Hasta La Ideas

These spinning ‘light paintings’ made with sparkling crystal beads by designer Philippe Malouin are currently on show in the Digital Crystal exhibition at London’s Design Museum (+ movie + slideshow).

“Blur is a series of ‘paintings’ realised through light and motion,” Malouin told Dezeen, explaining that they were made by attaching rows of colourful Swarovski crystal beads to a motor that spins at high speeds.

“The circles shimmer because LEDs shine light at them, while variations in the speed of rotation affect the colour intensity,” he added.

Like the other pieces in the exhibition, Blur explores the idea of memory in an increasingly digital world.

Malouin says the piece alludes to memory through the “transformation from its solid state to its accelerated state,” as it retains the memory of its simple underlying design while transforming it through movement. “It doesn’t always spin – it’s programmed to reveal its different states,” he adds.

Digital Crystal continues until 13 January 2013. We recently featured another installation from the exhibition – a mechanical projector by London design studio Troika.

Malouin is also taking part in Seven Designers for Seven Dials, an aerial installation in Covent Garden curated by Dezeen that will be on show throughout London Design Festival, which takes place between 14–23 September.

See all our stories about Philippe Malouin »
See all our stories about the Design Museum »
See all our stories about Swarovski »

Photographs are by David Levene.

Above: movie interview with Philippe Malouin filmed by the Design Museum

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Philippe Malouin appeared first on Dezeen.

Irish studio Grafton Architects have acknowledged the influence of celebrated Brazilian architect Paulo
 Mendes
 da
 Rocha on their work by constructing limestone models of his buildings and theirs at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

“When we received the invitation to exhibit, we had just won an architectural competition for a new university in Peru,” explained director Yvonne Farrell. “We acknowledged our influences from South America and on this basis we took the opportunity of celebrating the inspirational quality of the work of Mendes da Rocha.”

Three of the large stone models show details from de Rocha’s Sao Pedro Church in São Paulo and his urban design project for Montevideo Bay in Uruguay, while two others show Grafton’s proposals for the University of Lima and for a School of Economics in Toulouse, France.

The stone structures are surrounded by images of Mendes da Rocha’s Serra Dourada football stadium in Brazil, as well as photography depicting landscapes from Machu Picchu and from the Irish island of Skellig Michael.

Grafton Architects were awarded the Silver Lion for most promising practice at the biennale.

See all our coverage of the Venice Architecture Biennale »

Photography is by Alice Clancy.

Here’s a short description from the exhibition:

Architecture as New Geography

Irish
 practice 
Grafton
 Architects 
used
 the
 invitation
 of 
the 
biennale
 to
 open 
up
 a 
new 
conversation
 with an 
architect 
whose
 work 
they
 had
 long
 admired:
 Pritzker
 Prize
 winner
 Paulo
 Mendes
 da
 Rocha. 
Grafton
 Architects 
recently
 won
 a 
competition 
fo
r a 
university
 in
 Lima,
 Peru,
 and looked
 to 
Mendes 
da 
Rocha’s 
work
 for 
cues 
on
 how
 to
 build 
for
 the
 particular
 climatic
conditions
 of
 this
 place.

After
 a
 dialogue
 with 
the
 Brazilian, 
Grafton
 made
 models
 of
 selected
 works
 focusing
 on 
his
 Serra
 Dourada 
Stadium
 project: 
an 
homage 
that
 becomes 
a 
piece 
of 
design
 research
 for 
the
 idea
 of
 the
 university
 as 
an
 arena
 of
learning,
 working
 with
 Mendes
 da 
Rocha’s
 idea 
of
 architecture 
as 
new 
geography.

This
 exhibition
 demonstrates 
how
openness 
to
 influence
 is 
a 
starting
 point, 
and
 a 
prerequisite
 for
 good
 architecture. 
In 
this
 sense,
this
 room exemplifies 
the
theme 
of
 this 
year’s
 biennale.

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by Grafton Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This movie by filmmakers Stretch documents the ongoing work by Cape Town studio Noero Architects to create a cultural centre within the barracks of Port Elizabeth that were once used as a concentration camp.

The barracks were dismantled and reassembled in Red Location Precinct after the Boer War, before becoming the first community of black African families in South Africa during the racial segregation at the start of the twentieth century.

Noero Architects have designed a complex centred around a museum for the centre of the historic settlement, which is under construction and due for completion in 2022.

