Competition: Dezeen has partnered with publisher Particular Books to give away three copies of B is for Bauhaus – a “personal dictionary of design” by Deyan Sudjic, director of London’s Design Museum.
Covering subjects that range from authenticity to Grand Theft Auto, Jorn Utzon, Dieter Rams and Postmodernism, B is for Bauhaus is described as Deyan Sudjic’s “essential tool kit for understanding the modern world”.
The book offers a highly individual take on various elements of modern culture from Sudjic, who has been the director of London’s Design Museum since 2006.
His career has included stints as a critic for the Observer and the Sunday Times, a period as editor of Domus, and curatorships in Glasgow, Istanbul and Copenhagen. He was one of the co-founder of Blueprint magazine in the 1980s and directed the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002.
B is for Bauhaus draws on all of this experience to create an “a highly eclectic, intensely personal dictionary of design”, said Particular Books.
Published this spring, the 480-page hardback book is “about what makes a Warhol a genuine fake; the creation of national identities; the mania to collect,” said the publisher.
“It’s also about the world seen from the rear-view mirror of Grand Theft Auto V; digital ornament and why we value imperfection. It’s about drinking a bruisingly dry martini in Adolf Loo’s American Bar in Vienna, and about Hitchcock’s film sets,” the publisher added.
Competition closes 15 May 2014. Three winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
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The Design Museum will host the exhibition of shortlisted projects for its annual Designs of the Year awards, which honour exemplary projects completed in the past year.
A selection of the 76 projects nominated for the Design of the Year title will be displayed, including a mobile phone you can build yourself and a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon.
Dezeen readers can also receive 25 percent off the admission price when booking online and using the code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Competition closes 9 April 2014. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
Lego Calendar designed by Adrian Westaway, Clara Gaggero, Duncan Fitzsimons, Simon Emberton. Photograph by Adrian Westaway
Here’s some more information from the Design Museum:
Five pairs of tickets to see Designs of the Year 2014 at the Design Museum
Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.
Chineasy created by ShaoLan Hsueh with Illustrations by Noma Bar. Photograph by Brave New World
Featuring Kate Moss’s favourite app, a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, friendly lamp posts, a mobile phone you can build yourself and many others, Designs of the Year 2014 include international design stars such as Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada, alongside crowd-funded start ups and student projects.
ME.WE: Forward-Thinking Car designed by Massaud & Toyota ED2. Photograph Small Dots
This not to be missed exhibition is a clear reflection of everything that is current and exciting in the world. Someday the other museums will be showing this stuff.
The Gourmand: A Food and Culture Journal created by David Lane (Creative Director), Marina Tweed and David Lane (Founders/Editors-in-chief). Photograph courtesy of The Gourmand
As a Dezeen reader, you can also receive 25% off regular admission price when pre-booking here and using code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Dita von Tease in A Magazine Curated By Stephan Jones illustrated by David Downton
Architects including Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and John Pawson, and designers such as Tracey Neuls, BarberOsgerby and Konstantin Grcic have been named on the shortlist for 2014’s best design, which encompasses the categories of architecture, product, furniture, fashion, graphic, digital and transport.
All 76 projects will be shown in an exhibition at the Design Museum from 26 March to 25 August 2013, and winners from each category and one overall winner will be announced later in the year.
Here’s the full list of nominated projects from the Design Museum:
Architecture
Child Chemo House, Osaka – designed by Tezuka Architects, Takaharu & Yui Tezuka A place where children undergoing chemotherapy treatment can live with their families, Child Chemo House aims to facilitate an ordinary lifestyle in a beautiful, calm space.
Façade for Paul Smith, London – designed by 6a Architects The cast iron used for this facade references London street furniture and creates a sharp contrast to the neighbouring Georgian townhouses. A sinuous pattern of interlocking circles puts an abstract spin on a classic Regency shape, while curved windows nod to the glass in nearby arcades.
FRAC Centre, Les Turbulences, Orléans – designed by Jakob + MacFarlane Conceived by the architects as both a landscape and a topographic surface, this faceted pavilion of concrete and aluminium conveys a perpetual flow of digital information. Volume, light and image fuse together to create a dynamic form of architecture that communicates, reveals, provokes, stimulates and informs.
Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan – designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher Elaborate undulations, bifurcations, folds and inflections modify this plaza surface into an architectural landscape that performs a multitude of functions. The building blurs the conventional distinctions between architectural object and urban landscape, building envelope and urban plaza, interior and exterior.
La Tallera Siqueiros, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico – designed by Frida Escobedo Originally conceived as a muralist workshop, the home and studio of Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros is transformed into a new museum and cultural centre. Siqueiros’s huge murals are repositioned to create an open courtyard, and a geometric concrete grid composed of triangles clads parts of the museum, blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior space.
Makoko Floating School, Nigeria – designed by NLÉ, Makoko Community Building Team A prototype floating structure, built for the historic water community of Makoko, Nigeria. The school takes an innovative, cheap and sustainable approach to address the community’s specific social and physical needs.
Mont de Marsan Mediatheque – designed by archi5 Standing in an austere military quadrangle drill yard, the Media Library is an uplifting cultural symbol. Designed as a covered cultural square, its transparent planes generously open to the view of the public.
Museo Jumex, Mexico City – designed by David Chipperfield Making full use of a difficult triangular site this elegant new museum is clad in locally-mined travertine stone, and features a distinctive saw-tooth roof which floods the top floor gallery with natural light.
Newhall Be, Harlow, Essex – designed by Alison Brooks Architects This 84-unit scheme in Harlow, Essex integrates a mix of new and familiar house typologies, prefabricated timber construction and a highly efficient masterplan to maximise living space and flexibility for individual homes. The scheme challenges the presupposition by housebuilders that we want very traditional looking houses.
Praça das Artes Performing Arts Centre, São Paulo – designed by Brasil Arquitetura A new complex, in an area that has suffered from economic decline for decades, Praça das Artes incorporates historic buildings alongside new volumes built in exposed concrete and coloured with red pigments. Sheer walls guarantee flexibility of the internal spaces and unobstructed external spaces, while outside there are generous open spaces and new public passageways.
