Milan 2014: Finnish design brand Iittala is showing a collection of boxy shelves, plywood furniture and glass lamps in Milan this week (+ slideshow).
Aitio wall storage by Cecilie Manz
The homeware collection includes a series of metal storage units by Danish designer Cecilie Manz. Called Aitio – meaning theatre box in Finnish – these can be wall-mounted to hold small objects.
Aitio wall storage by Cecilie Manz and Leimu lamp by Magnus Pettersen
These shelves are made from powder-coated steel and come in a variety of whites and greys, as well as yellow. There are also plastic hooks that clip over the edges. “My focus with Aitio was functionality, simplicity and aesthetics,” said Cecilie Manz.
Kerros shelf by Matti Klenell
The Kerros shelf by Swedish designer Matti Klenell is a side table made of plywood, which can also be used as a tray. Klenell described the shelf as “a new kind of object that sits somewhere between furniture and a household product”.
The Kuukuna, a mouth-blown glass light, was originally designed in 1986 by Toikka and has been resurrected in a slightly larger version.
Kuukuna lamp by Oiva Toikka
Klenell’s six-candled candelabra comes in white and has evolved from the single candleholders designed by Klenell in 2012. These are now available in red and yellow. All are made from powder-coated steel.
Nappula candelabra by Matti Klenell and Kuukuna Lamp by Oiva Toikka
The designs are on show at in hall 16, place D30, at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile from 8 to 13 April.
News: young architects are becoming disillusioned with commercial work and instead turning to humanitarian projects, according to 2014 Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban (+ interview).
Natural disasters such as the Japanese tsunami are “really changing” the way young architects think, Ban believes, encouraging them to use their skills for humanitarian causes.
“When I was a student everyone was working for big developers to make big buildings,” Ban said. “And now there are many students and younger architects who are asking to join my team, to open programs in disaster areas.”
He added: “It’s really changing. I’m really encouraged.”
Shigeru Ban’s installation in the Where Architects Live exhibition
Architectural culture is “moving in two directions”, he told Dezeen, as a new breed of younger architects turn away from urban work, where architects had ceded control to developers.
“Now cities are being made by developers, not architects, or not urban planners. They’re made by developers. So one way is this but many people are interested in working for society also.”
Ban is well known for his humanitarian work, creating temporary shelters from cardboard-based structures in disaster zones around the world.
The Cardboard Cathedral in Chirstchurch by Shigeru Ban
This work helped him secure the 2014 Pritzker Prize, which is widely regarded as the highest honour in world architecture.
Announcing the award last month, Pritzker Prize jury chairman Peter Palumbo said: “Shigeru Ban is a force of nature, which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas that have been devastated by natural disasters.”
Ban has also realised a number of arts projects including the Centre Pompidou Metz in France and his Aspen Art Museum is due to complete this summer.
Aspen Art Museum by Shigeru Ban
The Where Architects Live exhibition in Milan focuses features a series of installations based on the domestic environments of nine eminent designers, based in eight different cities, including Ban, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid and David Chipperfield.
Here’s a transcript of the conversation between Ban, Dezeen and other journalists at the Salone del Mobile:
Journalist: Do you work a lot on projects for refugees?
Shigeru Ban: Yes with natural disasters. Yes almost every year some disaster. Now I’m working in the Philippines after the big typhoon there last year.
Journalist: What are you doing there?
Shigeru Ban: Building temporary housing there.
Journalist: What can you advise to young architects?
Shigeru Ban: You know, I really recognise when I give lectures to many different places in the countries, when I was a student everyone was working for big developers to make big buildings. And now there are many students and younger architects who are asking to join my team, to open programs in disaster areas, it’s really changing. I’m really encouraged by all the young architects and students.
Marcus Fairs: Is that just in Japan that it’s changing?
Shigeru Ban: No, no, no everywhere. Everywhere I got to give lectures many students are interested in what I’m doing and they want to join me and my team, it’s really encouraging.
Marcus Fairs: So you think there’s a shift in the world of architecture maybe?
Shigeru Ban: I think so, I really think so.
Marcus Fairs: Towards helping people more?
Shigeru Ban: Maybe not shifting but [moving in] two directions. Because now cities are being made by developers, not architects, or not urban planners. They’re made by developers. So one way is this but many people are interested in working for society also.
