Hasta La Ideas

It’s grey and wet here in London, but happily it’s that time of year when the movers and shakers of the design world head south to Cape Town for one of the most eagerly anticipated of annual conferences, Design Indaba. This year, speakers lined up include data visualiser Ben Fry, design and branding veteran Michael Wolff, and Robert Wong of Google Creative Labs – all of whom will be looking to elaborate on how creativity can create a better world…

As ever, there will be an international line up of speakers. From the UK studios Bibliothèque and Hat-Trick – will will be there, as will veteren graphic designer and brand consultant Michael Wolf, and interaction designer Nelly Ben Hayoun, whose Super K Sonic Booooum project appeared in last December’s issue of CR:

From the US, director and title sequence designer Karin Fong of Imaginary Forces is due to speak, as is Coca-Cola VP, David Butler, and, as mentioned Robert Wong of Google Creative Labs. Also from the US, epic scale prankster Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere is going to do a talk. He’s known for creating public stunts to surprise and entertain  people when and where they’re least expecting it – and there’s promise of a crazy stunt during Indaba week…

Here’s a rather great example of his work:

From Europe, the president of much loved product design company Alessi, Alberto Alessi, will be arriving from Italy. Israeli graphic and often experimental type designer, Oded Ezer – whose work appears in the CR Type Annual and whose latest project, Face Type, involves hand drawn type and Skype – will be speaking, as will Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog in Amsterdam.

More local speakers include Cape Town’s Brad Armitage and Rui Esteves of &Union who will be talking about entrepreneurship, Port Elizabethe-based textile designer Laduma Ngxokolo will also speak, and architect Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso in West Africa will discuss his work which is driven by development strategies.

And this is merely scraping the surface – there’s plenty more speakers, exhibitions, workshops, screenings and related events happening as part of the design festival.

Design Indaba runs from February 23-25. More details at designindaba.com. CR will be there and be blogging our Indaba experiences through the week.

A retrospective book of Masamichi Katayama’s beautiful design “experiences”

From A.P.C.’s bungalow-style boutique in Tokyo to Hong Kong’s freezer-like Ice Cream store, Wonderwall, the interior design firm founded in 2000 by Masamichi Katayama, has made its name by creating a diverse range of spaces throughout Asia, the U.S. and Europe. A monograph of the studio’s work to date, Wonderwall Archives 01, is now available from Parco Publishing.

Containing some 50 examples of Wonderwall’s commercial projects, from Uniqlo shops in New York and Paris to Nike’s Harajuku, Tokyo outpost (check out our 2009 video on the project here), the volume showcases Katayama’s fresh take on contemporary architecture and design. The featured spaces represent his vision of places that foster an exchange between the consumer and their respective brands, based on his notion that such locations are “only complete with people and products inside.” With no set expectations on that which a final product should consist or a standard process for his design, Katayama takes each project individually, with “no rules that bind him.”

“Interior design,” Katayama says, “needs to be something that can be communicated without words.” As such, he bears responsibility for producing an experience—rather than just a physical atmosphere—in his designs, ranging from retail spaces to restaurants/bars to offices and building complexes. He finds inspiration in his own experience as a consumer, and tends to blend traditional and modern styles as well as luxury and “cheap chic.”

Wonderwall Archives 01, which includes descriptions of Katayama’s projects in both English and Japanese, is available now from Colette or in Japan from Wonderwall’s online store.

Here are some photos of the recently-completed One Hyde Park residential development in London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, which boasts the most expensive apartments in the world.

Opened in January this year, the project comprises four linked towers of differing heights.

Floor plans are wider in the middle and taper towards the ends in order to maximise views out over the city.

Circulation routes connecting the buildings are located between the blocks.

The development consists of 86 apartments with the top level of each block housing a two-storey penthouse suite.

A reception, business centres, leisure facilites and retail units are also included.

The towers face Knightsbridge on one side and Hyde Park on the other.

Photographs are by Nick Rochowski.

More projects by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on Dezeen »

More residential architecture on Dezeen »

The following information is from the architects:

The brief was for a landmark development which complements and enhances the rich textures of the existing local architecture, whilst creating a structure which integrates well with the neighbouring buildings.

The existing rooflines – a dynamic and prominent feature of the local context – are characterised by the cupolas, turrets, gables and chimney stacks of the adjacent Mandarin Hotel.

Detailed analysis of the context suggested that the buildings separating the Park from Knightsbridge were disjointed and varying in height, style and composition, resulting in a varied architecture along the northern side of Knightsbridge.

With the exception of Bowater House, one of the key consistent features was the expression of verticality, ranging from the bays of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to the verticality of the Hyde Park Barracks Tower.

In recognition of the context – and in contrast to the design of the former Bowater House – a series of interlinked pavilions was conceived allowing permeability and offer views of Hyde Park from Knightsbridge.

The separation of the pavilions was conceived to create a stronger visual connection between Knightsbridge and the Park than previously existed.

The relationship of the pavilions with each other and with their neighbours followed a radial pattern emanating from a central point well within the Park.

This resulted in a complementary alignment with the immediately adjacent buildings of Wellington Court and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, as well as reinstating, as close as possible, the sweep of the original road and pavement alignment to the northern edge of Knightsbridge.

The shaping of the pavilions – which widen towards the centre of the site and taper towards the perimeter – allows for oblique lateral views from each pavilion towards Knightsbridge to the south and the Park to the north.

The pavilions vary in height, responding to the existing heights of Wellington Court to the west and Mandarin Oriental Hotel to the east.

The circulation cores are located at the ends of – and between – each pavilion. These provide both primary and secondary access.

The detailing of the cores is intended to be as light and transparent as possible, to maximise visual connections between the Park and Knightsbridge.

The form of the residential pavilions and their separation at the cores breaks down the overall mass of the development and seeks to create a roof profile that does not compete with the mass of the neighbouring Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

The upper levels of the pavilions are deliberately intended to resemble the roofscape of the immediate context in terms of colouration and texture.

The base of the proposal responds to the differing terrains of the Park and Knightsbridge sides, at those places where they provide a street frontage.

See also:

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Leadenhall Building by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners	Shard 2012 exhibition by Hayes Davidson and Nick Wood	100 11th Avenue by Jean Nouvel

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Previously on Fubiz

• Paper Tattoos
• Katsumi Hayakawa
• Interactive Paper Sculpture

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