St Moritz Church, Augsburg, Germany, Interior renovation – designed by John Pawson Taking in aesthetic, functional and liturgical perspectives, the renovation saw the painstaking paring away of selected elements to achieve a clearer visual field, drawing the eye to the apse ‘the threshold to transcendence’ which is designed as a room of light.
The New Crematorium at the Woodland Cemetery, Stockholm – designed by Johan Celsing Built on an undulating terrain in a wild wood section of the Woodland Cemetery, the New Crematorium features exposed white concrete and white glazed bricks in a building which is at once robust and sensitive.
Wa Shan Guesthouse, Hangzhou, China – designed by Wang Shu Pritzker Prize-winner Wang Shu’s guesthouse and reception centre draws on the traditions of the China Academy of Art and the city of Hangzhou itself. The new building is one of 22 designed by the architect on the Academy’s Xiangshan Campus.
Aerosee – designed by Paul Egglestone, Dr Darren Ansell, Dan Etherington, Patterdale Mountain Rescue A crowd-sourced search and rescue drone designed to save lives in the Lake District mountains. AeroSee’s contribution to search and rescue operations comes directly from members of the public who can become ‘virtual search agents’ – joining live operations from their desktop computers, tablet devices and mobiles.
Citymapper – designed by Azmat Yusuf, Gilbert Wedam, Joe Hughes, Nicholas Skehin, Emil Vaughan Describing itself as the ultimate transport app, Citymapper aims to make the world’s most complicated cities easier to use with A to B journey planning that includes everything from cost to calorie burning.
Generations – designed by One Life Remains A mobile gaming app designed to be deployed over many centuries – unlike a conventional video game, it is impossible to finish a game of Generations in your lifetime. The player decides to whom the game will be passed on and if one day they want someone to be able to reach the top of the level. Generations questions the inevitability of death, the meaning of legacy and the nature of progress.
Hello Lamp Post – designed by Pan Studio Hello Lamp Post is a playful SMS platform, inviting people to strike up conversations with familiar street furniture using the text message function of their mobile phones. The project launched in Bristol during the summer of 2013. Thousands of residents and visitors shared their thoughts and stories with the streetlights, parking meters, bridges and boats of the city, sending over 25,000 text messages in just eight weeks.
Lego Calendar – designed by Adrian Westaway, Clara Gaggero, Duncan Fitzsimons, Simon Emberton The Lego calendar is a wall mounted time planner invented for a studio, with colour coded bricks representing time spent on projects. The calendar is made entirely of Lego, but when you take a photo of it with a smartphone all of the events and timings are synchronised to an online calendar.
Metro Trains – Dumb Ways to Die – designed by McCann Melbourne A song, a book, a smartphone game, interactive outdoor posters, radio advertising and tumblr GIFs – all designed to get young people to care about safety. Dumb Ways to Die uses black humour to make the point that there are many dumb ways to die, but perhaps the dumbest is doing silly things around trains – in the process it has become an internet phenomenon and Kate Moss’ favourite app.
Oculus Rift – designed by Oculus VR The Oculus Rift is a ground-breaking virtual reality headset for immersive gaming. It is being developed by Oculus VR, who launched a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to help fund its development.
Peek (Portable Eye Examination Kit) – designed by Dr Andrew Bastawrous, Stewart Jordan, Dr Mario Giardini, Dr Iain Livingstone A tool with the potential to revolutionise the prevention of blindness in low-income countries, Peek is a smartphone-based system for comprehensive eye examinations. It is easy to use, affordable and portable, meaning that it can bring eye care to even the remotest of settings.
Public Lab Foldable Mini-Spectrometer – designed by Public Lab contributors 2011-13 The Public Lab Foldable Mini-Spectrometer folds up in minutes to transform your smartphone into a visible and near-infrared spectrometer. Developed after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it is part of an ongoing effort by the Public Lab collaborative community to make analysis of pollutants such as crude oil cheaper and more accessible.
Sidekick Creatives – Crowdfunding Great Art & Design – designed by Oscar Lhermitte, Philipp Figueroa, Yoav Reches, Arne Zacher, Molly Anderson, Tommaso Lanza Sidekick Creatives is a collective set up to support individuals and companies to realise their crowdfunding campaigns. Sidekick Creatives collaborates with fellow designers, artists and makers by offering them the necessary tools and expertise required to successfully fund their projects. Their services range from conceptualisation to video production and campaign promotion.
Touch Board: Interactivity Everywhere – designed by Bare Conductive The Touch Board is a way to turn almost any surface or material into an interface – light switches painted on walls, interactive books or hidden sensors that can detect a person from up to 20cm away. Connect any conductive material to one of its 12 electrodes and you can trigger a sound or other event through touch or proximity. The Touch Board is a pre-programmed, open source platform designed all levels of expertise.
DAS Collection – designed by Reem and Hind Beljafla A Dubai-based fashion label founded by two Emirati sisters, DAS Collection was the first abaya (a garment covering the whole body except the face, feet, and hands) brand to be stocked at Harrods. The designers set out to update the abaya, making it a fashion statement whilst always respecting its heritage and traditions.
PRADA S/S14 – designed by Miuccia Prada Pop-art prints meet sporty details and structured shapes in this boldly coloured, powerful collection. Vogue said of the show “By next summer we’ll wonder what we ever wore before.”
Rick Owens S/S14 Show Presentation – designed by Rick Owens Rick Owens presented his collection with teams of female step-dance crews, all of whom the designer discovered on YouTube. They modelled Owens’s clothes in an entirely new way and their sensational performance brought a freshness and diversity to the Paris runway.
The Hinterland of Ronaldo Fraga – designed by Ronaldo Fraga The signature of the caatinga, the natural scuffing of the cattle that the market considers a defect, becomes a sign of sophistication in this collection from the Brazilian designer.