Marcus Fairs: So there’s new opportunities for architects to be more human, to be more helpful?
Shigeru Ban: Yes because unfortunately there are so many natural disasters destroying the housing, destroying the buildings so there are many opportunities for us.
Marcus Fairs: And in Japan did the tsunami change the attitudes?
Shigeru Ban: Yes, over 500km of coastline was totally damaged. Now the recovery is quite slow because they have to reclaim the land higher to prevent the next tsunami. So also changing of zoning to put residential areas on top of the mountains, so it’s a very slow process. But it’s the first time, even in Japan, that they’re facing such a big problem.
Marcus Fairs: So are a lot of humanitarian architects working to solve the problem?
Shigeru Ban: Yes many architects are now working in that field, yes.
Over the last few years Mies van der Rohe‘s Barcelona Pavilion has been loaded with junk, and had its pools filled with coffee and milk. Now photographer Jordi Bernadó has taken the doors out and mounted them onto the facade.
Spanish photographer Jordi Bernadó is the latest in a series of artists to be invited to make his mark on the iconic structure, which was first completed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1929, dismantled in 1930, then reconstructed in the 1980s.
Responding to Mies’ original desire for the pavilion to be photographed before its doors were installed, Bernadó’s temporary intervention, named Second Reconstruction, involved removing the two glazed entrances and positioning them in front of one of the building’s travertine walls.
View into the pavilion without the doors
In this way, Bernadó says he has “restored the image” of the building. “The pavilion once again becomes, temporarily, what Mies imagined,” said the photographer.
“The doors ask the question. The building without doors is the answer,” he added.
Visitors to the pavilion at the installation launch
The Barcelona Pavilion was reconstructed in the 1980s, using only black and white photographs as reference. Since then a number of architects, designers and artists have been invited to create a site-specific installation inside.
Here’s a description of this year’s project from Jordi Bernadó:
The Pavilion. Second Reconstruction. An artistic project by Jordi Bernadó
Mies referred to the Pavilion as a “pavilion of representation”. An ephemeral building whose maximum value was to represent an idea.
The aspect of the pavilion that has endured is therefore an evocation, not an object. A conceptual, not a material, act. A generator of thought, not a generator of physical space.
Consequently, what remains of the Pavilion is the idea and its images. And Mies ordered the Pavilion to be photographed without doors. In Mies’s thought and view, the Pavilion had no doors.
In fact, the Pavilion existed in all its plenitude only when the doors were removed. The moment of the gaze is the only real moment.
The photographer proposes, through a minimal gesture, to restore the image of the pavilion by removing the doors. The pavilion without doors at last. At its side, doors without a building. The pavilion reconstructed at last. And the doors out of their setting, by themselves generating the question posed by the intervention. The doors ask the question. The building without doors is the answer.
Photographing is not only fabrication of images (and therefore objectual). It is above all a gaze (and therefore intellectual). The photographer gazes. And gazes, presumably and ironically, as Mies did. And curiously enough, it is thanks only to the gaze that the pavilion once again becomes, temporarily, what Mies imagined. In this way, the time factor is transformed also into a fundamental aspect of the project.
Concept, immortality, time, estrangement. Ideas with which Mies worked and which constitute the essence of the Pavilion. And which the project reclaims also. As Ms Hock said, ‘gazing is inventing’.
News: Italian architect and designer Massimo Morozzi, co-founder of influential architecture studio Archizoom Associati and later art director for furniture brand Edra, has died aged 73.
Born in Florence in 1941, Morozzi co-founded Archizoom in 1966 together with artist Andrea Branzi and architects Gilberto Corretti and Paolo Deganello.
Together with studios UFO and Superstudio, the founders became known as the “Italian Radicals”. Archizoom’s projects included pop art-inspired furniture and the influential but unbuilt “No-Stop City” proposal for a city built on an infinitely expanding grid. The studio disbanded in 1974.
Morozzi then pursued a successful career as an industrial designer, opening his own studio in 1982 and working with brands including Alessi and Cassina and developing a concept car for Nissan. He became art director of Edra in 1987.
Announcing his father’s death on Instagram, his son Guido Morozzi wrote: “Father, husband, friend freethinker, man of fine intellect, avant garde-minded artist, architect, inventor, creator of beauty through design, teacher, cook, grandfather. Bye dad, I’ll miss you.”
