloud Cities sculptures, which feature compartments specifically designed for different animals such as birds, insects, dogs, hedgehogs and foxes.

The artist is also screening a film that documents one of the instalments of his Aerocene project, which involves making an entirely fossil-free aircraft powered purely by air heated by the sun with no need for batteries, helium, hydrogen or lithium.

In the film, the Aerocene team completes the world’s first piloted solar-powered flight, flying a balloon sculpture over the highly reflective salt flats in Salinas Grandes.

There is also a work created specifically for children, called Cloud Imagination, which is accessed through a dog-shaped door that’s too small for most adults to enter.

Saraceno and the Serpentine describe the Web(s) of Life exhibition as having been created “in collaboration” with a host of different contributors, both human and non-human.

These include the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc in Argentina, spider diviners in Cameroon, the communities around Aerocene and Saraceno’s Arachnophilia project, and the lifeforms found in the Royal Parks surrounding the Serpentine, which will continue to evolve the works over the next three months.

The artist and gallery also want to extend the ethos of the exhibition to the potential sale of the artworks by developing a scheme called partial common ownership or, Saraceno hopes, “partial common stewardship”, which means any buyer would “co-own” the work along with a designated species or community.

Another recent artwork to have explored ideas of intermittency in energy and design is Solar Protocol, which looks at the potential of a solar-powered internet.

The photography is by Studio Tomás Saraceno.

Tomás Saraceno In Collaboration: Web(s) of Life will take place at Serpentine South in London, UK from 1 June to 10 September 2023 and culminate with a day-long festival on Saturday, 9 September including a weather-dependent Aerocene flight. For more information about events, exhibitions and talks, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

The post Tomás Saraceno adapts Serpentine gallery to welcome all species appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio Vastushilpa Consultants has created a museum and memorial in India to honour the victims of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and celebrate the resilience of the local Kutch community.

Vastushilpa Consultants placed the Smritivan Earthquake Memorial Museum on a hill below a fort, which was restored as part of the project, on the outskirts of the city of Bhuj, near the epicentre of the earthquake.

Vastushilpa Consultants designed the museum around a “spine” that zigzags 50 metres up the sloped site and acts as a public space for people to gather.

Placed on either side of the meandering public space are various galleries with exhibitions on the impact of the earthquake and showcasing local Kutch crafts, including textiles, mirrorwork, glass and beadwork.

“The steep slope of the hill meant one had to find a way to sensitively place a building that does not disturb the landscape,” said Vastushilpa Consultants.

“The hill is part of the cultural patrimony of the people, hence building a large-scale box that would contrast with the hill was considered inappropriate,” it continued.

“Rather, the contours inform an alternative approach – it dictated a form that recalls the relic of the fort wall that exists on this hill.”

A polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) canopy with funnel-shaped structures shades the public space and directs rainwater to collection points for harvesting.

“This references the covered markets prevalent in hot, dry climates where there is just a simple fabric stretched across to provide shade and protection,” Vastushilpa Consultants told Dezeen.

The museum walls were clad in stone quarried from a local site and the gallery roofs were topped with planted gardens, which provide additional exhibition and performance space.

According to the studio, the Smritivan Earthquake Memorial Museum has a modular design that can be added to for future expansion.

“The modularity of the galleries and the trace of the central spine is such that any extension will always remain aligned to the genius of the place,” said the studio.

“It is then a settlement as old as Bhuj and as young as the memory of the last visit.”

While the museum was located at one end of the fort, which runs along a ridge, the studio designed a hilltop platform as a reflective space at the other.

It features a circular reinforced concrete structure with shuttering made from wood battens and symbols used by Kutch farmers imprinted on the concrete surface.

The structure acts as a lunisolar calendar charting the movement of the sun and moon, and cuts around the rim mark days of cultural significance.

The land between the museum and the sun point is intended to be a “green lung” for the city and memorial forest, with one tree planted for each of the 13,805 earthquake victims.

To make the forest self-sustaining in the arid, desert-like landscape, Vastushilpa Consultants created a network of waterways and leaky check dams that let rainwater filter into the earth.

The dams take the shape of a stepped tank or kund, a traditionally social space with a series of square steps that provide space for people to sit around water.

“The idea was to arrest the water as it would travel down the slope and allow it to infiltrate into the earth so that downstream vegetation could be sustained,” Vastushilpa Consultants told Dezeen.

“The various effects of holding water and giving it to the land have allowed the land to transform – as trees have taken root the landscape has changed and now one can spot wild animals and hear bird calls there,” the studio added. “The sound of the landscape and its temperature all have affected the city at large.”

Elsewhere in India, local studio Mathew & Ghosh Architects completed a stainless steel art museum in Bangalore and Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye began construction on a museum in Delhi, which is set to be the country’s largest art and culture centre.

The photography is by Vinay Panjwani unless stated.

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