‘Totemic’ Collection by Sadie Williams – designed by Sadie Williams A collection of dresses in stiff 3D embossed textiles created by a multi-step, multi-layered process developed by the designer. Inspired by the graphic masculine print arrangement found in biker clothing, helmets and satin racing vests, the high-impact textiles are balanced with elegant A-line silhouettes.
Tracey Neuls BIKE GEEK – designed by Tracey Neuls BIKE GEEK is a hybrid of a dress shoe and a casual shoe with the performance of sportswear. It is designed to be simple, easy and suitable for all occasions. The sole is a hard wearing, one piece, rubber unit which gives shock absorption and endures many walking or biking miles, and a reflective half moon ‘cat eye’ tab makes the wearer safely visible at night.
Furniture
Bodleian Library Chair – designed by Barber & Osgerby The three-legged oak chair balances a strong sense of craft heritage with sculptural form and the needs of readers. A strong vertical timber, echoing the spines of books on shelves, forms one of the three legs that attaches to the sled base. Strong but remarkably light, it is only the third new chair developed specifically for the Bodleian since 1756.
Iro – Jo Nagasaka for Established and Sons Named after the Japanese word for colour, Iro is a family of vibrant yet elegant furniture which remains true to Nagasaka’s minimalistic style, whilst making bold use of brightly coloured resin. The smooth finishing highlights the natural grain of the wood enclosed within the resin.
Pro Chair Family – designed by Konstantin Grcic The Pro chair which Konstantin Grcic has developed for Flötotto features state-of-the-art ergonomics and pioneering design. The construction of the chair not only allows movement in all directions, but actively stimulates it thereby promoting healthier sitting.
Ripple, an ultra light timber table – designed by Benjamin Hubert Ripple is a 2.4 metre-long dining table constructed from corrugated Sitka spruce plywood. The rippled construction allows for a very high strength to weight ratio whilst still utilising a natural material. In reducing the amount of timber used the table’s carbon footprint is decreased and it can be easily assembled and manoeuvred.
‘Simple’ exhibition at ProjectB Gallery, Milan – designed by Philippe Malouin The works displayed for the ‘simple’ exhibition span two years of design and experimentation around the theme of simplicity. Timber slats, positioned in the right rhythm and proportions create benches, a table, a library. A Simple chair, exhibiting modest geometry and simple boxes, bookends and a lamp are composed of a readily available and humble material such as MDF.
A Magazine curated by Stephen Jones – designed by Stephen Jones Stephen Jones dedicated his issue of this cult fashion magazine to Anna Piaggi and the art of illustration. It featured a centrefold with Dita Von Teese by David Downton, the designs of Zaha Hadid, Raf Simons and Ron Arad, and fashion illustration from Gladys Perint Palmer, Howard Tangye, Barbara Hulanicki and Tony Viramontes.
ArtDirectorsClub: Art Directors Annual 91 – designed by Rami Niemi (Illustrator), Joao Unzer (Art Director), Juan Carlos Pagan and Brian Gartside (Graphic Designers) Illustrations for the Art Directors Annual 91 – the best-selling international review of the year’s most innovative works in visual communication.
Building Stories – designed by Chris Ware A ground-breaking graphic novel from American comic book artist and cartoonist Chris Ware, Building Stories follows the inhabitants of a three-flat Chicago apartment house. Taking the form of a boxed set, it consists of fourteen distinct printed works—cloth-bound books, newspapers, broadsheets and flip books.
Castledown Primary School Type Family – designed by Anthony Sheret, Edd Harrington, Rupert Dunk Originally commissioned in 2011 as a bespoke typeface for Castledown Primary School by headmaster Neil Small, the project soon evolved into collaboration with a vision to unify typography throughout UK primary schools. Creating a dyslexic friendly package that allows for use in every aspect of educational life – from letters the school would send to parents to a Cursive version that children would use to learn joined-up handwriting.
Chineasy – created by ShaoLan Hsueh with Illustrations by Noma Bar Chineasy is an illustrated Chinese language methodology created by entrepreneur and author ShaoLan Hsueh. Chineasy’s aim is to bridge the gap between the East and the West. The system is built on a building block methodology which allows students to learn a small number of commonly occurring characters, which can then be combined to create more complex compounds and couplets. These illustrated and animated characters aim to provide both a memorable interpretation of Chinese and also a glimpse into the culture behind the language.
Creation and realisation of the visual identity and the signage system of the FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur – designed by Jean-Marie Courant, Marie Proyart, Olivier Vadrot The creation of this identity and signage system is very much routed in the architecture of the building. It uses two typefaces and a white-to-grey palette with some uses of red. Different circles were designed to symbolise the different actions of the Frac.
Drone Shadows – designed by James Bridle / booktwo.org The Drone Shadows are a series of installations consisting of a 1:1 outline of a military unmanned aerial vehicle, or Drone. They have appeared in the UK, Turkey, the USA, Brazil and elsewhere.
Escuyer Undergarment Brand Identity – designed by Modern Practice Modern Practice created a visual solution based on the heraldic system for this men’s undergarment brand. This typographic reinterpretation of heraldry is not only strongly linked to the brand’s name (which derives from the old French word for ‘Esquire’), it also conveys the brand’s world.
Grand Central – designed by Thibault Brevet Grand-Central is an open internet platform that lets people express themselves freely through a tangible output device. Users can submit text via their smartphones which is then ‘written’ in marker pen by a mechanical printer – creating a physical embodiment of a digital message.
M to M of M/M (Paris) – designed by Graphic Thought Facility A large-format 528-page book surveying the work of French graphic design duo Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustiniak. The alphabet, a re-occuring theme in MM’s work, provided an appropriate way to organise the projects and interviews. Like the cutting and re-stacking of a pack of cards, the pages are re-arranged so that the letter M opens and closes the book.
Serpentine Galleries identity – created by Marina Willer in collaboration with Brian Boylan Willer’s team created a new identity for the Serpentine Galleries to express a spirit of openness. The logo acts as an aperture, opening for different content and different ideas in an ever-changing way, and also as a bridge – echoing the actual bridge over the Serpentine that links the two Galleries in Hyde Park. The team created the graphic language, imagery, colour palette and all other brand elements. Pentagram’s Daniel Weil worked with Willer to create the signage system for the Galleries both externally and internally.
