Danish furniture brand &Tradition has opened the doors to a four-storey showroom in Copenhagen, featuring a complete apartment and rooms designed by Jaime Hayon and Space Copenhagen.
Unveiled during 3 Days of Design in an exhibition titled Under One Roof, &Tradition‘s design team has transformed the interior of an 18th-century townhouse on 4 Kronprinsessegade.
The Apartment takes over the top floor of the townhouse
The top floor has become The Apartment, an entire home interior that is described by Els Van Hoorebeeck, creative and brand director for &Tradition, as “the cherry on the cake”.
Despite being completely kitted out in the brand’s products, it was designed to have the feel of a lived-in space rather than a showroom.
Designed by &Tradition’s in-house team, the spaces combine classic and contemporary
“When you enter, you feel this balance between colours and neutrals, between wood tones and glass or metal, and between classic and contemporary designs,” Van Hoorebeeck told Dezeen.
“There’s a lot of product in there, but you don’t notice it,” she said.
The bedroom showcases a quilted bedspread by Swedish-Danish duo All the Way to Paris
Spanish designer Hayon has created two rooms on the first floor, which give an insight into the creative process behind products he has developed for &Tradition.
The first, called Cabinet of Curiosities, features a glass display case filled with objects and drawings, revealing the forms and images that inspire Hayon’s designs.
Jaime Hayon has created a room called Cabinet of Curiosities
The second presents new works by Hayon – including the Momento vessels and a limited edition of his Formakami pendant lamp – in a scenography framed by large silhouette characters. This room is called Teatro Surreal.
“We felt it was important to show the world that his products come out of,” said Van Hoorebeeck.
Jaime Hayon’s Teatro Surreal creates a scenography for his new products
The two rooms by Danish interiors studio Space Copenhagen can be found on the second floor.
These spaces include a studio and, building on the studio’s experience in hotel and restaurant design, a dining room. Here, shades of green and brown combine with fresh herbs and plants to bring a sense of nature.
New products are peppered throughout these two rooms.
They include the Trace storage cabinets, which are filled with kitchen utensils and tableware, and the Collect rugs.
Space Copenhagen has created a dining room in shades of green and brown
Founded in 2010 by Martin Kornbek Hansen, &Tradition combines contemporary and classic design in its collections.
The brand has been based at 4 Kronprinsessegade since 2018, but the building primarily served as a headquarters, with offices located on the upper levels.
Verner Panton’s Flowerpot lamps feature in several rooms
The company has now moved its offices to another nearby location, which made it possible to open the entire townhouse up to the public for the first time during 3 Days of Design.
Other spaces revealed in Under One Roof include the Verner Panton Lounge, which is dedicated to mid-century pieces by the late Danish designer such as the 1968 Flowerpot lamps.
An archive room is filled with original drawings and vintage samples
There are also rooms designed to appeal to the senses. These include the Listening Lounge, a relaxed space filled with music, and Mnemonic, which centres around a range of scents.
Other key spaces include a “workshop” showcasing the possibilities of the modular workspace furniture, an archive filled with original drawings and vintage samples, a cafe and a shop.
A cafe and shop are located on the ground floor
Van Hoorebeeck hopes the spaces will help tell the stories behind the products.
“What we wanted to do here is to create a whole universe,” she said. “Every room is based on showing a different atmosphere between contemporary and classic designs.”
“Now the layout of the house is set and every year we’ll just adapt it,” she added.
The photography is courtesy of &Tradition.
3 Days of Design took place in venues around Copenhagen from 7 to 9 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for information, plus a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
The first sari to be worn at the Met Gala and sequins made from discarded X-ray film sourced from hospitals feature in the Offbeat Sari exhibition, which showcases around 60 contemporary saris at London’s Design Museum.
The Offbeat Sari is the first UK exhibition to explore the contemporary sari, according to the Design Museum. The show opens today in a cavernous space within the museum’s subterranean gallery, illuminated by thin neon pendant lights.
Hailing from India and wider South Asia, a sari is traditionally thought of as an unstitched drape wrapped around the body from shoulder to waist.
The Offbeat Sari opens today at London’s Design Museum
In recent years, designers have been reinventing the 5,000-year-old garment to serve young people’s growing interest in the sari, which has led to its revival, according to Design Museum head of curatorial Priya Khanchandani.