“We thought, what better place in Port Elizabeth than to use Red Location as the new cultural centre of the city?” explained Jo Noero. “Where you could bring together the histories of the Afrikaner people and the histories of the black African people and show that they both suffered in different ways at different times, under different groups and regimes. In a way it was about talking about a real form of reconciliation.”

The movie was completed after the opening of the exhibition and shows some of the completed buildings of the project and how they fit in amongst the existing urban fabric.

“The best public space in South Africa is the street and the way in which life happens along its edges,” said Noero. “What we did at Red Location was to reinforce the idea of street and where we make bigger spaces we simply created indentations in the buildings which come directly off the street”.

Plan detail – click above for larger image

Noero has also produced a nine-metre-long, hand-drawn plan to illustrate the proposals, which he is presenting at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

When discussing the use of hand drawings, Noero said “there is nothing that the computer can do that can replicate that sense of control that you have by drawing by hand. When you draw by the hand you connect with your mind and your heart, and it is an action that you can control.”

See more stories from the Venice Architecture Biennale »

Here’s a few lines of text about the exhibition:

“South African Architect Jo Noero’s work has always been sensitive to the divided and contested urban conditions of his country’s cities, and his installation here reflects thus through two powerful artworks.

Above: exhibition at the Arsenale Corderie

One is a 9m-long hand drawing, depicting at 1:100 the Red Location Precinct in Port Elizabeth, a project that proposes common ground in a city torn apart by the urbanistic consequences of apartheid. Next to it is the artwork Keiskamma Guernica, a tapestry made by fifty women from the Hamburg Women’s Co-operative from the Eastern Cape.

Above: exhibition at the Arsenale Corderie

These two meticulous, labour-intensive works are contrasting and complementary pieces of evidence of an urban condition where common ground is not easily achieved.”

The post Common Ground/Different Worlds
by Noero Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Last month, Melbourne was graced by a special exhibition from Herman MillerTHEN X TEN: The Power of the Poster at fortyfive downstairs gallery space in Melbourne. “Simply designed to communicate a message, posters are all too frequently the tools of advertisers. But under the direction of a keen eye and talented hands, posters have the power to spark action, elicit emotion, and join the ranks of art.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to see the show in person: the celebration of the print format, featuring classic posters from the Herman Miller archives alongside ten newly commissioned works, was only on view from August 14–25.

Thankfully, our friends in Zeeland and Australia HQ Sydney have documented the exhibition quite thoroughly, with photos from the opening, including Creative Director (and Curator) Steve Frykholm’s talk at RMIT, and a few installation shots, as well as images of the work.

Steve Frykholm (1986)

Kam Tang, whose work is pictured above, writes: “A departure from the padding of traditional office chairs, Aeron’s Pellicle material was like a new dawn; I wanted to capture that in my design by taking the chair out of the office and transforming it into a landscape.” Check out additional artist statements here.

John Massey (no date given)

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Breathing Factory, Takashi Yamaguchi and Associates. Osaka, Japan, 2009.

On September 13th, the Design Exchange proudly presents the opening of two unique exhibits —Vertical Urban Factory and Considering the Quake—both on view through December 9th.

Vertical Urban Factory will study the history of factory design, considering important developments such as Henry Ford’s Highland Park Assembly Line. Receiving high praise at New York City’s Skyscraper Museum (where it was on show November 2010 – June 2011), the exhibit begs the question, “Can factories once again present sustainable solutions for future self-sufficient cities?”

Buckminster Fuller, Automatic Cotton Mill, 1952, model designed with North Carolina State University students. Courtesy North Carolina State University, College of Design. Photograph by Ralph Mills.

The accompanying exhibit, Considering the Quake delves into seismic design and the science of architecture. How, for fear of being exposed to seismic hazards, engineering and technological advances has often surpassed the importance placed on aesthetics.

Throughout late Fall and into December, the DX will accommodate samples of superior projects in technology and research, including Cast Connex’s seismic technology which is to be included in NYC’s World Trade Center 3 design, among others. In addition to how architecture is changing because of these advances, the exhibit will examine post critical disaster shelters from an architect’s perspective rather than the traditional engineer’s point of view, led by Dr. Effie Bouras Postdoctural Fellow and Professor Ghyslaine McClure, P. Eng, of McGill University, Department of Civil Engineering.

Vertical Urban Factory and Consider the Quake
Design Exchange
234 Bay Street
Toronto, M5K 1B2
September 13 – December 9

Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Shenzhen, China, by OMA. Image courtesy of OMA; photography by Philippe Ruault.

Van Nelle Factory, Johanne Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt with Mart Stam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1925-31. Photograph courtesy of Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek, c. 1932.

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