The Gourmand – a food and cultural journal – created by David Lane (Creative Director), Marina Tweed & David Lane (Founders/Editors-in-chief) The Gourmand is a food, arts and culture journal, printed bi-annually. It prides itself on high production values – combining exquisite printing with a variety of materials, more akin to book publishing than traditional magazines. All of the content is specially commissioned with submissions from well respected writers, photographers and illustrators as well as up and coming talent.
Whitney Museum Identity – designed by Experimental Jetset and the Whitney Museum Called the ‘Responsive W’ by its designers this graphic identity specifically references the museum’s name, while also communicating openness and representing a non-linear approach to art. The apparently simple ‘W’ has a huge number of variations and potential applications.
Works That Work, a magazine of unexpected creativity – designed by Atelier Carvalho Bernau Works That Work is an international magazine, covering a mix of diverse subjects connected by the theme of unexpected creativity that improves our lives. It features original, in-depth essays and stories on subjects connected with design, presenting projects that challenge and change the way the reader perceives them.
Product
75 Watt – created by Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen (Artists), Alexander Whitley (Choreography) and Siya Chen (Film production) In 75 Watt, a product is designed especially to be made in China. The object’s only function is to choreograph a dance performed by the labourers manufacturing it. The project seeks to explore the nature of mass- manufacturing products on various scales; from the geo-political context of hyper-fragmented labour to the bio-political condition of the human body on the assembly line.
ABC Syringe: A behaviour changing syringe – designed by Dr David Swann The ABC Syringe is a frugal innovation to combat the prolific use of non-sterile syringes. The syringe remains colourless when stored inside a sterile pack. However exposure to air triggers a controlled colour change that transforms the syringe barrel from colourless to red within a few minutes. This visual transformation alerts and empowers both literate and illiterate patients to make better risk decisions, and provokes doctors into clinical compliance.
Alba Collection of Vases – designed by Massimiliano Adami A collection of vases in archetypal forms enriched with a soft colour change, giving the object an unusual lightness. The effect drives rotational moulding technology to reach a new aesthetic potential.
Bloom Helmet – designed by Tokyo Safety Strong enough to protect against falling debris the Bloom helmet can also be folded down, making it easily transportable. When in its closed position a cord attached to the back of the protective gear can be pulled-outward, expanding the adaptable panels into a concave form.
Chair 4 Life – designed by Bruce Renfrew, James Williamson, Shaun Phillips, David Fawkes, Ken Poberezny, Minghao Zhou, Michael Phillips ‘See the Child, Not the chair’ was the motivation behind this modular wheelchair system which grows with the child and allows later modifications through a standard catalogue of attachments and bespoke components. It centres on a standard chassis which is retained throughout a child’s journey, greatly reducing disruption to their lives caused by lengthy waiting times for new chair systems.
Clever Caps – designed by Claudio Patrick Vollers (Co-inventor & Designer) and Henry Suzuki (Co-inventor) Clever Caps are bottle caps which also work as building blocks. They can be collected and used on their own, but are also compatible with the world’s most popular building blocks. In this first commercial version, they were designed to fit PCO 1881 standard bottle necks, and include a tamper evident safety seal.
Fairphone – designed by Bas van Abel Fairphone is a social enterprise that uncovers complex systems with the aim of changing how things are made. The Fairphone is made as fairly as possible. Its transparent supply chain looks at every mineral, component, person and process to reveal the real impact of electronics production.
Formlabs Form 1 High-Resolution Desktop 3D Printer – designed by Formlabs Inc. The Form 1 is a high-resolution desktop 3D printer. It uses reversed stereolithography technology to create highly-detailed models, using a light-sensitive liquid resin and a focused laser beam. The Form 1 combines simple, intuitive design with ground-breaking technology, in a union that is at once striking and accessible.
GoPro Hero 3 Black – designed by GoPro The GoPro Hero 3 Black makes producing professional quality video easy and affordable, allowing amateur film makers to achieve unprecedented results.
Luffa Lab – designed by Mauricio Affonso Luffa Lab explores the inherent qualities of Luffa fibres as an alternative to synthetic materials for a wide range of applications and durable consumer products. ‘Luffa cylindrica’ is antimicrobial, biodegradable, lightweight and highly absorbent – features that make it a viable material for applications such as low cost splints or as acoustic insulator, it can also be used as absorber of toxic dye waste from denim processes.
Lunaire – designed by Ferréol Babin Lunaire is a wall lamp with a surprising light effect, reminiscent of the phenomenon produced by eclipses. A smaller front disc containing the light source is set inside a large concave aluminum diffuser. Two different effects are possible depending on how the small disc is positioned with respect to the diffuser: back lighting when the front disc is closed, or from inside the diffuser when the disc is pulled forward.
Nest Protect: Smoke + carbon monoxide alarm – designed by Nest Nest set out to transform people’s feelings about their smoke alarms from one of dislike to trust and even enjoyment. This alarm has several features: it integrates with mobile devices and sends a message if the batteries run low; it shows you its sensors and batteries are working with a green glow; its LED lights act as a night light; and false alarms can be stopped with a wave of the hand.
Pet Lamp – designed by Alvaro Catalan De Ocon Hand woven from strips of discarded plastic bottles, each lamp is a durable object which combines one of the planet’s most industrial products with one of the most down to earth artisanal techniques found in every culture.
Phonebloks – designed by Dave Hakkens Every year millions of mobile phones are thrown away because just one part is broken. This mobile phone consists of separate components that can be ‘clicked’ together. Every component has its own function – WiFi, battery, display – and when an upgrade or repair is needed only that part is affected. The phone can also be customised for specific functions.
Plume Mudguard – designed by Patrick Laing & Dan McMahon Plume is a recoiling bicycle mudguard which maintains a thin, sleek profile when protecting the rider’s back; when not needed it recoils into a tight circle under the saddle. Plume can be pulled out and recoiled while riding and is constructed from resilient materials.