“Women in cities who previously associated the sari with dressing up are transforming it into fresh, radical, everyday clothing that empowers them to express who they are, while designers are experimenting with its materiality by drawing on unbounded creativity,” said the curator.
The first sari worn to the Met Gala features in the exhibition
Split into various themes such as identity and resistance, the exhibition presents around 60 contemporary saris created by a range of established and emerging designers.
Among the garments is the first sari to be worn at New York’s Met Gala in response to the annual ball’s 2022 theme, Gilded Glamour.
Embellished with semi-precious stones, the tulle Sabyasachi-designed sari worn by Natasha Poonawalla features a statement train and was paired with a gold Schiaparelli bodice with protruding, orbit-shaped elements.
Fashion brand Abraham & Thakore created sequins from recycled X-ray film
Another navy blue sari by Abraham & Thakore is characterised by delicate sequins that were made using discarded X-ray film salvaged from hospitals – a design that aims to address the issue of sustainability within the fashion industry.
Also on display is a purple georgette silk sari embroidered with shimmering acrylics, sequins and crystals. Founder of the #DeGenderFashion movement, author and comedian Alok previously wore the garment to highlight their belief that saris can be worn by anyone, regardless of gender identity.
Photographs showing different ways of wearing saris are pasted across a blue wall
Contrasting textiles such as distressed denim and woven stainless steel make up other saris in the exhibition, highlighting the garment’s versatile evolution.
Within the show’s “movement” section are a number of saris worn by young people while engaging in sports. These include a garment adorned with cherry blossom motifs that was donned during a cricket match as well as a polyester chiffon sari, which is among the outfits worn by a group of women who have begun to skateboard in saris – a growing trend, according to the museum.
Sari wearers are increasingly wearing the garments to engage in sports, especially skateboarding
There is also an area dedicated to the craftsmanship involved in sari-making that explores how its history has transformed over the 21st century.
“The sari is experiencing what is conceivably its most rapid reinvention in its history. It makes the sari movement one of today’s most important global fashion stories, yet little is known of its true nature beyond South Asia,” explained Khanchandani.
“For me and for so many others, the sari is of personal and cultural significance,” reflected the curator.
“But it is also a rich, dynamic canvas for innovation, encapsulating the vitality and eclecticism of Indian culture.”
There is also an area dedicated to materials and craftsmanship
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s first design-focussed exhibition is another show that is currently on display at the Design Museum until late July. In other recent fashion news, designer Rick Owens has released a collection of wearable helmets that double as fluorescent floor lamps.
The Offbeat Sari is on display at London’s Design Museum from 19 May to 17 September 2023.See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Project credits:
Curator: Priya Khanchandani Associate curator: Rashmi Varma 3D design: Studio Mutt 2D design: Stuthi Ramesh
An exhibition dedicated to the work of British architect Norman Foster has opened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, showcasing drawings and original models produced by the architect over the last six decades.
The exhibition, which according to the Norman Foster Foundation is the largest-ever retrospective display of Foster’s work, features around 130 of the architect’s projects including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Headquarters, Hong Kong International Airport and Apple Park.
The exhibition was designed by Norman Foster
Designs that informed Foster’s work are also exhibited, including works by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, French painter Fernand Léger, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi and Italian painter Umberto Boccioni, and even cars, which the architect is passionate about.
The exhibition, simply called Norman Foster, was designed by Foster with his architecture studio Foster + Partners and nonprofit organisation the Norman Foster Foundation.
On display are sketches, drawings and models of the architect’s buildings
Curated by Centre Pompidou deputy director Frédéric Migayrou, the exhibition aims to showcase examples of Foster’s innovation and technology, his approach to sustainability and his ideas for the future of the built environment.
“This exhibition traces the themes of sustainability and anticipating the future,” said Foster.
“Throughout the decades we have sought to challenge conventions, reinvent building types and demonstrate an architecture of light and lightness, inspired by nature, which can be about joy as well as being eco-friendly.”
Examples of Foster’s work are interspersed with cars that have inspired him
The 2,200-square-metre exhibition begins with a room dedicated to Foster’s sketches and drawings, a practice he uses to communicate ideas and log design inspiration.
“For me, design starts with a sketch, continuing as a tool of communication through the long process that follows in the studio, factories and finally onto the building site,” said Foster.
“In 1975 I started the habit of carrying an A4 notebook for sketching and writing – a selection of these are displayed in the central cabinets, surrounded by walls devoted to personal drawings.”
