Hasta La Ideas

London Design Festival: Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Jasper Morrison and AL_A are among the designers who have created benches with British design brand Established & Sons for the central courtyard of the V&A museum (+slideshow).

Each of the one-off benches is made from a different material and produced in collaboration with a company specialising in that material. After being on display for the festival they’ll be auctioned off and the money fed back to fund next year’s London Design Festival commissions.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the designers of the Olympic torch, made a marble bench with holes bored through (above) in collaboration with Italian studio Tor Art. They were inspired by shrapnel marks left in the V&A museum’s western facade after the Second World War. “It’s something that always fascinated me and Ed on the way from South Kensington tube up to the Royal College when we were students, and so when this project came up we thought it was a nice way to reference that,” explained Jay Osgerby at the opening.

AL_A, the architecture practice led by Amanda Levete, worked with Barcelona ceramics company Ceramica Cumella to come up with a bench (above) made of overlapping tiles, glazed with colours inspired by the museum’s ceramics collections. AL_A is also designing a new subterranean gallery for the museum.

British designer Alexander Taylor made a bench from mirror-polished stainless steel cylinders (above) with steel specialists Caparo. He explained that making perfect cylinders in steel is tricky because “the material is extruded with an oval profile so it has to be cut and put back together again.”

Italian designer Martino Gamper built a wooden bench (above) from slanted planks of thermally modified hardwood, treated to improve its stability and resistance to decay. The angled stripes of red oak, maple, ash, yellow birch and tulipwood provided by the American Hardwood Export Council create an “optical illusion” and “somehow give the impression of animation” said Gamper, adding that the modular system can be extended to any length.

British designer Jasper Morrison collaborated with concrete specialists lowinfo to create a concrete bench (above) with narrow runnels along the seat that allow rain water to drain away despite the seat being curved for comfort, while German designer Konstantin Grcic worked with Italian company Bisazza on a glass mosaic bench (below).

Portugese designer Fernando Brizio created a cork bench in the shape of a pig’s foot (below) with Amorim Cork.

British designer Felix de Pass produced a cream-coloured sheet-steel bench (below) with perforations that help water drain away and disperse heat from the sun. It’s an adaptation of his bench that’s already in production with Established & Sons.

Sam Hecht and Kim Colin from Industrial Facility worked with Corian, a material often used for kitchen worktops, to create two benches (below) that mimic the marble plinths found inside the museum.

Sadly the final bench in the collection, created by Italian designer Luca Nichetto and glass manufacturer Nardo Vetro, was broken in transit.

Other installations at the V&A during the London Design Festival include Keiichi Matsuda’s data visualisation and chairs by Nendo scattered around the museum.

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at the V&A museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: the developer behind plans for a tower designed by architecture practice AL_A in Shoreditch, East London has withdrawn its planning application – BDonline

The design for a twisted tower on a former industrial estate attracted over a thousand letters from local residents. Developers Londonewcastle say they will adapt the proposal before submitting a new planning application early next year.

See our previous story on the original design for the Huntingdon Estate here, another AL_A project in London that was scrapped recently here and more projects by AL_A here.

The six shortlisted entries in the RIBA competition to design new electricity pylons for the UK have been announced.

Amanda Levete Architects and Arup propose a bow-like pylon (top), while Gustafson Porter have designed a structure with curving branches (above).

Ian Ritchie Architects collaborated with Jane Wernick Associates to design an asymmetrical pylon (above).

Knight Architects stripped away all unnecessary and oversized components for the design of their Y-shaped structure (above), while Bystrup propose a T-shaped pylon with triangular conductors (below).

Newtown Studio and Structure Workshop’s proposal is a round lattice with a frame that thins towards the top (below).

Models of each entry are on show at the V&A museum in London until 5 October.

The Pylon for the Future competition was organised in collaboration with the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the National Grid.

A £10,000 prize fund will be divided among the winning teams and their designs will be considered for development by National Grid.

Dezeen announced the launch of the competition back in May – see our earlier Dezeen Wire.

Another popular story about electricity pylons on Dezeen features structures shaped like human figures – see our earlier story here and see all our stories about pylons here.

Photography is by Zoe Norfolk.

Here are some more details from the competition organisers:

A vision of our electric future: What might Britain’s new pylons look like?

