“I hope that Singapore doesn’t have a style” – Kerry Hill on Martin No. 38

World Architecture Festival 2012: architect Kerry Hill won the award in the housing category at the World Architecture Festival with his design for an apartment building in Singapore and in this interview we filmed he discusses how he believes the nation is developing an “emerging approach to design” rather than an architectural style.

Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects

Hill, an Australian architect, moved to Singapore in the late 1970s and he describes how “the standard of architecture” and the “sense of architectural community” has significantly improved since then. ”More and more the quite important and certainly the more interesting buildings are being done by home-grown Singaporeans,” he explains.

Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects

Martin No. 38 is the architect’s first housing project in Singapore and comprises a series of apartment blocks in a former warehouse area near to the Singapore River. The architect describes how the building was driven by the climate as much as the programme. “The trick with building in the tropics is not to exclude the sun, but to invite it in through a series of filters,” he says.

Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects

These filters take the form of a louvred facade system that residents can control, allowing them to “mediate climate, noise and privacy”. Each apartment also has an open-plan layout for additional flexibility, while terraces are created at the base of each building as “outdoor living spaces”.

Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects

However, Hill also explains how he thinks the design scene “isn’t just about apartments” in Singapore. ”I simply think that Singapore is maturing and the design community is emerging as a force,” he says. “It is a place today where developers understand that good design sells.”

Martin No. 38 by Kerry Hill Architects

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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– Kerry Hill on Martin No. 38
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An art college should be “a blank canvas” – Paul Williams on Central Saint Martins

World Architecture Festival 2012: architect Paul Williams of Stanton Williams tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs why his team designed the new campus for London art and design college Central Saint Martins as “a blank canvas” where different disciplines could “take form and ownership”, in this movie we filmed at the World Architecture Festival last month.

Campus for Central Saint Martins by Stanton Williams

The project won the award in the higher education and research category and brings together all the disparate faculties of the school into a single campus constructed in and around a Victorian granary and two former transit sheds at King’s Cross.

Campus for Central Saint Martins by Stanton Williams

Williams describes how they used unfinished materials such as raw timber and concrete for the walls and surfaces. ”When you’re creating an art college, the one thing you’re not looking to do is impose a strong architectural identity,” he says. “It’s the actual disciplines that should create the identity.”

Campus for Central Saint Martins by Stanton Williams

An internal street runs through the centre of the buildings, creating an exhibition area between the studios of each department. “We have created much more shared space, so there is less space in ownership of departments,” says Williams. “It is space that can be used by all of the disciplines.”

Campus for Central Saint Martins by Stanton Williams

The architect also discusses the importance of flexibility, which will allow the campus to “morph” in the future. ”A lot of the areas and walls that are built are soft and they can be knocked down and reconfigured,” he says. “The principle of the building is it is a stage for transformation.”

Campus for Central Saint Martins by Stanton Williams

Read more about the campus for Central Saint Martins in our earlier story, or see more stories about Stanton Williams, including our interview with Alan Stanton about the Stirling Prize-winning Sainsbury Laboratory.

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

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– Paul Williams on Central Saint Martins
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“In Vietnam we have problems with energy” – Vo Trong Nghia on Stacking Green

World Architecture Festival: in this movie we filmed, architect Vo Trong Nghia explains how the house he designed with a vertical garden on its facade incorporates natural daylighting and ventilation systems that are invaluable in Vietnam, which experiences heavy rain and high temperatures, but often suffers day-long power shortages.

Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia

Named Stacking Green, the building won the award in the house category at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore earlier this month and is located in Ho Chi Minh City.

Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia

“In Vietnam we have many problems with energy and electricity, it can stop many times a day,” Nghia tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs. During these times light is able to filter into the house through the inner wall of glazing, but the twelve layers of plants in front prevent direct sunlight from passing through and increasing the internal temperature.

Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia

Natural ventilation also comes through this planted facade. ”To invite wind into the house you open a window and then the air goes through the vertical garden,” he says. “Even when it is raining you can open the windows.”

Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia

Nghia also discusses how Vietnam is “developing so quick,” but shouldn’t fall into the easy trap of following the architectural styles of western countries. “The climate is totally different, yet we almost do the same thing,” he says, before explaining why he designed this house for the continuous “hot summer” rather than for the changing seasons of Europe.

Read more about Stacking Green in our earlier story, or see more stories about Vo Trong Nghia.

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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– Vo Trong Nghia on Stacking Green
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Dezeen Watch Store: No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID Watches

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

Dezeen Watch Store: Swedish design studio Form Us With Love has launched a watch for new Swedish brand TID Watches – and the first ten customers who pre-order the watch at Dezeen Watch Store will get special-edition signed packaging by the designers (+ interview).

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

No.1 is the first product by TID Watches, which is Swedish for “time”, and Form Us With Love has designed it to be timeless and durable.

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

“We decided that the most important thing was to design a watch that would look good with any outfit and that you could wear everyday, and not throw away in three months when that fashion is over,” said Petrus Palmer of Form Us With Love (see interview below). “It is a big watch. It’s a steel watch, it won’t break, there are no loose parts, there is no connections for the wristband and so on.”

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

The watch features a black, ion-plated stainless steel case with either a black or white face and a woven nylon wristband. No.1 is available to pre-order now at Dezeen Watch Store. Buy now for £162.50 excluding VAT. We now offer FREE SHIPPING on all UK orders.

See all our stories about Form Us With Love | See all our stories about watches | Visit Dezeen Watch Store

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

Here’s an interview with Petrus Palmer of Form Us With Love (above, right), conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs:


Marcus Fairs: You’ve designed a watch for a new Swedish brand. Tell us about TID.

Petrus Palmer: It’s two guys from the fashion industry. They wanted to invest in a new company and they wanted watches as they are products that last. Fashion is so quick; you can’t keep things alive for more than a month or a year. With watches you can go with the same product for a longer time; you’re making products that will last.

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the watch you’ve designed.

Petrus Palmer: Basically we wanted a watch that hasn’t been done before. There have been so many nice watches that have been done, and there is so much engineering and talent that is put into watches. So we didn’t really want to go down that alley and try and compete with the best in watch manufacturing. Our approach was rather to do something that we ourselves would like. It’s also a watch that everybody can afford.

We decided that the most important thing was to design a watch that would look good with any outfit and that you could wear everyday, and not throw away in three months when that fashion is over. It is a big watch. It’s a steel watch, it won’t break, there are no loose parts, there is no connections for the wristband and so on. The surface of the steel has been bombarded with ions to give it a really durable black finish. It has a good Japanese movement.

So it is a really good watch; it will last. You can easily change the wristband, if you want a leather one, or if you want to buy your own; we could launch other wristbands later on.

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

Marcus Fairs: The designer watch market is expanding really quickly. Which other designers or models do you admire?

Petrus Palmer: The Braun watches and clocks; the designs by Dieter Rams. That is the kind of watch we want to do, that is our inspiration.

Marcus Fairs: And I understand you have agreed to do some signed additions for Dezeen Watch Store customers? That is very kind of you. What is your message to them?

Petrus Palmer: I would love to see them use it, as it is the first watch we are launching. I would love their feedback, actually. Tell us what you think, and be honest, because we really want to do something that you wear because you like it and you want to keep it. Give us your feedback and we will try to be better.

Below is some text about the watch from TID Watches:


”Tid” is Swedish for time. TID is a small Swedish design brand with a big ambition – to produce iconic products designed with time as a principle parameter. TID is now launching their first product, befittingly a timepiece. The No.1 wristwatch is a black ion plated milled stainless steel watch designed by Stockholm based studio Form Us With Love:

“The idea of designing No.1 came from the somewhat paradoxical insight that wristwatches had become obsolete. The wristwatch lost its essentiality when devices for showing time moved into everyone’s pocket. Now the wristwatch is one of the few pieces of jewelry many carry, its main function being to serve as the icing on your outfit cake. As product designers influenced by the Scandinavian tradition of functionalism, we where intrigued by this fact.