Visitors begin the exhibition in a room filled with Foster’s sketches
The exhibition continues in a large space with partition walls that separates it into seven themes: Nature and Urbanity, Skin and Bones, Vertical City, History and Tradition, Planning and Place, Networks and Mobilities, and Future Perspectives.
The Nature and Urbanity section explores Foster’s approach to preserving nature by building “dense urban clusters, with privacy ensured by design,” the studio said.
Referencing a critic’s comment that the external appearance of Foster’s projects could be categorised as having a smooth “skin” facade or expressing its skeletal structure, the Skin and Bones portion of the exhibition showcases projects that illustrate the relationship between structure, services and cladding.
In the Vertical City section, the studio showcases how it created “breathing” towers by designing open, stacked spaces.
The exhibition features around 130 Norman Foster projects
“We were the first to question the traditional tower, with its central core of mechanical plant, circulation and structure, and instead to create open, stacked spaces, flexible for change and with see-through views,” said Foster.
“Here, the ancillary services were grouped alongside the working or living spaces, which led to a further evolution with the first ever series of ‘breathing’ towers.”
It showcases projects spanning Foster’s six-decade-long career
“In the quest to reduce energy consumption and create a healthier and more desirable lifestyle, we showed that a system of natural ventilation, moving large volumes of fresh filtered air, could be part of a controlled internal climate,” the architect continued.
The History and Tradition section aims to provide insight into examples of historic and vernacular architecture that influenced Foster, while the Planning and Places portion explores masterplanning and placemaking in urban spaces.
The exhibition is on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
Towards the open exhibition space’s exit, the Networks and Mobility section displays examples of transport and infrastructure and leads to the final room, Future Perspectives, which exhibits concepts for future methods of travel and communication.
On display are details of autonomous self-driving systems and designs for habitats on Mars and the moon that were developed with NASA and the European Space Agency.
Foster recently spoke with Dezeen about his views on sustainability in architecture, in which he said “there are lots of dangerous myths”.
The photography is by Nigel Young from Foster + Partners.
The Norman Foster exhibition is on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, from 10 May to 7 August 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
An architecture centre founded by British architect Terry Farrell has opened in Newcastle, England, with an exhibition exploring building materials of the future and “urban rooms” for local residents.
The Farrell Centre is an exhibition gallery, research centre and community space that aims to provoke conversation about architecture and planning, both in the city and at a global scale.
The project was instigated by Farrell, who donated his architectural archive and put £1 million towards the build.
The Farrell Centre occupies a former department store building in Newcastle
Fake fur, mycelium and wool insulation feature in a series of installations designed to challenge traditional methods of producing architecture.
Elsewhere, three urban rooms host workshops and other events where locals can learn about the past and future of Newcastle and voice their opinions on development plans.
The ground floor is designed to encourage people in, with glazed facades on two sides
“The centre is here to bring about a better, more inclusive and more sustainable built environment,” said Farrell Centre director and Dezeen columnist Owen Hopkins during a tour of the building.
“The belief that underpins everything we do is that we need to engage people with architecture and planning, and the transformative roles that they can have,” he told Dezeen.
“Architecture and planning are often seen as something that’s imposed from above. We need to shift that perception.”
Seating bleachers create an informal space for talks and presentations
Forming part of Newcastle University, the Farrell Centre occupies a four-storey former department store building in the heart of the city.
Local studios Space Architects and Elliott Architects oversaw a renovation that aims to make the building feel as open and welcoming as possible.
The exhibition More with Less includes an installation by HBBE made from mycelium, sawdust and wool
The ground floor has the feel of a public thoroughfare, thanks to glazed facades on two sides, while bleacher-style steps create a sunken seating area for talks and presentations.
A colourful new staircase leads up to the exhibition galleries on the first floor and the urban rooms on the second floor, while the uppermost level houses the staff offices.
McCloy + Muchemwa’s installation is a table filled with plants
According to Hopkins, the launch exhibition sets the tone for the type of content that visitors can expect from the Farrell Centre.
The show features installations by four UK architecture studios, each exploring a different proposition for future buildings.
“We wanted to create something that expands people’s understanding of what architecture is, beyond building an expensive house on Grand Designs,” Hopkins said, referencing the popular television show.