Risk Centre – designed by Onkar Kular & Inigo Minns Over the course of three months, the Risk Centre transformed the Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm into a risk assessment facility and educational performance space. Part film set, part educational facility and part theme park, the centre recreated familiar scenes and places from the suburbs and the inner city that were then used to host a civic programme for local school groups and the general public.
Silk Pavilion – designed by Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on both product and architectural scales. The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC machine. 6,500 silkworms were then released on to the structure where they worked as biological ‘printers’ spinning as they moved across the panels.
String Lights – designed by Michael Anastassiades Inspired by perfectly parallel strings connecting pylons and the strings of lights used to mark outdoor spaces, these simple lights can be suspended in multiple configurations to create striking shapes.
The Alchemist’s Dressing Table – designed by Lauren Davies A collection of analog tools for the production of natural cosmetics at home, inspired by ancient rituals and the transformative powers of alchemy. The palette of copper and maple wood are chosen for their traditional and folkloric symbolism respectively. Cork is used for its insulating properties, borosilicate glass for its heat resistance and stainless steel for strength. All components are fabricated in collaboration with London-based craftsmen.
The Bradley Timepiece – designed by Hyungsoo Kim, Nick Gu, David Zacher, Amanda Sim, Maeve Jopson, Cynthia Poon The Bradley is a tactile timepiece that allows users to not only see what time it is, but to feel what time it is. Created in collaboration with product designers, engineers, and people with vision loss, The Bradley changes the way users interact with their timepieces. It is named after Bradley Snyder who lost his vision completely in Afghanistan in 2011 serving as a bomb defuser and went on to win two gold medals and one silver in Paralympics in London in 2012.
The Seaboard Grand – designed by Roland Lamb and Hong-Yeul Eom The Seaboard is a reinvention of the piano keyboard, re-imagining the keys as soft waves that enable continuous and discrete real-time, tactile control of sound through three-dimensional hand gestures. The design combines contemporary minimalism and traditional handcrafted quality.
A Journey Redefined – designed by A2B The A2B hybrid electric bike range is the result of the engineering innovation and loving attention to detail.
IFmove Bicycle – designed by Section Zero Pacific Inc’s 9-speed, 11.5kg IFmove unfolds in seconds and combines striking looks with rigid aluminium construction. It can also be rolled along on its 20” light weight wheels whilst folded.
ME.WE: Forward-Thinking Car – designed by Massaud & Toyota ED2 ME.WE’s philosophy combines flexible geometry, a customisable look and environmental responsibility. It features an aluminium tubular structure, expanded polypropylene panels, electric power wheels, and a bamboo interior.
Single Seat Alright – designed by e-Go e-Go aeroplanes has created this striking new single seat aircraft, which costs dramatically less to fly than traditional aircraft. It uses novel technologies to boost performance, and achieves a low cost of development and operation by exploiting the newly deregulated environment in the UK. Very lightweight but strong construction is achieved using ultra-thin carbon fibre and foam – the empty aircraft weights just 115kg.
British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have curated an exhibition at London’s Design Museum containing a selection of objects paused part-way through the manufacturing process, which they joked reveals their obsession with aluminium.
Marble still attached to its coloured glass cylinder at the In The Making exhibition
The 24 objects on show at Barber and Osgerby‘s In The Making exhibition have all been paused at a different stage of completion, chosen to demonstrate the way it’s made or to show it when its most visually interesting. “Some of the items are more beautiful and sculptural than the finished pieces,” said Barber during a tour of the exhibition.
Bent-wood back and legs of a Thonet chair at the In The Making exhibition
At the entrance to the exhibition sits an aluminium section that would form the front of a London Underground train. The chunk of metal is instantly recognisable as belonging to a tube carriage even taken out of context.
Cork stoppers as they are extracted from bark at the In The Making exhibition
Seeing the train front in isolation also allows visitors to gauge the scale of the piece and the qualities of the material, which is true of all the objects on display.
Staffordshire Blue Brick before it is cut into sections at the In The Making exhibition
Other aluminium items include the flat perforated outer skin of the duo’s Olympic Torch before it has been joined into its 3D form, a drinks can without its top and the case of an Apple MacBook Pro.
Staffordshire Blue Brick before it is cut into sections at the In The Making exhibition
“This could have be called the aluminium show,” said Osgerby. “There are a number of aluminium pieces in this exhibition, which I think demonstrates the importance of the material – not least in its recyclability but also its malleability.”
Partially finished optic lens at the In The Making exhibition
Arranged along two black corridors, the objects are presented under spotlights like sculpture or jewellery. “Each object has been lit in this way to really try to animate the design and give it an importance,” said Osgerby.
Objects paused part-way through their manufacture at the In The Making exhibition
Some of the manufacturing techniques are easily recognisable in the objects, such as the creation of pencils, while other more abstract forms are harder difficult to guess, like the conical top of a silicon cylinder used to create semi-conductive chips for electronics.
Aluminium front of a London Underground train at the entrance to the In The Making exhibition
A sheet of leftover lurid yellow felt with cut out strips used for tennis balls and the splayed upper of a Nike GS Football Boot were chosen for their graphic shapes.
Derwent pencils in the making. Photograph by György Kőrössy
Positioned at the ends of the displays are two larger items: a sofa by furniture brand B&B Italia that has been formed into shape with foam but not yet upholstered and a long cuboid of clay that would be sliced up into bricks.
Coca-Cola aluminium drinks can in the making. Photograph by György Kőrössy
Three screens are installed to show the manufacture of the items and visitors can take pamphlets containing more information about each object as they exit the exhibition space. These booklets were designed by London studio Build, which created all the graphics for the show.
Optic lens in the making. Photograph by György Kőrössy
In The Making runs until 4 May at the Design Museum in London. Photography is by Mirren Rosie, courtesy of the Design Museum, unless otherwise stated.
In this exclusive interview, British fashion designer Paul Smith shows Dezeen his new exhibition at London’s Design Museum, which contains a room “nicknamed the paracetamol room, because by the time you come out you’ll probably need an aspirin” (+ movie).
