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News: the fashion world “laughs at” industrial designers while Google Glass makes the wearer look like “a bit of an idiot”, according to designer Marc Newson (+ interview).

“Frankly speaking, the design industry is really pathetic in terms of how it approaches manufacturing and how it brings things to market,” Newson told Dezeen in an exclusive interview yesterday.

“I’m not talking about Apple, I’m talking about furniture designers and what happens during the Milan fair,” he said. “If they took note of the way that the fashion world brings things to market, with such extraordinary efficiency, they could learn an enormous amount.”

The Australian designer was speaking to Dezeen at the launch of his new eyewear range for glasses manufacturer Safilo, which debuts in Milan next month.

The range is his first foray into optical eyewear, which he says is the perfect demonstration of how fashion and design can work together.

“It is, in essence a perfect piece of industrial design, but at the same time it can’t help but be a piece of fashion,” said Newson.

“I’m not embarrassed or reluctant that it be perceived as a fashionable item because at the end of the day I’m a consumer. I’ve got to go out and feel happy about putting my hand in my pocket and spending money on this stuff. I don’t want to look like an idiot.”

The two worlds will come together with the development of wearable technologies, which Newson feels are “certainly the future”. But he is not a fan of the design of Google Glass, which he says makes the wearer look like “a bit of an idiot”.

“What Google have done thus far, I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing. It really looks pretty stupid,” he said. “It’s a little bit like that wonderful invention called the Segway. It’s such a fantastic piece of technology but you just look like a complete dick when you drive around on it.

“That’s precisely the moment when I think the fashion world laughs at the world of industrial design, justifiably.”

Despite this, the fashion industry could also learn a lot from industrial designers in terms of material technology and the application of techniques and processes according to Newson. He has previously turned his hand to fashion and accessory design with companies including G-Star RAW, Nike and various luxury watch brands.

“There’s an enormous territory that they both share, that they should both embrace, but there is this real trepidation on both sides to broach that ground,” he said.

Here is the edited transcript of the interview with Marc Newson and Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the project you’ve done with Safilo.

Marc Newson: I’ve just launched a range. Basically the collection revolves around one central design, one central look and I’ve chosen to take that design and really extrapolate that through a variety of techniques.

So for example, one set of frames is machined out of solid aluminium, another set of frames is made of a material called Optyl which is a proprietary type of synthetic plastic that Safilo use. Another frame is made of stainless steel sheets, very thin, pressed into the shape with a live hinge in the steel.

There’s another pair which are manufactured using a technique called UFO, which is a proprietary Safilo invention that dates back to the late 1960s. Safilo were the first company to make this kind of invisible frame and everyone does that now but this was done in the 1960s. It was basically a piece of spring steel wire which is wrapped around the lens, so we’ve reintroduced this old technique which Safilo invented.

Safilo is the largest manufacturer of optical eyewear in the world I believe, and they have a really rich history of manufacturing optical frames. And a very old company. And it’s also the 80th anniversary this year.

Marcus Fairs: I don’t really know Safilo as well as certain other eyewear brands, so is that part of the reason why they approached you?

Marc Newson: You’d know all of the brands that Safilo manufacture. Just about every major fashion brand’s eyewear is licensed.

Safilo started as its own manufacturer of eyewear. Primarily optical frames rather than sunglasses, but I think they now manufacture sunglasses for all the major fashion brands as well. Optical frames are really the core of the brand, it’s the heart of the business and it’s what the business started doing.

Everyone knows who Safilo is if you’re in the industry. It’s one of those names that’s synonymous with it.

Marcus Fairs: You’ve really pioneered in lots of territories that other designers have followed you into, like watches and clothing. So why have you held back on eyewear?

Marc Newson: Well, I’d never been approached and frankly it really wasn’t until I had to start wearing eyewear that I understood what an extraordinary necessity it is.

I hit fifty and a couple of years ago I started having to wear reading glasses. These are rapidly becoming an expensive part of my life, far more so than a watch. But in many ways it’s a really interesting object, a pair of glasses, because it straddles the borderline between fashion and industrial design. It treads a very fine line between the two.