No.1 by Form Us With Love for TID

“Faced with the challenge of designing an object, when that specific object’s raison d’etre was very much in question, the design studio turned its focus in a more philosophical direction – how do you design for time? No.1 is the first result – an iconic watch that aims to withstand shifts in times and styles.” – Form Us With Love

No.1 comes in stainless steel with black ion plating – a resilient deep surface treatment. The inside holds a Japanese quartz clockwork. The accompanying NATO wristband in woven nylon is attached without screws or hinges. The watch is available with white or black face.

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With Love for TID Watches
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Interview: Camilla Stones: An Icelandic pop star’s spiky homage to the Statue of Liberty

Interview: Camilla Stones

by Dominic Blackwell-Cooper Camilla Stones is accustomed to success. Her entire life has evolved around art, music, dance and design. Serving as one third of the Icelandic pop girl group The Charlies, she has been a part of 10 number one singles, four albums, a TV show, a book and…

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“We’re trying to find a Singaporean context” – Pan Yi Cheng on Herman Miller at XTRA

World Architecture Festival 2012: Pan Yi Cheng of Singapore studio P.A.C won the award in the retail category at the World Architecture Festival with his design for a shop for furniture brand Herman Miller. In this movie we filmed, the architect explains how a recent emergence of young practices is helping Singapore become a “more vibrant” place that is starting to find its own identity.

Herman Miller at XTRA by P.A.C

“Culturally we are quite unique, you can say we are on the crossroads between east and west,” says Cheng. Describing the architectural context, he explains: ”We have a completely modern masterplan with a Corbusian vision, but culturally we are ingrained still with Asian thinking.”

Herman Miller at XTRA by P.A.C

The architect designed an undulating lattice of plywood that folds up around Herman Miller furniture at an XTRA homeware store in Singapore. He describes how he was inspired by the construction of the chairs on show to create a system of modular pieces that are “joined together with a simple, interlocking lapping joint.”

Herman Miller at XTRA by P.A.C

Cheng explains how this is the smallest project from his Singapore studio, which he started three years ago after a period of working and studying in London. “There’s a lot more things happening in Asia,” he says. Despite completing his own education in the west, he discusses how he also believes education is rapidly progressing in the east to become more “means-driven” rather than “ends-driven”, as it is at the moment. ”Once we reach a level of maturity in terms of a discourse we will be able to go for something which is more means-driven,” he says.

Herman Miller at XTRA by P.A.C

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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– Pan Yi Cheng on Herman Miller at XTRA
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Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

Belgian designer Carl de Smet of Noumenon has developed high-tech foam furniture that can be squashed to 5% of its original size for easy transportation and then expanded “like popcorn” by heating it up (+ movie + interview).

Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

Under the proposal, which is still at the research stage, products made of polyurethane shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are compressed into flat, lightweight slabs (top left in the above sequence), meaning they take up very little space until they are required. When heated, the furniture returns to its original shape thanks to the “memory foam” properties of the material (see movie below).

“It’s light, so for shipping it’s almost taking up no space,” de Smet told Dezeen. “If it gets damaged and it’s heated again, [the damage] disappears. If you ship the packaging and something happens to it, it doesn’t matter because it isn’t the end product; that’s in the imprinted memory.”

The project evolved out of a research project to design a parabolic antenna for outer space that would be compressed to make a smaller payload on a spaceship, then expanded to full size when exposed to the sun’s rays. This project involved shape-memory alloys (SMAs) – advanced metals that perform in the same way as SMPs, but which are highly expensive.

Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

“I wanted to bring it back to daily life and not only use it for high technology projects, and for that the metals were too expensive,” says de Smet. “With polymers, when you produce them in large quantities, it’s affordable.”

At the moment the items need to be placed in a large heated environment like a sauna to reach the required temperature of 70 degrees, but de Smet is researching other ways of triggering the transition from the compressed to the expanded form, for example by “programming” the material to return to its remembered form when electricity is passed through it.

Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

“[At the moment] it’s programmed [to expand] at 70 degrees, because of the logistics of transport,” de Smet said. “For example in the summer and the truck is stuck in traffic, then inside it is building up to 50 degrees and we don’t want the furniture to pop, like popcorn.”

The foam, which is strong enough to be structural, can be turned into furniture by milling solid blocks of the material or by injection moulding.

Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

De Smet is exhibiting the project, including scale models of a foam armchair, at the Buda Factory building in Kortrijk, Belgium, as part of the Interieur 2012 design biennale. The exhibition continues until 28 October. See all our stories about Interieur 2012.

Below is the interview with de Smet, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs:


Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the Noumenon project.

Carl de Smet (above): It’s a research project that started five, six years ago, around the world of smart materials, smart polymers, which have the possibility to change shape. It means you can fix a temporary shape and then if you reach a certain temperature it can transform into an end product.

Marcus Fairs: What kind of material is it? It looks like a kind of foam.

Carl de Smet: It’s a kind of memory foam. Foam can have different densities; normal foam is really soft, spongy. But this one is rigid, so it’s strong, which means you can us it as a structural support. And when it becomes hot and when it wants to change form, it becomes soft.

Marcus Fairs: Is this a material you invented yourself or one that you discovered and found a use for?

Carl de Smet: These polymers have been around for 20 years but finally we are updating the material for design applications on a bigger scale.

Marcus Fairs: Was this something you discovered by mistake?

Carl de Smet: We didn’t discover it by mistake. In 2002/2003 I was doing a research project with shape-memory alloys; metals that are really well known. It was an idea to design a parabolic antenna for outer space. The idea was to bring a squeezed form out into space, connected to a spaceship. You unload it in the cold air then when you turn it to the sun the heat would open it and form an antenna. I really liked the idea of designing certain kinds of objects that have a performative behaviour. I wanted to bring it back to daily life and not only use it for high technology projects, and for that the metals were too expensive. As you know with polymers, when you produce them in large quantities, it’s affordable. That’s the reason I researched into plastics.

Marcus Fairs: So tell us how this could be used to create a product. Here you’ve got a model of an armchair.

Carl de Smet: It’s an armchair but the basic idea is that [you buy it] in a packaging shape. You buy a package, you come home to the story that everybody knows now: the special key from Ikea; you put everything together; you assemble it yourself. Here the material is making this move. The material is doing the work. Because the form in imprinted in the memory effect of the material.

Marcus Fairs: So you manufacture this chair and you compress it, you squash it?

Carl de Smet: Yes.

Marcus Fairs: How much smaller can you make it than the original?

Carl de Smet: We can reduce it to 20 times smaller. If you think about the form it’s a cellular structure, and inside the structure there is air and you can collapse this structure. Then it becomes like a slab.

Marcus Fairs: What’s the benefit of this? I imagine you can ship it much more efficiently.

Carl de Smet: It’s light, so for shipping it’s almost taking up no space. If it gets damaged and it’s heated again [the damage] disappears. If you ship the packaging and something happens it doesn’t matter because it isn’t the end product; that’s in the imprinted memory.

Marcus Fairs: How do you then turn the squashed product into the full-sized product?

Carl de Smet: For the moment it’s heat, but we are researching applications that will allow it to happen in households, because not everyone has a sauna at home where you can put furniture.

Marcus Fairs: So you have to put it in a very hot room?

Carl de Smet: At the moment it’s programmed to [expand at] 70 degrees, because of the logistics of transport. For example in the summer if there is a traffic jam and the truck is stuck in traffic, then inside it is building up  to 50 degrees and we don’t want the furniture to pop, like popcorn. That’s the reason we calculated 70 degrees. It sounds quite high but when you think about logistics, that’s the minimum.

Marcus Fairs: How would you shape the product? With a mill?

Carl de Smet: It’s made with a mill but we can also do injection moulding. This is a kind of a polyurethane, or PU. In the car industry the fake leather is made out of PU. So we can do it like fake leather or fake wood; it’s just the finishing of the moulding process. It depends on the moulding and how you present it.

Marcus Fairs: What’s the scientific process that allows it to retain its memory?

Carl de Smet: If you look under a microscope at polymers you see a kind of spaghetti form. In this form you make chemical cross-links and that fixes the form and the trigger. Every time you compress or stretch it it remembers the connection points and cross links.