Paul Smith
Called Hello, My Name Is Paul Smith the show, which opened today, celebrates Paul Smith‘s career to date and reveals insights into his creative processes.
Recreation of Paul Smith’s office
“The whole point of the exhibition is really about encouragement,” he tells Dezeen while sat in a recreation of his cluttered Covent Garden office that has been created at the show. “It hopefully gives you the encouragement to think, well, I can move on from a humble beginning’,” he says.
Entrance to the exhibition
Visitors enter the exhibition through a three-metre-square cube that simulates Smith’s tiny first shop on Byard Lane in Nottingham, which was only open for two days a week. Smith’s Covent Garden design studio has also be recreated, with material and pattern samples strewn amongst sketchbooks and colour swatches.
Inside Paul’s Head
In a room called Inside Paul’s Head, images of flowers swirl around screens before morphing into prints covering Smith’s garments and accessories. “It’s nicknamed the paracetamol room, because by the time you come out you’ll probably need an aspirin,” Smith jokes.
The next space is a hand-painted wooden mock-up of the Paris hotel room that Smith used as his first showroom during Paris fashion week in 1976.
Hand-painted recreation of the Paris hotel room Smith showed his first collection in
“I think it was six shirts, two jackets, two jumpers and nobody came,” he recalls. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, nobody. I was leaving on Thursday and one person came at 4 o’clock, and I was in business.”
There’s also a section dedicated to Smith’s photography: “I’ve been taking photographs since I was 11. My Dad was an amateur photographer and his original camera is there on the wall. I shoot all our advertising and promotional material but also work for lots of magazines as a photographer.”
Paul Smith’s stripy MINI and skis
Smith’s collaborations over the years including a MINI car and a pair of skis painted with his signature colourful stripes are displayed together, along with cycling jerseys and a giant rabbit-shaped bin he has worked on.
“It’s really interesting for me to see,” he reveals. “They’re usually all hidden away somewhere. Seeing them all together is like ‘Oh wow! We’ve done quite a lot over the years’.”
A wall covered in 70,000 buttons is used to demonstrate the unique elements found in each of the brand’s stores worldwide, such as a room decorated with 26,000 dominoes at his recently extended Albemarle Street store in London’s Mayfair district. “It shows my passion to make sure all out shops are different,” he says.
Archive garments
Garments from Smith’s archive flank both sides of a long white corridor and are grouped into themes rather than age, while a movie documenting Smith’s most recent menswear show is played in the final room.
Gallery of pictures from Smith’s personal collection
The exhibition is laid out around a central space lined with a pictures from Smith’s personal collection, encompassing photographs by Mario Testino to framed drawings sent by fans.
Giant Post-it note at the exit
On the way out, a giant Post-it note on the wall reads “Everyday is a new beginning”. Smith finishes by saying: “The idea is you come here, you get inspired, then the next day is the rest of your life.”
Paul Smith plays around with a magnifying glass
The exhibition was curated by Donna Loveday and runs until 9 March 2014 at the Design Museum.
Designer Ron Arad compares the overuse of 3D printing today to how musicians “abused” synthesisers in this movie made by Alice Masters for London’s Design Museum.
Ron Arad was interviewed about his use of rapid-prototyping technology to coincide with the Design Museum‘s The Future is Here exhibition, currently displaying some of his pioneering and more recent 3D-printed work.
“I discovered [3D printing] when it was called rapid prototyping… and I thought ‘here’s another way of making things’,” he says. “Things are very fast, you can draw something in the morning and print it in the evening.”
Currently exhibited at the museum, Arad’s Not Made by Hand, Not Made in China collection of spiralling, flexible 3D-printed designs was launched during Milan design week in 2000.
“I remember showing it to [designer] Achille Castiglioni when he came to see it,” says Arad. “I remember taking the time and explaining to him what it is, and I thought ‘this is great, I have something new to teach one of my heroes’.”
He reminisces about how exciting it was to experiment with the new materials and machinery, but says over time it was overused just as synthesisers were in music.
“The technology completely took over the studio and it was the most interesting thing we were dealing with, and predictably it became commonplace,” he remembers. “Synthesisers were abused completely and so is this technology we’re talking about.”
“Usually when you make eyewear it has a lot of components and a lot of tedious work with little things, screws, hinges,” he says. “We have the whole collection that is monolithic, just one material.”
Finally, he ponders everyday uses for the technology in the future: “Maybe in the future the plumber will have a machine in his van that will just print the S-pipe according to his needs in the van.”
Photographs depicting examples of unsung architecture from around London chosen by architecture critics are on show at the Design Museum in London (+ slideshow).
Curated by independent writer, editor and curator Elias Redstone, the series of original images by photographer Theo Simpson documents overlooked buildings and infrastructure, including an oil refinery jetty, a bus garage and a cemetery.
The ten colour offset prints are on display in the Design Museum‘s Café and Tank space until 22 July and have been compiled in a journal published by Theo Simpson and graphic designer Ben Mclaughlin’s publishing company, Mass Observation.
Here is a selection of photographs from the exhibition, with the explanatory texts from the critics:
Welbeck Street Car Park
Sam Jacob of FAT, a regular contributor to Dezeen’s opinion column, nominated Welbeck Street Car Park in Marlyebone.
Its neighbour is buried beneath Cavendish Square; modern necessity camouflaged beneath apparent historicism. But Welbeck Street is qualmless, a multistory car park celebrating itself as though it were the crowning glory of civilisation. Designed for Debenhams in 1971, it sits like a block-sized sculpture, its elongated diamond-shaped prefabricated concrete panels locked together into mesmeric and scaleless pattern that genuflects to the oddities of its historical boundary.
It is part of a small gang, a batch of buildings produced in a small window when car parks were treated as civic monuments, significant structures that expressed the modernity of the moment. This moment saw a coincidence of the tail end of brutalism and the megastructure along with enthusiasms for grand infrastructural highway planning.