Dress for the Weather has created a mini maze of insulation
Newcastle University’s Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) has created Living Room, a cave-like structure made by cultivating a mixture of mycelium and sawdust over a giant wool blanket.
Next, a mini maze created by Glasgow studio Dress for the Weather aims to showcase the thermal and experiential qualities of building insulation, with varieties made from low-grade wool and plastic bottles.
Office S&M’s installations include a silhouette of the head of Michelangelo’s David made from pink fur and a chaise longue covered in expanding foam
London-based Office S&M proposes low-tech but fun solutions for making buildings more comfortable.
These are represented by a silhouette of the head of Michelangelo’s David made from pink fur, a metallic space blanket, a chaise longue topped covered in expanding foam and a dichroic-film window covering that casts colourful reflections onto the floor.
“This whole room is about actually doing really simple mundane stuff, but in a way that is joyful and tells a story,” said Hopkins.
In the final room, an installation by London-based McCloy + Muchemwa brings nature indoors with a boardroom table covered in plants.
The urban rooms host events where people can learn about the development of the city
On the floor above, the three urban rooms have been fitted out by Mat Barnes of architecture studio CAN with custom elements that make playful references to building sites.
They are filled with historic maps, interactive models, informal furniture, display stands made from scaffolding poles, and architecture toys that include building-shaped soft play and Lego.
In one of the rooms, planning proposals are displayed on stands made from scaffolding poles
The idea of setting up an urban room in Newcastle was the starting point for the creation of the Farrell Centre.
A decade ago, Farrell was commissioned by the UK government to produce a report on the state of the UK’s architecture and planning system.
One of the key recommendations in the Farrell Review, published in 2014, was to create an urban room in every major city, giving local people of all ages and backgrounds a place to engage with how the city is planned and developed.
One urban room contains a model of a Terry Farrell-designed masterplan for Newcastle
As Farrell grew up in the Newcastle area and studied architecture at the university, he became keen to make this concept a reality in this city.
Although the Farrell Centre is named in his honour, Hopkins said that Farrell is happy for the facility to forge its own path in terms of programme and approach.
“He established the idea and vision for the centre, but he is happy for us to build out that vision in the way that we think is best,” added Hopkins.
The Farrell Centre forms part of Newcastle University
The director is optimistic about the centre’s potential to engage with the community.
“Newcastle is a city like no other,” he said. “The civic pride here is off the scale. People have such a deep-rooted love of where they live.”
“It’s amazing to be able to tap into that as a way of creating a better built environment.”
More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World is on show at the Farrell Centre from 22 April to 10 September 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
An exhibition at Chatsworth House including designers including Michael Anastassiades, Faye Toogood and Formafantasma, features in this video produced by Dezeen for the stately home.
In total, 16 international designers and artists created pieces that respond to the interiors of the building.
The exhibition introduces new art pieces and objects into the house and garden
Some responded by sourcing materials from the property itself, while others focussed on themes and ideas taken from decorations within the interiors.
“The designers of the exhibition have responded to Chatsworth in all sorts of fascinating ways,” said co-curator of the exhibition Glenn Adamson.
“Throughout you really see this kind of conversation between the present and the past.”
Jay Sae Jung Oh designed a throne using musical instruments
The exhibition continues Chatsworth House’s 500-year-long history of working with leading artists and designers and collecting an extensive collection of art and objects.
“An artist’s new work can create a new way of looking at these spaces,” said Chatsworth House Trust director Jane Marriott.
“It can capture their imaginations and hopefully inspire them to explore Chatsworth in a different light.”
Toogood’s monolithic furniture creates a pensive space within the exhibition
British designer Toogood took over Chatsworth’s chapel and adjoining Oak Room. As a nod to the historical use of the space as a place of worship and gathering, she created an installation of monolithic furniture made from bronze and stone.
The sculptural forms were designed to evoke ecclesiastical structures and to reflect the local landscape.
“These objects give a sense of meditative calm, a sense of massiveness or monumentality that feels appropriate to the space,” Adamson said.
Dutch designer Joris Laarman designed a series of benches for the exhibition
Two stone benches by Dutch designer Joris Laarman made from locally sourced gritstone , which was the material used to build the house itself, were placed in Chatsworth House’s gardens.
The surfaces of the benches were carved with undulating patterns in which moss and lichen have been planted and will continue to grow over time.