Optical frames of course have a slightly more functional angle because you absolutely have to wear them, but more interestingly for me as a designer, they’re like a tool. I think it’s safe to say that men like tools in general but, as a designer, I’m particularly obsessed with tools and I’m obsessed with really good quality tools. It’s not until you’re really faced with the black and white necessity of having to use these things. These are not the black pair of sunglasses, these are not just fashion accessories that you just have to wear when the sun’s out. I really need these things to read.

Marcus Fairs: I know it’s boring to talk about the difference between the fashion world and the design world, but the crossover very rarely works. You’ve designed for G-Star RAW and some of those pieces have become really collectible but, in general, designers doing fashion doesn’t work. Do you think the idea of the tool is really key to that? That designers like designing useful things?

Marc Newson: I think there’s an enormous amount of prejudice on both sides really. I don’t think that fashion designers think industrial designers are very good at designing fashion and I don’t think that on the other hand a lot of industrial designers – or architects for that matter – think that fashion’s a particularly serious industry. I feel really sincerely that in order to be a good designer, we need to embrace all of these sorts of industries.

The world of industrial design has an enormous amount to learn from the fashion industry, in terms of how they do things. Frankly speaking, the design industry is really pathetic in terms of how it approaches manufacturing and how it brings things to market. I’m not talking about Apple, I’m talking about furniture design and what happens during the Milan fair. If they took note of the way that the fashion world works, the way fashion world brings things to market, with such extraordinary efficiency, they could learn an enormous amount.

On the other hand, I think that the fashion world could learn a lot from the world of industrial design in terms of material technology, in terms of certain techniques, in terms of certain processes. I do feel there’s an enormous territory that they both share, that they should both embrace, but I agree that there is this real trepidation on both sides to broach that ground.

Marcus Fairs: Is this something that you’re actively pursuing or have an answer to?

Marc Newson: I don’t know if I have an answer necessarily apart from the fact that this is a perfect example. This eyewear is a perfect example of something that crosses, that is necessarily between those two places. It is, in essence, a perfect piece of industrial design, but at the same time it can’t help but be a piece of fashion. Eyewear is fashion, whether you like it or not. And I want it to be fashion, I’m not embarrassed or reluctant that it be perceived as a fashionable item because at the end of the day I’m a consumer. I’ve got to go out and feel happy about putting my hand in my pocket and spending money on this stuff. I don’t want to look like an idiot.

Marcus Fairs: Finally, Google announced earlier this week that they’re doing a deal with eyewear companies to put Glass into fashion accessories. They’ve already done their own in-house stuff. Is that something that you’re interested in?

Marc Newson: Wearable technology is certainly the future, there’s no question about that. Whether or not it’s appropriate to put it in a pair of glasses, I’m not sure. There’s a real risk that you look like a bit of an idiot. What Google have done thus far, I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing. I think it really looks pretty stupid.

It’s a little bit like that wonderful invention called the Segway. It’s such a fantastic piece of technology but you just look like a complete dick when you drive around on it.

So that’s where the bridge to the world of fashion really doesn’t, or didn’t, work. That’s precisely the moment when I think the fashion world laughs at the world of industrial design, justifiably.

The post The design industry is “really pathetic”
says Marc Newson appeared first on Dezeen.

News: OMA has seen off competition from BIG and Buro Ole Scheeren to win a competition to expand the Berlin headquarters of multimedia firm Axel Springer.

The firm, led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, triumphed with a concept for a building featuring a 30-metre-high atrium that “lavishly broadcasts” its interior to the existing Axel Springer building next door.

Tasked with developing a structure that sets new standards in terms of internal atmosphere and room layout, OMA proposes a series of tiered floors that extend out to external terraces.

Hearing about the win, Rem Koolhaas said: “It is a wonderful occasion to build in Berlin again, for a client who has mobilised architecture to help perform a radical change: a workplace in all its dimensions.”

The building will create additional space for the company’s growing business divisions, particularly its digital departments.

“Rem Koolhaas drafted a building which only on second sight reveals its secret, architecturally formulating a new kind of collaborative working at its core,” said Regula Lüscher, director of the city’s urban development department.

“The concept offers a strong symbolic force as it leads the course of the Berlin Wall diagonally through the building, thereby creating an atrium and spectacular interior, which addresses the unification of this city,” she added.

The shortlist for the competition was revealed back in December. The proposals of all three firms will go on show at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt later this year.

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ahead of BIG and Buro Ole Scheeren appeared first on Dezeen.