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by Carl de Smet
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We “convinced” doctors to move to an open-plan wing – Kristen Whittle and Ron Billard

World Architecture Festival 2012: architects Kristen Whittle and Ron Billard explain how meerkats, fish and open-plan offices for consultants helped provide better care for sick children at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, the winner in the health category at the World Architecture Festival.

Royal Children’s Hospital by Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart

Above: photograph is by Shannon McGrath

Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart collaborated on the design of the hospital, which replaces an existing facility, and the architects describe their decision to remove private rooms from the wards as “one of the most transformational things” they did with the new building. “By interacting with other professionals, [the doctors] are looking at solving problems in a holistic way,” says Billard.

Royal Children's Hospital by Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart

The pair also describe the challenges of redesigning a “much-loved institution.” The new building centres around a six-storey atrium containing grass-like green spaces, a meerkat enclosure and an aquarium. Billard explains how these devices were intended to create spaces that are “relaxing, not stressful” for children. “Hospitals can be pretty scary places,” he says.

Royal Children's Hospital by Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart

Above: photograph is by Shannon McGrath

Rooms in the each of the wards offer views over the gardens and courtyards. ”The amount of beds in this hospital is more or less the same as the existing facility, so even though it is a much bigger building, there is only the same amount of beds, says Whittle. “The idea is not to deal with vast quantities of kids, but more become a specialist model for only the acute problems.”

Royal Children's Hospital by Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart

Above: photograph is by John Gollings

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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plan wing – Kristen Whittle and Ron Billard
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Black Moth Super Rainbow Interview: We talk to the band’s enigmatic front man, Tobacco, about the self-release of their fifth album

Black Moth Super Rainbow Interview

Using analog equipment and outdated electronics for a more “real” sound, Black Moth Super Rainbow is one of the more captivating experimental electronic bands we’ve become familiar with in recent years. With nearly a decade of albums under their belt and a truly authentic approach in terms of musical…

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Most design fairs “are not designed”

Most design fairs "are not designed"

News: design fairs need to be better designed to provide a better experience to visitors, according the curator of the Interieur design biennale in Kortrijk, Belgium, which opened this weekend (+ interview).

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Audi shuttle service linking the Xpo and Buda Island locations

“A lot of them are not designed,” said Lowie Vermeersch, the former design director at automotive designer Pininfarina. “To have good design you also need to have culture; you need artistic aspirations.”

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: layout of Interieur 2012

Vermeersch said that most design fairs are confusing, badly planned and too large for visitors to enjoy. “I sometimes get a bit frustrated coming back from Milan and feeling that even though I travelled a lot, I missed a lot,” he told Dezeen. “It’s a lot of logistics while you’re there, and a lot of planning. It would be better to just focus on exploring the design, and cut out all the logistic considerations you have to make to plan your day.”

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: graphics made for Interieur 2012

Vermeersch, who was born in Kortrijk and became curator of the fair last year, has introduced an urban-style layout at the Xpo building on the edge of the city, that houses the trade fair part of the event, complete with boulevards, lanes and squares with bars and restaurants.

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: cafe at Buda Island

In addition there is a cluster of exhibitions at Buda Island in the city. The two locations are linked by a continuous shuttle service provided by Audi, which is free to all visitors. “The whole visit should be pleasant experience,” said Vermeersch. “For me Interieur is a real design event, not just because it’s showing design, but also because it’s conceived as design.”

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: cafe at Buda Island

Dotted around both the Xpo building and the Buda Island locations are a series of exhibits responding to the Biennale’s central theme, Future Primitives, with specially commissioned projects by designers including Troika, Greg Lynn, Nendo and Ross Lovegrove.

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Future Primitive installation by Greg Lynn. Image by Wouter van Vaerenbergh

In April we published a video interview with Vermeersch, in which he set out his vision for Interieur. The fair has taken place every two years since 1968 and is organised by the not-for-profit Interieur Foundation. This year’s event  runs until 28 October.

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Future Primitive installation by Greg Lynn. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Here’s the transcript of the interview, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in Kortrijk yesterday:


Marcus Fairs: There’s more and more design festivals, design weeks, design events and so on. It’s  intimidating and exhausting to visit them all. How can design events stand out from the crowd?