Of course all of those things – cars, architecture, planning, concrete – soon found themselves if not blamed for the collapse of society at least tarnished with doubt, falling on the wrong side of every contemporary ideological debate.
Blampied’s architecture explores and expresses the possibilities of the multistory car park. Its frame remains open to the elements, a giant grill that ventilates fumes from the buildings interior while also, perhaps, referring to a cars radiator grill. It is simultaneously practical and symbolic. Its rawness casts it as part of the infrastructural landscape: highway engineered into vertical stack. But here infrastructure is handled with such delicacy that all its rawness is elevated to sublime beauty.
Welbeck Street Car Park should be regarded along with other great structures occurring at the intersection of transport and architecture, alongside Gilbert Scott’s St Pancras, Brunel’s train sheds and Grand Central Station. It also stands as a template for a problem that is not going to disappear any time soon. The building acts as an interface between cars and the city. It resolves this often troubling relationship beautifully, a structure for cars articulated as a fully urban phenomenon.
Bevin Court
Tom Dyckhoff of the BBC Culture Show selected Berthold Lubetkin’s Bevin Court flats.
It felt a little like the white rabbit falling down the hole in Alice in Wonderland; only we fell up. It was the mid-1990s. We were at university, on an architecture field trip, trudging past Islington’s Farrow & Ball-ed brick townhouses and cappuccino-selling cafes (flat whites hadn’t been invented yet). Yuppies. We still called them yuppies, then.
Our tutor was a Marxist; he was having none of this. He marched his comrades, who, by now, were looking a little green with envy, down Percy Street (more posh townhouses), turned right, ta-dah! Oh… Is that it? A block of flats. And…? Designed by Berthold Lubetkin in the 1950s, we obediently scribbled in our notebooks. Yes, we get the message: we bothered to build homes for the proletariat back then.
It was originally to be called Lenin Court, containing a statue of the Soviet leader, until geopolitics shifted. Very interesting. But, basically, so what? Still not as nice as those Georgian houses. He continued: “Council cut the budget, usual story, so Lubetkin scaled back the ambition. Apart from…”
Our tutor opened the block’s little entrance door. That one single act will stay with me till I die. It was as if our tutor had slipped us all a tab of acid. We walked in and entered… what? Another universe. Another dimension. Whoosh. That staircase! Now, most staircases in postwar blocks of flats are nothing to write home about. This one, though, was plucked from an Escher print. We scampered up, dizzy, eyes wide open. Imagine coming home from work to this. Imagine popping out for a pint of milk. Going to school. Those Georgian houses didn’t have a staircase like this. Our tutor smiled. This was what architecture was all about. We got the message.
Cabmen’s Shelter
The Cabmen’s Shelter that provided refreshments to Victorian horse-drawn cab drivers was chosen by Oliver Wainwright of The Guardian.
Looking like a cross between a quaint country cricket pavilion and a large garden shed, the Cabmen’s Shelter is an enigmatic part of the London streetscape. With its green-painted timber panelled walls, pitched tiled rooftop and decorative air vent poking out of the top, it squats at the side of the road like an emerald Tardis, waiting to transport you back to Victorian London.
There are only 13 of these mysterious structures left, scattered from Chelsea Embankment to Russell Square, all of which are now Grade II listed, but at their height there were over 60 across the city, built at a cost of £200 each. They were the product of the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund, established in 1875 by the philanthropic Earl of Shaftesbury to provide “good and wholesome refreshments at moderate prices” for London’s army of horse-drawn cab drivers – of which there were 4,600 by 1869.
Law stated that cabbies could not leave their horse and cab at the stand unattended, so they had to pay someone to keep watch if they wanted to go for a break. Providing a place to rest at the head of the taxi rank, the shelters solved this problem. Occupying a place on the public highway, their dimensions could be no larger than the size of a hansom cab and its steed – that is “seven bays long by three bays wide”.
Built partly to tempt cabbies away from the pub, the shelters had a moralistic bent: each displays a sign declaring that gambling, swearing and political discussion is strictly forbidden, and alcohol cannot be served. Inside, there is space for 12 people, sitting on benches that run along both walls around a u-shaped Formica-topped table, hinged at the end to allow you to squeeze in. In the corner, an impossibly small kitchen serves up strong tea – and some of the best bacon sarnies in London.
Canvey Island
Owen Hatherley of The Guardian nominated an oil refinery jetty in Canvey Island on the Thames estuary.
Canvey Island was ‘oil city’, a seaside town with a massive sideline in the petrochemical industry. The exceptionally long, spindly, worn jetty that was once part of the Occidental Petroleum site is both a remnant of and currently provides a view of one of the least commented-on but most astonishing ‘unknown architectures’ around – the buildings of the petrochemical industry, here more specifically, the Coryton refinery in Essex.
Anonymous and hardly even strictly definable as ‘architecture’, refineries are among the most dreamlike and complex things in the built environment, usually placed at a safe distance from actual cities, the sort of zones where the real workings of the economy, and the structures that house them, can be seen. Refineries themselves are the unacknowledged architectural inspiration for the Lloyds building and much else, bafflingly intricate steel structures made up of dozens of little towers, protrusions and connections, which have a spectacular sense of sheer spatial exuberance and a total lack of the cowardice of so much actual architecture.
Pick a refinery, it doesn’t matter which – Wilton, Fawley, or Canvey, where the beach and the jetty provide a view of a site that was mostly established by Mobil in the 1950s; the village of Coryton was razed for the purpose. By day, refineries are stunning enough, but lit up at night, each one is a pocket metropolis, a constructivist’s dream of steel, flares and flashing lights, from a distance much more impressive a skyline than many actual cities. Therein, these all-but-illegible, bafflingly complex structures are processing our increasingly irrational oil economy in an appropriately mind-boggling way.
Here’s some more information about the exhibition:
Lesser Known Architecture: A Celebration of Underappreciated London Buildings
Lesser Known Architecture is a free exhibition celebrating extraordinary London architecture. Nominated by leading architecture critics, these ten buildings, structures and subways contribute to the mix and diversity of the city but are all too often overlooked and forgotten. Curated by Elias Redstone, Lesser Known Architecture presents an alternative architectural map of the city. Each site has been photographed by Theo Simpson and will be displayed as a series of single colour offset prints in the Design Museum Café and Tank. The installation is designed by Ben Mclaughlin.