Massimo Morozzi was born on 28 January 1941 and died on 10 April 2014.
This system of illustrated characters and animations was developed to help people learn to read Chinese, and is one of the 76 projects nominated for Designs of the Year 2014 (+ slideshow).
Tree
Taiwan-born entrepreneur ShaoLan first began developing the Chineasy characters as a way to teach her own English-speaking children to read traditional Mandarin Chinese, by creating a visual connection to the words.
Having struggled to find a straightforward way to negotiate the huge number and complexity of Chinese characters, she teamed up with graphic artist Noma Bar to develop a system of shapes representing some of the most commonly occurring symbols, which can be combined to create more complex phrases.
Fire
“I created a methodology that breaks down thousands of Chinese characters into a few hundred base building blocks,” explained ShaoLan. “When these building blocks are combined, they form compounds that can in turn be combined to create phrases. Through this method learners can quickly build a large vocabulary of characters with very little effort.”
Mouth
As well as providing users with a memorable way to understand the characters, Chineasy aims to offer those living in the West an insight into Chinese culture in a visual format.
Water tap
“It is educational, social, cultural, and I hope, inspirational,” said ShaoLan. “I am demonstrating the beauty of this deep and ancient culture with a modern interpretation through sleek modern design.”
Moon
The entrepreneur spent her evenings selecting and sketching suitable characters to form the building blocks of the Chineasy system, which she then modelled on her computer and refined to create contemporary graphic representations that could easily be understood by Westerners.
Roof
Having presented the initial idea at a conference organised by innovation forum TED that was published online in May 2013, the interest she received encouraged ShaoLan to begin working on a book and launch a Chineasy website and Facebook page.
King
A campaign launched on crowdfunding site Kickstarter exceeded its goal of £75000, eventually achieving £197626 of backing that was used to publish the first Chineasy books.
Mountain
The books are now being published by Thames & Hudson and an ebook and app have also been developed to illustrate how to write and correct stroke order through simple animations and give tips on pronunciation.
Door
Chineasy was nominated in the Graphics category of the Design Museum’s shortlist for Designs of the Year and features in an exhibition at the museum until 25 August.
Here’s a project description from ShaoLan:
Chineasy
Chineasy’s aim is to bridge the gap between the East and the West. I want to give the west a real understanding of China and an appreciation of Chinese culture through their own eyes rather than layers of packaging and manipulation.
The method – compounds
It is evident that people are hungry to learn about China. People are keen to be able to communicate with the 1.3 billion people. Tet there is not much out there to enable them to do so. Whilst the entire Chinese population is learning English, the west is struggling to comprehend this complex economy and society with their own eyes and judgment. Knowing their language is the key towards true understanding.
Chineasy will become the first step for anyone in the world who wants to understand China, Chinese culture and its language. It is educational, social, cultural and inspirational. I am demonstrating the beauty of this deep and broad culture through a modern interpretation using sleek and simple design.
The method – phrases
Chineasy’s goal is to allow people to learn to read Chinese easily by recognising characters through simple illustrations. The magical power of the Chineasy method is that by learning one small set of building blocks, students can build many new words, characters, and phrases.
Thick walls made from locally sourced stone frame courtyards and corridors at this radio broadcasting station in the Nepalese town of Jomsom, designed by Korean studio Archium (+ slideshow).
Architect Kim In-cheurl of Seoul-based Archium developed the building for the Mustang Broadcasting Community (MBC), a radio station launched last year to serve residents and visitors in the remote Mustang region of north-west Nepal.
Situated on a ledge close to the banks of the Kali Gandaki River, 3000 metres above sea level, the building was designed to utilise locally available materials and labour.
To protect employees and guests from the strong winds prevalent in the region, the building is enveloped in walls made from a local stone called gneiss that also helps the radio station merge with the surrounding landscape of rock-strewn mountains.
Tall walls punctuated by small glazed openings line the edges of a paved pathway, creating a sheltered entrance to the site.
Influenced by the arrangement of vernacular houses, the building’s meeting rooms and broadcasting facilities are organised around courtyards that allow natural light to reach glazed walls and windows.
An antenna rises from the centre of the largest courtyard and is surrounded by strings of colourful flags.
Cement columns support the ceilings of cloisters surrounding the courtyards, helping to shield the interiors from direct sunlight.