Other objects in the exhibition include a throne-like seat wrapped in leather made from musical instruments by Jay Sae Jung Oh, a fibrous cabinet designed by Fernando Laposse, and sinuous steam-wood sculptures by Irish furniture maker Joseph Walsh.
Laposse’s fluffy cabinet is made from agave plant fibres
Another section of the exhibition, which occupy Chatsworth’s Sculpture Gallery built in the early 19th century, features pieces by British designer Samuel Ross.
Ross’s pieces were designed to echo the surrounding sculptures, mimicking their form to invite viewers to imagine the body that would recline on them. The designer has used a material palette of stone and marble to further reflect the sculptures within the gallery.
Chatsworth’s collection contains art and design pieces spanning 4,000 years
“It’s a kind of collision of past and present, of the artisanal with the technological, the classical with the industrial,” Adamson said.
“It’s a great example of how the show in general tries to talk across generations, across centuries.”
Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth is on display at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire until 1 October 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Photography is courtesy of the Chatsworth House Trust.
Partnership content
This video was produced by Dezeen for Chatsworth House as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.
‘heatherwick studio: building soulfulness’ at mori art museum
Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum is hosting its latest exhibition, Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness, a poetic exploration into the type of architecture embued with heartfelt spirit. On show between Friday, March 17, and Sunday, June 4, 2023, at Tokyo City View, this is the first exhibition in Japan to display 28 major projects completed by HeatherwickStudio.
‘By looking at the projects – all of which are the result of a process of trial and error, where familiar structures and functions are reassessed, and new ideas are realized – from six different viewpoints: ‘Coming Together;’ ‘Connecting with Everyone;’ ‘Experiencing Sculptural Space;’ ‘Feeling Nature in Urban Space;’ ‘Bringing Memories to the Future;’ and ‘Playing and Using,’ the exhibition will explore what type of architecture brings with it the sort of kindness, beauty, intellectual stimulation and empathy that move the human heart,’ writes the museum.
From New York to Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, Heatherwick Studio (see more here) has marked the global architectural scene with its innovative portfolio of projects. Founded in 1994 by Thomas Heatherwick, the practice often debuts its projects with the question: Can the sprawling buildings and urban spaces that make our cities and towns also be imbued with this soulfulness? With that said, and in retrospect, Thomas’ childhood memories also reveal an early-age fascination with how craftspeople and artisans endow small objects with a kind of soulfulness so unique to the art of everything handmade, gently etching and weaving into every detail.
‘Every design is rooted in a belief that even projects as large as a city can have a human-scale, while harnessing the energies of the natural world and memories contained within architecture into new designs. At the core of this approach is the creation of places for gathering, dialogue, recreation, and enjoyment, instead of the design of ‘hard’ elements that so often characterize products and buildings,’continues the museum.
‘Even as the Studio studies the history of objects and places, researches a wide spectrum of materials, and pays homage to traditional craftsmanship, their spaces, which deploy the latest developments in engineering, are replete with innovative ideas that seem to have eluded everyone else. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and we re-evaluate our relationship with both the built and the natural environments, Heatherwick Studio’s designs feel more evocative and relevant than ever.’
Some of the projects on view include ‘Little Island’ (2021), a sculptural public park in New York; ‘Azabudai Hills’ (2023), a new district in Tokyo currently under construction, and the studio’s first project in Japan; The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (2017), a public non-profit museum; and the Shanghai Expo UK Pavilion (2010), also known as the ‘Seed Cathedral.’
Architect Ma Yansong, the curator of Blueprint Beijing, a feature exhibition exploring the future of the Chinese capital at the 2022 Beijing Biennial, shares six of his highlight installations from the show.
Ma, the founding partner of Chinese architecture studio MAD, invited 20 architects and artists of different generations from around the world to present their visions for the future of the city of Beijing in a variety of mediums including architectural models, installations, photography and videos.
Blueprint Beijing is the feature exhibition at the inaugural 2022 Beijing Biennial curated by MAD’s founding partner Ma Yansong
“Blueprint Beijing is a comparative study of history and the future of Beijing and the world,” Ma told Dezeen.
“We compiled a compendium of seminal events, people and ideologies from around the world that have vividly explored the theme of ‘the future’, such as Archigram, Oscar Niemeyer and many more, that have had a significant impact on current architects, and have influenced changes in Beijing’s urban planning in relation to major events.”
