Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen promotion: architect David Adjaye has been confirmed as one of the speakers at the Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, later this month.

Above: Lotus Dome by Studio Roosegaarde

Now in its nineteenth year, the Design Indaba Conference will host more than 40 speakers and 2500 delegates over three days.

Above: Ink Calendar by Oscar Diaz

The list of confirmed speakers includes:

» Sir John Hegarty
» John Maeda
» Paula Scher
» Matthew Carter
» Daan Roosegaarde
» Marian Bantjes & Jessica Hische
» Oscar Diaz
» Nicholas Hlobo
» Masashi Kawamura
» Alexander Chen
» Seymour Chwast
» Louise Fili
» Ben Terrett
» Martí Guixé
» Steven Heller
» Alex Atala
» Spoek Mathambo & Friends
» Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
» Jeanne van Heeswijk

Above: Still Life with Light by Martí Guixé

The conference will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 27 February to 1 March. Design Indaba Expo runs from 1 to 3 March at the same venue and will feature products, fashion, jewellery and craft by local designers.

Above: products on show at last year’s Design Indaba Expo

Visit the Design Indaba website for more details and a full programme of events.

Here’s some more information from Design Indaba:

Design Indaba has committed the past 18 years to a vision that rests on the premise that creativity will fuel an economic revolution in South Africa. As such, Design Indaba is a celebration of design in a country iconic of the triumph of human spirit. Proof that even the most intractable problems can be neutralised by the will of people, resurgent South Africa is a beacon to the world. Design Indaba typifies this optimism and can-do spirit. Starting from the basis of how creativity can help solve the problems of an emerging country, it takes the view that a better future can be designed.

Above: products on show at last year’s Design Indaba Expo

Focusing on bringing international thought leadership to South Africa since 1995, the Design Indaba Conference has grown to become one of the world’s leading design events and hosts more than 40 speakers and 2500 delegates. In 2013, the Design Indaba Conference will once again facilitate the convergence of the world’s top designers, creatives, thought-leaders and entrepreneurs discussing and showing how a better world is possible through creativity. Taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 27 February to 1 March, the 2013 Conference lineup is a diverse range of speakers including Pentagram partner and president of Alliance Graphique Internationale Paula Scher, artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde, John Maeda (President of Rhoade Island School of Design), graphic designers Jessica Hische and Marian Bantjes, and founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertising Sir John Hegarty, among others.

In turn encouraging local creativity to go global, the Design Indaba Expo has provided a commercial platform for South African designers to showcase local goods and services to the global market through influential international buyers since 2004. The 2013 Expo will take place from 1 to 3 March at the CTICC and feature bespoke work of top South African designers from all creative disciplines, from jewellery to fashion design, craft, multimedia, product design and much more. The Expo also hosts workshops and talks by industry leaders, live music and comedy, fashion shows, food markets and much more.

Above: the audience at last year’s Design Indaba Conference

By attracting the world’s brightest talent, Design Indaba has become a respected institution on the creative landscape and one of the few multisectoral events that celebrates all the creative sectors – including graphic design, advertising, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, architecture, craft, visual art, new media, publishing, broadcasting and performing arts.

Besides the flagship Conference and Expo, Design Indaba has grown into a multitiered experience that incorporates other events, media, education, training, business development and a range of publications. The 2013 event lineup also includes the annual Design Indaba FilmFest, Your Street Live (the inaugural global iteration of the Your Street Challenge) and the Design Indaba Music Circuit (details to be confirmed).

www.designindaba.com

The post David Adjaye announced as headline speaker
at Design Indaba Conference appeared first on Dezeen.

The second of two new libraries in Washington DC by architects Adjaye Associates comprises grey concrete blocks with yellow timber fins.

The William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library is located in a residential neighbourhood in the south of city and sits on a gently sloping site.

The central volume of the building contains reading areas for adults, children and teenagers, while group study areas and conference rooms are located in the three wings that adjoin. Faceted concrete legs raise these wings above the ground, creating a sheltered amphitheatre and bicycle parking area by the entrance.

Read about the first of the two libraries here, or click here to see Adjaye’s recent designs for a bitumen-coated pavilion at the Tate Liverpool gallery.

See all our stories about David Adjaye »
See more libraries on Dezeen »

Photography is by Edmund Sumner.

Here’s some more text from Adjaye Associates:

Adjaye Associates’ Community Libraries in Washington DC open to the public

Adjaye Associates’ new neighbourhood libraries for the District of Columbia, the William O. Lockridge/ Bellevue Library and Francis Gregory Library, have opened to the public. The brief called for the new buildings to be “flexible, accessible, welcoming and inviting” and the libraries challenge the traditional closed typology, introducing a social element with a strong urban and cultural programme.