Six Pylon Design Competition finalists unveiled

Chris Huhne opened a display featuring scale models of six striking designs for new electricity pylons to the public today at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The “Pylon for the Future” display forms part of the London Design Festival and is open to the public until 05 October 2011.

The finalists are:

• Silhouette by Ian Ritchie Architects and Jane Wernick Associates
• T-Pylon by Bystrup Architecture, Design and Engineering
• Y-Pylon by Knight Architects with Roughan & O’Donavon, and ESB International in association with MEGA
• Flower Tower by Gustafson Porter with Atelier One, and Pfisterer
• Plexus by Al-A with Arup
• Totem by New Town Studio, with Structure Workshop

Speaking to the finalists Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said:

“Britain will see the equivalent of twenty new power stations constructed by 2020, and we need to use electricity pylons to get this new, low carbon energy to your televisions and toasters, dishwashers and DVD players. We must make sure that we take into account the visual impact on the landscape and also the view of the public, and this is what the pylon design competition is all about. I am highly impressed by the quality of these designs and I hope everyone takes the time to get involved and give their view.”

To coincide with this pylon design display, National Grid has today published its new approach to building new transmission infrastructure. Using this approach, National Grid will put greater emphasis on mitigating the visual impact of its new electricity lines, while balancing this with the need to minimise household energy bills.

National Grid’s Executive Director UK, Nick Winser said:

“Connecting Britain’s new power stations to our homes and businesses will be one of the great infrastructure challenges of the next decade and beyond. Through the use of new technology, pylon design, extensive consultation and undergrounding where appropriate, our new approach will ensure we consider very seriously the visual impact of new transmission lines.”

Chris Huhne commented:

“National Grid’s approach is very welcome, and is consistent with Government policy set out in the National Policy Statements, which Parliament approved in July. Pylons are a vital part of the grid but people in areas potentially affected by new transmission lines can be reassured that alternatives to overhead lines will be actively explored, with undergrounding wherever justified.”

With a new generation of power stations due to come online, in the coming decades, new transmission lines will be needed to carry this new energy to homes and businesses. These lines will connect new sources of power generation, such as wind farms and nuclear power plants.

National Grid’s more sophisticated approach to the visual impact of transmission lines reflects collaboration with Government and builds on the recently-designated National Policy Statements (NPS). National Grid will consider the visual impact of its new electricity lines with greater sensitivity to the beautiful British countryside, while balancing this with the need to minimise household energy bills. It will lead to greater focus on a range of mitigation measures such as undergrounding, re-routing, alternative pylon design.

On 23 May the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and National Grid called for designs for a new generation of electricity pylon. 250 submitted designs from around the world have been whittled down to just six finalists who have been working with the National Grid and Millennium Models to build scale models of their designs for the final judging panel.

As well as exploring the design of the pylon itself, the competition aims to explore the relationship between energy infrastructure and the environment within which it needs to be located. The challenge is to design a pylon that has the potential to deliver for future generations, whilst balancing the needs of local communities and preserving the beauty of the countryside.

The public are invited to comment on the designs via the competition website (www.ribapylondesign.com) until the 5 October and those comments will be taken into account by the judging panel when they make their final decision later that month.

Chris Huhne will chair the judging panel, which will include National Grid’s Nick Winser, former Director of the V&A Sir Mark Jones, architects Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and Bill Taylor, engineer Chris Wise, the journalist Jonathan Glancey, Scottish Power representative Jim Sutherland and a former RIBA President, Ruth Reed.

A prize fund of £10,000 will be shared amongst the winning candidates and National Grid will give consideration to developing the winning design for use in future projects.

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Land of Giants by Choi + Shine	Pylons of the Future by Hugh Dutton Associés	High Voltage Transmisison by Arphenotype

Amanda Levete Architects have sent us these images of their proposals for a new cultural centre in Lisbon with a roof that spirals around from the existing riverfront pathway.

Visitors to the EDP Foundation Cultural Centre would be able to walk both around and over the building.

A series of steps up from the riverside lead to an entrance for the centre.

More projects by Amanda Levete Architects on Dezeen »

The following is from Amanda Levete Architects:

EDP Foundation Cultural Centre

The EDP Foundation Cultural Centre in Lisbon is a project about water, light, reflections and people – a building that captures the essence of the unique riverside site and the extraordinary southern light of Lisbon.