“The works of several creators selected here traverse the dimensions of time, space and geography, and their personal creative imagination has brought distinct significance to the exhibition,” he added.
Twenty architects and artists from around the world are invited to re-imagine the future of the city
The exhibition also presents material taken from historic archives about eight architects and collectives that have showcased visionary ideas, as well as four Chinese science fiction films with historic significance.
Here, Ma has selected six of his highlights from Blueprint Beijing for Dezeen:
Restaurant Inside the Wall, by Drawing Architecture Studio, 2023
“The Restaurant Inside the Wall installation is presented as a graphic novel, with a restaurant hidden inside the wall as the protagonist. Drawing Architecture Studio (DAS) transformed the graphic novel into a spatial experience in order to strengthen the absurd and suspenseful atmosphere of the story, by collaging and connecting the real elements of various street stalls.
“Drawing from the observation of urban spaces in China, DAS has discovered a lot of unexpected pockets of wisdom embedded in everyday urban scenes, and roadside ‘holes in the wall’ are an example of this. This installation adds a microscopic daily footnote to the grand avant-garde urban blueprint for the future.”
Filter City & City as a Room, by Peter Cook from Cook Haffner Architecture Platform, 2020-2022
“In this installation, Peter Cook dissects two of his drawings – Filter City (2020) and City as a Room (2022) – into elements that concentrate on sequences.
“Cook utilizes his signature strategy of creating concept drawings that remain connected to the built environment, while also moving towards a new future-looking ‘hybrid’, particularly interiors, that can be created from fragments of drawing and images.
“As a result, viewers can transcend from distant observers into participants.”
Liminal Beijing, by He Zhe, James Shen and Zang Feng from People’s Architecture Office, 2022
“The installation of Liminal Beijing, created by People’s Architecture Office, connects the city of Beijing in different time and space. It features a knot of radiant, winding, and rotating tubes that can be interpreted as pneumatic tubes transporting documents in the 19th century or the hyperloops developed today, representing the link between the future and the past.
“Modern life would not be possible without the hidden system of ducts that deliver heating, cooling, and clean air. Air ducts in Liminal Beijing are made visible so they can be explored and occupied, and are presented as missing fragments of space and time.”
Photo is by Jerry Chen
Astro Balloon 1969 Revisited x Feedback Space, 2008, by Wolf D Prix from Coop Himmelb(l)au, 2022 edition
“This installation was realized by combining two of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s previous works: Heart Space – Astro Balloon in 1969 and Feedback Vibration City in 1971, which were first shown in this form at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008.
“The resulting installation is a cloud-like, semi-transparent and reflective floating space that translates visitors’ heartbeats into a lighting installation.
“Throughout its practice, Coop Himmelb(l)au has presented numerous futuristic ‘architectural’ prototypes of dwellings which are responsive to the sensibilities and activities of their inhabitants.”
Beijing In Imagination, by Wang Zigeng, 2023
“Chinese architect Wang Zigeng illustrates two city models that were informed by visual imagery of mandalas on the floor and ceiling of the exhibition space, expressing the tension between the ideal city and the chaos of the real world — a parallel reality of both the present and the future.
“He believes Beijing is the embodiment of ancient cosmologies and an ideal city prototype through the ritualization of urban space – the establishment of political and moral order as a highly metaphorical correspondence between human behavior and nature.”
Pao: A Dwelling for Tokyo Nomad Women II, by Toyo Ito, 2022 Beijing edition
“This installation explores what living means for city dwellers in a consumerist society. Even today, half of the population living in Tokyo are living alone, and having a place to sleep is all one needs. Pao is a light and temporary structure that can be dissolved in the buzz of the metropolis.
“This is a new edition of Toyo Ito’s previous work Pao: A Dwelling for Tokyo Nomad Women. By recreating the installation in Beijing while coming out of a global pandemic, Ito hopes to provide a space for visitors to reflect on the excessive consumerism that has continued to dominate the present.”
The Photography is by Zhu Yumeng unless otherwise stated.
Blueprint Beijing is on show at the 2022 Beijing Biennial Architecture Section at M WOODS Hutong in Beijing until 12 March 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Designmuseum Denmark has looked at how design can shape the future through its The Future is Present exhibition, which features projects including a tubular chandelier made from cow intestines.
Presented at Copenhagen’s recently renovated Designmuseum, the exhibition showcases a range of “speculative and suggestive” works that examine four themes titled Human, Society, Planet+ and Imagining the Future.