News: tech giant Google and eyewear company Luxottica have announced a partnership to develop Google Glass wearable headsets into consumer-friendly products.

“We have come to a point where we now have both a technology push and a consumer pull for wearable technology products and applications,” said Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra.

Google Glass lets users send and receive messages, take pictures and search the web hands-free – this collaboration will put this technology in the hands of designers at Luxottica, which produces eyewear for brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley.

“We live in a world where technological innovation has dramatically changed the way in which we communicate and interact in everything that we do,” said Guerra.

Recently a Google Glass user was attacked in a San Francisco bar for wearing the device.

Earlier this year the tech giant unveiled four designs for Google Glass frames to hold prescription lenses (main image).

The post Google and luxury eyewear brand
form wearable tech partnership appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been named as the 2014 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Shigeru Ban is best-known for projects such as the Cardboard Cathedral in New Zealand, and the Centre Pompidou Metz in France, but is also highly respected for his pioneering use of cardboard in disaster relief projects around the world.

He will become the second Japanese architect in a row to pick up the prestigious architecture prize, following on from last year’s winner Toyo Ito, and will be the seventh to receive the accolade in its 36-year history.

Hearing the news, Ban said: “Receiving this prize is a great honour, and with it, I must be careful. I must continue to listen to the people I work for, in my private residential commissions and in my disaster relief work.

“I see this prize as encouragement for me to keep doing what I am doing – not to change what I am doing, but to grow.”

The architect began his career in the office of Arata Isozaka, after being educated in America at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and then New York’s Cooper Union School of Architecture.

He founded his own Tokyo practice in 1985 with little experience and went on to complete a number of residential projects in Japan such as Three Walls (1988), Curtain Wall House (1995) and Naked House (2000).

His first designs for paper-tube structures were used to provide temporary homes for Vietnamese refugees after the Kobe earthquake in 1995. Since then the architect has travelled to sites of natural and man-made disasters around the world to develop low-cost, recyclable shelters for affected communities.

He has also used shipping containers as ready-made elements for permanent and temporary structures.

“Shigeru Ban is a force of nature, which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas that have been devastated by natural disasters,” said jury chairman Peter Palumbo.

“But he also ticks the several boxes for qualification to the Architectural Pantheon: a profound knowledge of his subject with a particular emphasis on cutting-edge materials and technology, total curiosity and commitment, endless innovation, an infallible eye, an acute sensibility, to name but a few.”

Last year Ban completed a temporary cardboard cathedral for Christchurch (2013), after the city’s former Anglican cathedral was destroyed by an earthquake. He has also designed an art museum for Aspen, Colorado, that is set to complete this summer.

The Pritzker Prize is presented annually to a living architect in recognition of contributions to both humanity and the built environment through architecture. Ban will receive a $100,000 prize and be presented with a bronze medallion in a ceremony on 13 June at the recently renovated Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The post Shigeru Ban wins Pritzker Prize 2014 appeared first on Dezeen.

It was during a break in a college art history course discussion of Saussurean signifiers that we got to chatting up the dashing head teaching fellow, then in lukewarm pursuit of his Ph.D. After some good-natured banter about the arbitrariness of the sign, we ventured into more rational territory: “So, what are you writing your thesis about?” The color swiftly drained from his face and he stared at the ground before mumbling words that were only later discernible as “the sculptures of Roy Lichtenstein.” Everything turned out for the best, and the TF in question is now an associate professor at a leading research university, but to this day we can’t pass one of the Pop artist’s fiberglass houses or aluminum brushstrokes without feeling slightly queasy.

If anything can undo that association it’s the Parrish Art Museum. Next week the museum’s stunning new(ish) Herzog & de Meuron-designed home in Water Mill, New York will get its first long-term, outdoor installation in Lichtenstein’s Tokyo Brushtroke I & II (1994), part of a series of sculptures constructed mainly in the 1990s. The soaring, two-piece sculpture, made of painted and fabricated aluminum, tops out at 33 feet, taller than the museum itself: a monolevel extruded barn-as-studio made both rugged and stealth by cloudy concrete walls and a white corrugated metal roof. A temporary loan from collectors Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, Tokyo Brushtroke I & II will sit (in a cement brace) near Montauk Highway, acting as a colorful signpost of sorts for the Parrish.

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