Some of the rooms are lined with the same substantial rocks used for the external walls, while others feature walls constructed from tightly packed smaller stones. A chunky stone slab supported by wooden legs also creates a robust natural desk in one of the studios.
Stools carved by hand from solid tree trunks furnish several of the rooms, which are paved in the same irregular stone slabs used for the outdoor spaces.
Wood was used for window frames and doors to provide a warm and tactile contrast to the imposing stone surfaces that form the walls, floors and ceilings.
Photography is by Jun Myung-jin.
Here’s some more information from Archium:
Himalesque, Jomsom, Nepal
Himalesque in the plateau of Nepal and against its backdrop of unlimited nature, was another solution to the local climate conditions. The local traditional boundary markers are constructed from spaces with a thick outer skin, in order to solve the condition of a plateau in a lump. I paid attention to the deconstruction of the thickness of the boundary wall I divided of enclosed space which is separated from the outside according to functions.
A gap can be created in between the stone wall blocking wind and the glass wall, forming inner space. Site conditions facing strong winds with changing directions, from rainy seasons to dry seasons, and environmental conditions require that a cool, unheated space is maintained, in spite of the extreme daily temperature differences, reorganised by contemporary methods with local materials.
The small garden in between the separated walls open up a space seemingly destined to be confined by a softening wind and full light exposure, making a gap to establish its relationship with nature.
Milan 2014: trees appear to float within this forest-like installation by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, at Cassina‘s stand at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan this week (+ slideshow).
Sou Fujimoto‘s Floating Forest suspends trees contained in mirrored cubes throughout Cassina‘s space at the furniture fair, exploring the architect’s interest in the contrast of nature and architecture within the Italian brand’s Milan exhibition space.
“I feel that Italian design is very powerful because of their history and because of their visions for the future,” Fujimoto told Dezeen. “They have both, not only traditions, and can still maintain the identity and quality of Italian design.”
Each hanging container is suspended from metal wires and covered with mirrors on the outside to reflect the trees and give the appearance of effortlessly hovering throughout the exhibition.
The furniture is arranged as individual rooms on a gridded floor plan.
“Some of the trees are floating at different heights to create articulations from space to space,” Fujimoto explained. “The installation creates the excitement of walking around as the scene is gradually opening up to you.”
The installation comprises a mixture of hanging trees as well as freestanding trees, arranged purposely to allow maximum floor space for visitors to pass through the showroom. “The trees are similar to the typical Japanese tree Momiji, as the shape is beautiful and the leaves are very delicate,” said the architect.
This Berlin clothing store by Mexican design studio Zeller & Moye is filled with concertina-shaped display stands made from raw cement boards (+ slideshow).
Zeller & Moye designed the concept store for German-Austrian fashion brand ODEEH in the Bikini Berlin shopping centre in the west of the city.
A zigzag pattern is present throughout the interior. As well as the concertina-shaped stands and seating areas, the space features clothing racks with angular bases and folded partitions and mirrors.
These elements were designed to be arranged in different configurations, creating new ways to display garments for seasonal collections or during fashion weeks.
“The client asked us for a totally flexible system, so that manifold configurations can be set up from the very same elements,” studio co-founder Christoph Zeller told Dezeen. “The series of movable elements offers them maximal flexibility.”
Zeller said the cement boards offered a cost-efficient and sustainable approach, so the store wouldn’t have to be refitted every time their clients wanted a new look.
“The contrast with the clothing was rather a side effect but works extremely well, as ODEEH uses very fragile and sensuous fabrics,” he added.
The industrial-style space also features cross-shaped fluorescent lighting, which hangs below the pipes and services left exposed overhead.
The first concept store for german fashion brand ODEEH inhabits the terrace floor of Bikini Berlin, a modernist icon of 1950’s West-Berlin, offering vistas onto the Memorial church at Breitscheidplatz and the Berlin Zoo.
A landscape of movable elements can be arranged in ever-changing configurations allowing for maximum flexibility in the creation of unexpected spacial formations and curated concepts. The modular system of paravents and podests made of raw cement board is complemented by a series of delicate metal objects such as cloth racks, hooks and trays, specially designed for the store.
The mirrored insides to the paravents create kaleidoscope-like interiors showing individual products at all facets and allowing customers to eyeball the clothes from multiple angles. The reappearing zigzag lines and the cross patterns of the lights refer loosely to stitching methods in tailoring.