The MYX Chair is a mycelium and hemp chair that has “grown” itself
“Design is very much a forward-looking profession,” said exhibition curator Pernille Stockmarr. “It’s about changing the existing into something better – and what we do in the present creates the future.”
“Living in a time with major global challenges, this exhibition wants to invite people to see and reflect on the different potentials of design in this transformation and encourage them to think about what kind of future we want,” she told Dezeen.
100 metres of cow intestines were used to make the Inside Out chandelier
Among the pieces on show is Inside Out, a chandelier-style lamp made from 100 metres of knotted cow intestines extracted from eight cows. Designer Kathrine Barbro Bendixen aimed to explore how byproducts can be used to rethink patterns of material consumption.
Faroe Islands-based fashion brand Guðrun & Guðrun created Vindur, a ruffled dress with exaggerated bell sleeves made of woven silk and machine-knitted milk yarn sourced from dairy production waste.
The brand worked with textile designers Amalie Ege and Charlotte Christensen and Lifestyle & Design Clusters to create the garment, which was made using a “traditional technique used during the inter-war period when resources were in short supply and waste was transformed into value,” according to the Designmuseum.
A group of designers created a dress made from dairy waste
More conceptual works include Beyond Life, a collection of biodegradable paper foam urns by designer Pia Galschiødt Bentzen with detachable pendants containing seeds that can be grown.
“Beyond Life unites death, loss, and remembrance with the awareness that we humans are part of nature’s endless circle of life,” said Stockmarr.
Also on show is Library of Change, a “map” of dangling acrylic foil cards charting current trends and technologies, inscribed with questions for visitors such as “would you leave the city for better connection?”
Beyond Life is a collection of biodegradable paper foam urns
Stockmarr explained that the exhibition aims to communicate “the breadth of design” by including works that vary in scale, purpose and medium.
“Their ability to inspire, start conversations and make visitors reflect was a priority,” she said.
“I didn’t want the works to be too-defined solutions for the future, extreme sci-fi visions, utopias or dystopias, but exploratory works. Some are collaborative research projects and others provide foresight into design methods, handicrafts and creative experiments.”
Library of Change is a project that encourages visitors to question the future of design
Alongside the various projects in the exhibition, artefacts from the Designmuseum’s own archive that highlight past ideas for the future are also on display.
One of these designs is the three-wheeled vehicle Ellert, Denmark’s first electric car developed in the 1980s by engineer Steen Volmer Jensen.
Ellert was Denmark’s first electric car
Local studio Spacon & X created the exhibition design for The Future is Present with the aim of reflecting its themes.
The studio delineated the show’s various zones using modular bioplastic dividers that snake through the exhibition space and worked with natural materials including eelgrass, which was used to create acoustic mats to manage noise in the museum.
Objects are arranged on custom tables and plinths made in collaboration with sustainable material manufacturer Søuld, while Natural Material Studio created a mycelium daybed for the show.
Stockmarr explained that the show is meant to be a call to action and empower people to reflect on their individual roles in determining the future of design.
“By asking more questions than giving answers the exhibition wants to inspire visitors,” reflected the curator.
“The show acknowledges that it is not only designers, architects, craftspeople and experts, but all of us who are participating in shaping and designing the future by the questions we ask and the choices and actions we take today.”
The Future is Present was designed by Spacon & X to be an immersive experience
Similar recent exhibitions that explored the climate impact of materials include a show at Stockholm Furniture Fair that visualised the carbon emissions of common materials such as concrete and The Waste Age – a London exhibition that addressed how design has contributed to the rise of throwaway culture.
The Future is Present is on display at Designmuseum Denmark from 19 June 2022 to 1 June 2023.See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
The racial paradigm in the United States means that Black architects must continue to operate against the grain in order to get projects built, says From the Ground Up exhibition curator Hasaan Kirkland.
Kirkland believes that barriers to entry and recognition continue to disadvantage people of colour in architecture, making it important to highlight the background of architects.
“Why can we not just be architects, why do we have to be Black architects?” he asked.
“Well, it’s because of the paradigm in this country that deals with separation and racism that is originated by a select individual cultural mentality. We will still have to contend with tropes that do no good.”