The Ten London Buildings Featured and their Nominators:
» Bevin Court nominated by Tom Dyckhoff (BBC Culture Show) » Brownfield Estate nominated by Owen Hatherley (The Guardian) » Cabmen’s Shelters nominated by Oliver Wainwright (The Guardian) » Crystal Palace Subway nominated by Rory Olcayto (The Architects’ Journal) » London Underground Arcades nominated by Edwin Heathcote (Financial Times) » Mail Rail nominated by Ellie Stathaki (Wallpaper*) » Nunhead Cemetery nominated by Hugo MacDonald (Monocle) » Occidental Oil Refinery Jetty nominated by Owen Hatherley (The Guardian) » Stockwell Bus Garage nominated by Tom Dyckhoff (BBC Culture Show) » Welbeck Street Car Park nominated by Sam Jacob (Dezeen / Art Review)
Each nominator has written an overview of their buildings historical and design credentials that will be published in the accompanying journal, Lesser Known Architecture, Vol. 1: London.
The Lesser Known Architecture photographs will also be produced as limited edition prints available to purchase from the Design Museum Shop. Lesser Known Architecture is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2013.
Mail Online journalist Rosie Taylor scoffed at the plain and simple look of the Gov.uk website in an article published after the ceremony in London last night, complaining that “it has only two small pictures” and “features links to pages like ‘Housing and local services’”.
“And the award goes to boring.com!” ran the headline on the news site, which earlier this year won the Design Effectiveness Award’s Grand Prix for its huge growth in traffic and advertising revenue since its 2008 redesign.
Gov.uk was designed by Government Digital Service, a team within the cabinet office led by designer Ben Terrett, to combine the UK government’s thousands of online services in a single website that’s meant to be simple and intuitive to use and which uses just one font and dispenses with visual clutter such as images and coloured panels.
The redesign beat over 90 other shortlisted projects and was praised for its elegance and simplicity by Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum that organises the annual awards to recognise “the most innovative and imaginative designs” from the past year.
News: the UK government’s redesigned website has been named the Design of the Year in a ceremony at the Design Museum in London this evening (+ movie).
Gov.uk was designed by Government Digital Service, a team within the Cabinet Office led by designer Ben Terrett (see our movie above), to fold the government’s thousands of existing websites into just one.
Deyan Sudjic, director of the award-giving Design Museum, said the new website “makes life better for millions of people”.
“Gov.uk looks elegant, and subtly British thanks to a revised version of a classic typeface designed by Margaret Calvert back in the 1960s. It is the Paul Smith of websites,” said Sudjic.
“The rest of the world is deeply impressed, and because it has rationalised multiple official websites, it saves the taxpayer millions – what’s not to like?”
Prime minister David Cameron also said he was “delighted” about the win, adding: “For the first time, people can find out what’s happening inside government, all in one place, and in a clear and consistent format.”
The core idea behind Gov.uk is to make it as simple and intuitive as possible for the user, Terrett told Dezeen in a movie filmed at Design Indaba in Cape Town as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour.
“People only go onto government websites once or twice a year to find out a particular thing,” he said. “So people shouldn’t spend time relearning how to use it. The core of all our work is focusing on user need.”
Terrett’s team devised 10 principles of good design to guide their work and chose to make them public in the hope they would be useful to other designers, as he explained at the Global Design Forum in London last September. “We believe that if you share work it makes it better,” explained Terrett.
The principles are:
1. Start with needs 2. Do less 3. Design with data 4. Do the hard work to make it simple 5. Iterate. Then iterate again 6. Build for inclusion 7. Understand context 8. Build digital services, not websites 9. Be consistent, not uniform 10. Make things open: it makes things better
Terrett also won the graphics category of the 2010 awards with his print-on-demand publishing service Newspaper Club.
The seven winners include digital category winner Gov.uk (above), which brings together all the UK Government’s webpages into a single site, and the Morph folding wheel, winner of the transport category.
The architecture category was won by Tour Bois-le-Prêtre (above), a refurbished 1960s tower block in Paris designed by Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal.
Director Lisa Immordino Vreeland was chosen in the fashion category for her documentary on influential fashion columnist and editor Diana Vreeland (below).
The overall winner will be announced on 16 April at an awards ceremony in London.
The Design Museum announces the seven category winners for the annual Designs of the Year Awards. The awards celebrate the best of international design from the last 12 months. The overall winner for the Design of The Year 2013 will be announced on Wednesday 16 April at an awards evening held at The Angler, South Place Hotel, London.
The seven category winners include GOV.UK, a new British government website which promises to revolutionise governmental online communications, bringing together different government websites into one single site making it a much easier and user friendly service. Other winners include the renovation and reimagining of a faded 1960s tower block in Paris, a landmark documentary an fashion icon Diana Vreeland, a reinvention of the wheel in the form of a unique folding wheel which can be applied to bicycles and wheelchairs and a chair constructed using the latest computer technology.
The Seven Category winners are:
» Architecture: Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, Paris – Designed by Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal
» Digital: GOV.UK website – Designed by Government Digital Service
» Fashion: Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel – Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
» Furniture: Medici Chair – Designed by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi
» Graphics: Venice Architecture Biennale identity – Designed by John Morgan Studio
» Products: Kit Yamoyo – Designed by ColaLife and PI Global
» Transport: Morph Folding Wheel – Designed by Vitamins for Maddak Inc.
Pete Collard, Curator of Designs of the Year comments: ‘Designs of the Year is the Design Museum’s authoritative review of the most innovative, forward-thinking and culturally relevant projects from the past twelve months. The work selected demonstrates the many ways in which design can transform our physical and cultural landscape.’
The seven winning designs will now compete for the overall Design of the Year 2013, to be announced on 16 April. The winning entries, along with all the shortlisted designs are on show at the Design Museum until 7 July.
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