The Washington Collection for Knoll was originally launched in October and includes two cantilevered side chairs called the Skin and the Skeleton.
Skeleton chair
The collection is very much an exploration of the “body in space” – but on a smaller scale than my architectural work,” said Adjaye.
Skeleton chair
“Knoll has always had an amazing ability to produce furniture that is a distillation of the zeitgeist of the age – it was this relationship between life, space and objects that resonated with my own work. Finding specific conditions, amplifying them and making them aesthetic while giving them the potential to be part of our world is what I am interested in,” he added.
Skeleton chair
The Washington Skin Chair is cast in three parts using injection-moulded nylon, reinforced with glass. The shell and legs are then joined using mortise and tenon joinery and stainless steel fasteners. The legs are reinforced with an aluminium brace that is covered with nylon.
Skin chair
The Washington Skeleton chair is made form die cast aluminium and, like the Skin chair, is cast in three parts and joined using steel fasteners. It comes in various durable painted colours or a copper plated version that allows the chair to tarnish with age.
Skin chair
“We worked very closely with Knoll’s technical team and it was a fascinating learning curve,” explained Adjaye.
Copper-plated Skeleton chair
“Making production furniture is very different to creating objects – and it is not something I had done before,” added Adjaye. “The furniture went through many iterations, studies and tests. To make the cantilevered legs, for example, Knoll developed the material technology to allow the back to flex and the T-junction in the legs has a metal insert to resist stress. As a result, the chair’s form is minimal, yet can withstand 300lb.”
Skeleton chairs
The chairs are on show at the Piazza Bertarelli, Milan. Knoll is also showing new collaborations with London-based designers, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, alongside a selection of recently updated pieces by designers, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen, Tobia Scarpa and Marcel Breuer.
Lasvit launched nine new collections at its Emotions show in Milan, including designs by a host of international designers as well as a series of kinetic sculptures by the company’s in-house team.
Frozen by Maxim Velcovsky for Lasvit
Czech designer Maxim Velčovský, who is also the company’s art director, created a series of hanging glass lamps called Frozen, which are created by pouring molten glass over a dome-shaped mould and left to cool.
“I was very much inspired by nature, when water becomes ice,” he says of the lamps, which are displayed in a cluster with drops of water running down them. “People are not sure whether they are looking at ice or glass, so they they knock on the lamp trying to figure it out.”
Das Pop by Maarten Baas for Lasvit
Dutch designer Maarten Baas created a modular chandelier called Das Pop using his signature Clay method in which a synthetic clay is moulded around a metal frame.
“It’s made all by hand and with Lasvit’s craftsman we also made hand-blown lightbulbs,” he explains. “Das Pop is one of my favourite Belgian bands, which is where the name comes from.”
Crystal Rock by Arik Levy for Lasvit
Arik Levy designed a series of simple crystal-shaped pendants, which are available in a variety of different colours and opacities.
“We get reflections off the facets, even when the light is off,” he says. “When it’s on and when it’s off it always stays beautiful.”
“When you blow crystal, it’s typically bubbly and round,” says the American architect’s son, Lev Libeskind. “Our language has always been more angular and sharp. So we said, “What would happen if we took our sharpness and impose it on the glass?” The result provides a really interesting counterpoint between material and form.”
Alice by Petra Krausova for Lasvit
Lasvit’s Emotions show also features two moving glass sculptures, including a hanging lotus flower designed by Petra Krausová, which opens and closes in time to music and is controlled by an iPhone app.
Magnetic by Libor Sostak for Lasvit
Visual artist Jakub Nepraš also created a sculpture made from shards of glass shaped like a tree, onto which a series of digital images are projected.
Kora by Jakub Nepras for Lasvit
“There is craftsmanship, there is poetry behind each collection and this year there is also a lot of technology on show,” explains Lasvit founder and president Leon Jakimič. “I believe we are the first company to combine glass art with really advanced technology.”
Moluds by Plechac and Wielgus for Lasvit
Lasvit’s Emotions show, which also features designs by Michael Young and Czech designers Jan Plechac and Henry Wielgus, is at Office Stendhal on Via Stendhal in Milan and is open from 10am to 8pm until 13 April.
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.