The William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library

“Communities need empowering buildings – and this neighbourhood library is all about the creation of a strong beacon for its community. The primary act of public architecture is to create spaces that are socially edifying and socially liberating – using design excellence as a social force that makes good. This is at the heart of my work, so it is very exciting to see this building welcome its community through its doors.” – David Adjaye

The William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library is characterized by its celebration of views across the neighbourhood, and the insertion into the dramatically sloping site topography. The challenge was also to create a civic building within a residential context. Rather than a single monolithic form, the library is a cluster of geometric volumes, both elevated and grounded physically to the site.

Using the grounded main volume to host the library central stacks and primary reading, the elevated volumes create a welcoming portico at the entrance that can be used for events and informal gatherings. The volumes mediate the scale of the building by using small, medium and large forms, derived from the library’s program but also capturing the surrounding urban fabric and the site topography, while resonating with neighboring residences of a similar composition. Wrapped in a concrete and glazed skin replete with timber fins, the envelope not only resolves structural and shading requirements, but also articulates the vertical presence of the building juxtaposed to the sloping landscape.

By fragmenting the building into smaller volumes, the arrangement takes advantage of the natural topography by setting the library to maximize the eastern exposure for filtered natural lighting, which is the primary light source. On plan, the volumes follow the geometry of the site to form a series of identical, shifting rectangles.

The library service areas are layered, with adults, teenage and children’s services contained within the separate volumes. The first floor contains the circulation desk, adult browsing, sights and sound, a meeting room and library staff support spaces. The second floor has additional adult browsing and children services. The third floor contains further adult, meeting rooms and teen services. The concrete staircase, taking visitors up to the higher levels, matches the incline of the street to suggest a sense of bringing the street – and the neighbourhood – inside.

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by Adjaye Associates appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: British architect David Adjaye and American artist Doug Aitken have revealed designs for a bitumen-coated pavilion that will be constructed at the Tate Liverpool gallery this autumn.

The circular pavilion will be the venue for arts project The Source, where Aitken will interview a host of creative figures for British television channel Sky Arts.

The pavilion opens to the public from 15 September to 13 January.

Here’s some more information from Sky Arts:

Doug Aitken and David Adjaye Collaborate to Design a Pavilion for Tate Liverpool

American artist Doug Aitken and British architect David Adjaye have collaborated for the first time to design a pavilion that will be installed outside Tate Liverpool on the city’s historic Albert Dock as part of the Sky Arts Ignition Series, which will go on show from 15 September 2012 – 13 January 2013. Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken – The Source will be part of the seventh Liverpool Biennial.

Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken – The Source is the artist’s first public realm installation in the UK and features filmed conversations with some of the world’s leading creative figures. Participants of all ages and backgrounds, working across different art forms, respond to two questions: where does the creative idea start and how is it realised? Those interviewed include David Adjaye, Devendra Banhart, Thomas Demand, Liz Diller, William Eggleston, Jacques Herzog, Mike Kelley, Lucky Dragons, James Murphy, Philippe Parreno, Richard Phillips, Jack Pierson, Stephen Shore, Paolo Soleri, Tilda Swinton, Ryan Trecartin and Jack White.

The Pavilion will be located in Mermaid Court, adjacent to the largest single grouping of Grade 1 listed buildings anywhere in England. At 14.2 metres in diameter, with a sloping roof that ranges from 2.8m to 4.8m in height, the pavilion will provide an immersive experience during the day, with a night-time presence created through the projection of Aitken’s work on the outer walls of the circular structure. Built from a wooden frame and a combination of corrugated acrylic and bitumen panels, the pavilion will be a temporary structure that deliberately separates Aitken’s work from the traditional gallery space in order to create a new cultural destination.

The Sky Arts Ignition Series was launched in 2011 to support the creation of major new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent. Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken – The Source is the first project in the series, which will see Sky Arts collaborate with six leading arts organisations from across the UK and Ireland in the creation of brand new works. For each of the chosen projects, Sky Arts will provide a cash investment of up to £200,000 and work with the arts partners to bring their projects to a wider audience, using Sky’s platform.

Doug Aitken said: “This project is about the roots of creativity. Many of the people in this project are working in very diverse mediums and it’s that common thread that I’m interested in. The project is very much about the empowerment of the viewer. I want the installation at Tate Liverpool to be a destination: a place that one can go to and walk into this field of ideas. It will be a celebration of the power of the individual and the forging of a borderless new creative territory – I’m incredibly excited.”

James Hunt, Director of Sky Arts, commented, “At Sky Arts, it’s clear to us just how fascinated people are by the creative process that goes into making works of art. Doug’s plan for the first Sky Arts Ignition project really captures that; opening up the creative process and making it more relatable and accessible. That’s another thing that we try to do at Sky Arts, and Doug’s project fits with that ethos perfectly.”

Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken – The Source 15 September – 13 January 2013
Free admission
Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4BB

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and Doug Aitken appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect David Adjaye has revealed plans to group nine of Frankfurt’s existing cultural institutions onto a combined campus in the heart of the city.