The site is of strategic importance. Acting as the gateway to the culturally rich area of Ajuda / Belém, the building will be a magnet, drawing people from the heart of the city to the panoramic views along the Tagus estuary. The currently neglected riverfront area will be activated, and the cultural centre will become one of Lisbon’s leading destinations.

This project is also about democracy. It is a building for the people – for the people of Lisbon, for cultural visitors and for tourists. It is a building for culture and leisure that defies the boundaries between public space and building. A simple and organic gesture creates a topographic form that blends into landscape making a fluid and natural relationship between inside and outside – people move over as well as through the building.

The building creates an attractive landscape, stepping down into the river Tagus. At high tide the steps are covered with water creating a constantly changing space that converses with the tide and the reflections from the water. The reflections play with the overhanging façade to give unexpected lighting effects both inside and out, capturing and magnifying the unique light qualities of this south facing site. An area of welcome shade is naturally created by the cantilevered structure.

The roof offers panoramic views towards the river as well as across the cultural area of Ajuda / Belém. In relationship to the Museu da Electricidade next to it the building is modest in height. It reflects the horizontal emphasis of the riverfront and is designed to have minimum visual impact on views from the city. Lisbon’s rich heritage of complex cobble stone patterns is subtlety reinterpreted and used to merge the existing materiality of the pathways with new public spaces that speak of modernity.

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Station by Amanda Levete Architects	Showroom by Amanda Levete Architects	Exhibition design by Amanda Levete Architects

Concertinaed paper-like ribbons swoop through an exhibition about performance art and movement designed by London firm Amanda Levete Architects at the Hayward Gallery in London.

Called Move: Choreographing You, the exhibition charts the relationship between performance and visual art over the last 50 years and invites visitors to participate in the installations on show.

Above photograph is by Stephen Citrone

The translucent paper-like structures, made of Tyvek, create partitions and help to direct visitors around the exhibition.

Above photograph is by Stephen Citrone

Taking inspiration from origami and kites, the structures were developed in collaboration with London studio Kite Related Design.

Above photograph is by Stephen Citrone

The exhibition continues until 9 January 2011.

Photographs are by Gidon Fuehrer unless stated otherwise.

See all our stories about Amanda Levete Architects »

The following information is from the architects:

Move: Choreographing You

Move: Choreographing you is an exhibition of visual and performance art curated and hosted by the Hayward Gallery on London’s Southbank. The theme of the exhibition focuses on sculptures and installations which invite the visitor to become both participant and performer through interaction with performers, visitors, and the pieces themselves.

AL_A was commissioned by the Hayward Gallery to do the interior spatial design and planning of the exhibition, as well as develop a multi-media archive in collaboration with interactive designers Unit 9.

The exhibition design was driven by the relationships between choreography and geometry, movement and form. Inspired by the photographic motion studies of the human body of Etienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge, we have created a collection of spatial dividers which are defined by a serial transformation of a single material: a sequence of folded oscillations of Dupont Tyvek.

The resulting translucent paper-like fabric ribbons, a counterpoint to the brutality of the building, rise and fall with undulating folds which simultaneously define themselves as way finding devices, partitions, suspended ceilings, and portals. These fluid spatial and formal transformations choreograph the movement of the visitor through areas of sculpture, film, archive and performance.

Click for larger image

The spatial configurations defined by our dividers are intended to embody two types of performative experience: public and private. In the public experience, the ribbons frame views, carve space, and lead visitors to a fluid and communal experience of the interactive objects and installations of Bruce Nauman, Robert Morris, Franz West, Franz E. Walther, William Forsythe, Christian Jankowski, and others.

In the private experience, the ribbons are used to enclose and define smaller more intimate spaces for introspective and singular experiences with the works of Isaac Julien, Dan Graham, Simone Forti, Tanya Bruguera, Lygia Clark and others.

While the expressive form of the ribbons was conceived as a choreography of material inspired by origami, the structure and bespoke detailing of the paper-like ribbons was inspired by those found in kites and was developed in close collaboration with fabricators Kite Related Design.

Click for larger image

Status: 2010
Client: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
Location: London UK
Programme: Exhibition design for Move: Choreographing You, an exhibition of visual and performance art sculptures and installations which invite the visitor to become both participant and performer.
AL_A Team: Amanda Levete, Alvin Huang, Tanya Rainsley, Gemma Douglas

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Corian Showroom by Amanda Levete Architects	Amanda Levete and Corian at LDF	More interiors on Dezeen