Lowie Vermeersch: For me, value lies in compactness. Being compact means every visitor sees everything, so there’s no risk of getting lost in the overload of quantity that we sometimes see.

If you come to Kortrijk, the expo and the events on Buda Island are connected continuously by the shuttle service available for everybody, so there’s a kind of mental rest. You don’t even have to plan your visit. Everything is selected and curated, and it’s served to you on a pleasant scale. We don’t want to only select the big brands, we want to show people new things.

Secondly, there’s something also we worked very much on, that the whole visit should be pleasant experience. You can see very clearly in the expo that it’s not just a regular grid; it’s more a city plan with lanes, big streets, small streets, and squares with integrated bars and restaurants. So the whole thing is just a pleasant experience in itself.

Marcus Fairs: Do you think that design fairs are often unpleasant experiences?

Lowie Vermeersch: For me yes. I come from another type of business, automotive design, and I get annoyed when I lose myself between the numbers of the corridors. Every corner is a response to what you already expected. The unexpected is a big thing in not getting annoyed or bored. This is what we tried to do with the scenography: there’s unexpected corners, each time you turn a corner there’s a new setting. I think that helps to keep your sense also awake.

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Future Primitive installation by Nendo. Image by Wouter van Vaerenbergh

Marcus Fairs: Do you think that most design fairs are quite badly designed?

Lowie Vermeersch: I think, honestly, a lot of them are not designed. I think a lot of them start from more rational, economical thinking, which to a certain extent is in contrast with the fact that design has that rational economic part but it also has a cultural part. To have good design you also need to have culture; you need artistic aspirations. Interiuer wants to reflect that mix between the economical and the cultural, which design itself is. And for me Interieur is a real design event, not just because it’s showing design, but also because it’s conceived as design.

Marcus Fairs: How important is it for people to get out of the expo hall in a design fair, and enjoy the city? Because Kortrijk is actually a really pleasant little city.

Lowie Vermeersch: I thought it was very important. Again, it’s about creating different impressions, different experiences, so you stay awake. When I was asked to be curator, I thought that the city of Kortrijk, and especially this constellation of buildings that we have here on Buda Island in the centre of the city, had potential that was never fully explored before. They had been some editions [of the fair] where there were a few things in the city, but now with this edition we really want to show the potential of Kortrijk and I’m happy to see a lot of people discover Kortrijk.

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Future Primitive installation by Troika. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Marcus Fairs: What’s your experience of Milan?

Lowie Vermeersch: Milan is a must-go, but personally I sometimes get a bit frustrated coming back from Milan and feeling that even though I travelled a lot, I missed a lot. You can’t free up five days to go to see everything. And that’s sometimes a bit of frustration to me. It’s a lot of logistics while you’re there, and a lot of planning. It would be better to just focus on exploring the design, and cut out all the logistic considerations you have to make to plan your day.

Marcus Fairs: So the experience needs to be designed a bit better.

Lowie Vermeersch: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s a parallel with what design itself is doing. Any object is a means to create an experience So why should an event that wants to share that design, not be conceived itself like that?

Most design fairs "are not designed"

Above: Future Primitive installation by Muller van Severen. Image by Frederik Vercruysse

Marcus Fairs: How do you approach a huge event like Milan? How do you navigate it?

Lowie Vermeersch: This is personally something I feel: you go to Milan, you open the programme and there is such an abundance of things. It is impossible to go and see everything. So you have to make a selection based on the knowledge you already have, even though it’s more interesting to go and discover things you don’t know about yet. This is why here, on purpose, we mixed the whole thing together so that people will be surprised and confronted with some things that otherwise maybe they would not choose to go to.

Marcus Fairs: So, for example, the come to see the Ross Lovegrove installation because they have heard of him, and then they walk out and into something more unexpected?

Lowie Vermeersch: Exactly. This is a good example of how I created the Biennale. On one hand there is a mix of projects by Ross Lovegrove right next to totally unknown guys doing fantastic research on materials. But, from a content point of view they are linked to each other. It is both about really advanced technology that is so advanced that it touches nature, so from a content point of view, for me, they are related. But in terms of the consciousness of the public, they are not related yet.

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