The 16.5 hectare site is currently occupied by Frankfurt University but will be vacant by 2014.

Adjaye Associates are proposing to create a single shared foyer, which will connect each of the nine organisations.

Apartments, offices and shops will also be included, creating a mix of uses across the site.

We recently featured David Adjaye’s 2002 project Dirty House as part of our celebration of design in the London borough of Hackney. See the project here.

Here are some more details from Adjaye Associates:

Cultural Campus Frankfurt – Adjaye Associates
Architectural concept: “micro city”

The design concept rests on the extraction of the essential components of a city, which are then compressed to establish a mixture of different uses. The single ingredients become a city in microcosm, or a “micro city”. Within the composition, there are possibilities for people from the cultural industries, academics, residents and office workers to encounter one another within a rich, creative atmosphere. The design fosters interaction and animation thus resulting in new synergies between different creative disciplines.

The “micro city” comprises a central, public and multi-functional space, which combines the main performing spaces of the cultural institutions, retail, cafes and the market hall in an interesting juxtaposition within the main foyer. Forecourts on the perimeter accentuate access points to the main foyer also enabling circulation through the cultural campus, which is porous and open to the city. The different uses are also layered vertically, thus allowing the mix of uses to be carried into the topography.

Client: Forum Kulturcampus Frankfurt e.V.
Programme: urban concept study for a cultural campus which includes 9 cultural institutions and their main performing spaces and a mixture of other uses (retail, cafes, offices, residential)
Appointment: feasibility study
Site Area: masterplan site in total 16,5 hectares
Building Height: foyer 9m and main performing spaces 17m, higher buildings 25-54m
Number of storeys: foyer and main performing spaces I, higher buildings VI – XIII
No. of Offices: 13,0%
No. of Apartments: 33,7%
No. of Retail: 8,6%
No. of Cultural Use: 44,7%
Cladding – materials: glass/ stone

Construction will begin this week on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC designed by architect David Adjaye.

Adjaye Associates teamed up with American architects The Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond to win the design competition for the museum back in 2009, under the collaborative name Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB).

Sited beside the National Museum of American History and the Washington Monument, the museum will accommodate more than half of its volume below ground.

Bronze plates will cover the tiered exterior of the building, perforated in patterns that reference the history of African American craftsmanship.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2015, and you can see the original competition-winning proposals for it in our earlier story.

You can also see more stories about David Adjaye here.

Here’s a longer description of the project from Adjaye Associates:

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
Washington DC, USA, April 2009 – September 2015

Winning the competition to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture has consolidated the practice’s US portfolio with arguably the nation’s most prestigious new building. Located on Constitution Avenue, adjacent to the National Museum of American History and the Washington Monument, the museum will house exhibit galleries, administrative spaces, theatre space and collections storage space for the NMAAHC. As lead designer for the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB) team, David Adjaye’s approach has been to establish both a meaningful relationship to this unique site as well as a strong conceptual resonance with America’s deep and longstanding African heritage. The design rests on three cornerstones: the “corona” shape and form of the building; the extension of the building out into the landscape – the porch; and the bronze filigree envelope.

Situated on the Washington Monument grounds the museum maintains a subtle profile in the landscape – more than half is below ground – with five storeys above. The corona is based on elements of the Washington Monument, closely matching the 17-degree angle of the capstone and the panel size and pattern has been developed using the Monument stones as a reference. The entire building is wrapped in an ornamental bronze lattice that is a historical reference to African American craftsmanship. The density of the pattern can be modulated to control the amount of sun¬light and transparency into the interior. The south entry is composed of the Porch and a central water feature. An extension of the building out into the landscape, the porch creates an outdoor room that bridges the gap between the interior and exterior.

At 50m (49’-2”) deep, the setback is similar to other buildings on the north side of the Mall. The underside of the porch roof is tilted upward allowing reflection of the moving water below. This covered area creates a microclimate where breezes combine with the cooling waters to generate a place of refuge from the hot summer sun. There is also an outdoor patio on the porch rooftop that is accessed from a mezzanine level within the building.

Inside the building, visitors will be guided on a historical and emotional journey, characterised by vast, column free spaces, a dramatic infusion of natural light and a diverse material palette comprising pre-cast concrete, timber and a glazed skin that sits within the bronze lattice. Below ground, the ambience is contemplative and monumental, achieved by the triple height history gallery and symbolised by the memorial space – the “oculus” – that brings light diffused by a cascade of water into the contemplative space from the Monument grounds. Moving upwards, the views become pivotal, as one circulates along the corona with unrivalled panoramas of the Mall, Federal Triangle buildings and Monument Grounds.

Architect: Adjaye Associates
Client: Smithsonian
Structural Engineer: Guy Nordenson and Associates, Rober Silman Associates
Mechanical Engineer: WSP Flack + Kurtz
Total Area: 313,000 sqf
Contract Value: $500m