“There are many unsung heroes, if you will, in the industry of architecture, primarily because they’re African Americans and have to contend with the world and all of the concerns that would prevent African Americans from being able to have a central voice and an opportunity to be recognized.”
Top: Moody Nolan’s MLK Library Branch in Columbus. Photo by Feinknopf Photography. Above: From the Ground Up held its first regional show in Seattle
Kirkland believes that additional work must be done to shed light on Black architects and their contribution to city skylines as an important part of urban identity, both historically and in the present.
Impressive buildings can often be attributed to white architectural companies by default, which has led to Black architects and studios led by Black architects having less “scope to be recognized”, he argued.
A “feat of courage” for Black architects
“With the history of the country, to be an architectural firm became a feat of courage and of undoing some things that were racially motivated to prevent that from happening,” said Kirkland.
He contends that this context means it is important to have educational programming that informs people about the contributions of Black architects to the built environment.
“Architecture is what creates our skylines for every city, and every state, but it is often unknown how many African Americans are actually contributors to those skylines, to the buildings that we see and drive around every day,” said Kirkland.
“We just assume that they are created by another white architectural company, but there are Black firms.”
Recognising this contribution is part of the work the exhibition is carrying out. Originally conceived via the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the traveling exhibition zeroes in on the architects of specific regions alongside the core programming.
People should “see themselves” in architecture
However, Kirkland pointed out that just because an architect is Black, it doesn’t mean the spaces are necessarily designed for the community – although Black architects often work in areas like social housing that are traditionally ignored in legacy architecture.
“Just because they’re a Black firm doesn’t mean they make the building specifically for Black people,” he said. “If a Black person was never to set foot in those buildings, that’s not the primary concern. The primary concern is to create the building.”
But when people are shown the origin of the building, he says, that provides an added benefit.
“When you begin to have that context into your understanding, then people of color become inspired and empowered by the industry of architecture because they can begin to see themselves not just on the wall but the wall itself,” Kirkland said.
Read on for a look at five buildings worked on by Black architects highlighted in the exhibition.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
Butler Chapel Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, by Robert R Taylor
Robert R Taylor was the first Black American to receive a formal architecture degree, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon graduating, he was offered a position as the director of the Department of Mechanical Industries at the Tuskegee Institute by founder and activist Dr Booker T Washington.
The first building in the county to have interior lights, the chapel was one among many Gothic-style brick buildings designed by Taylor for the institute.
Completed in 1898, the chapel was eventually destroyed in a fire in 1957. The institute’s new chapel was designed almost 70 years later by Paul Rudolph and the studio of John A Welch and Louis Fry, both graduates of the institute.
Photo courtesy of Ben Schnall
Arts Complex at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, by Edward Durell Stone and Beverly L Greene
In 1952, Beverly L Greene worked with Edward Durell Stone to complete the brick-and-stone modernist art complex at Sarah Lawrence College.
Greene was the first Black woman to receive a degree in architectural engineering in the United States. Born in Chicago, she went on to work on numerous important modernist projects, including the UNESCO Heritage Headquarters by Marcel Breuer in Paris.
Greene also worked on a number of housing developments in New York City and Chicago, including Stuy Town on Manhattan’s east side. After also earning a masters degree in architecture at Columbia, Greene went on to design a number of buildings for NYU.
Photo by Eric Salard
Theme Building at LAX, Los Angeles, by Paul Revere Williams
Completed in 1961, the Theme Building at LAX was hailed as a prime example of late modern architecture. It was designed by Paul Revere Williams, a locally-born architect known for his work on homes for celebrities such as Frank Sinatra.
The Theme Building is a domed restaurant suspended by concrete arches. It was part of a major expansion of the airport during that time period and recently underwent structural stabilisation to maintain it.
Photo courtesy of Rs1421
US Embassy in Tokyo, Tokyo, by Cesar Pelli and Norma Merrick Sklarek
Completed in 1976, the US Embassy Building in Tokyo displayed the modernist sensibilities of American architecture in an international context. Norma Merrick Sklarek also worked with Argentine architect Cesar Pelli on other projects, including the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.
Born in Harlem, Sklarek was the first Black woman to be listed as a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Moving her license from New York to California, Sklarek was also the first Black woman to lead a division of a white-owned architecture studio.
Photo by Feinknopf Photography
Martin Luther King Branch, Columbus, by Moody Nolan
A branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio, the Martin Luther King Branch is an example of architecture explicitly dedicated to the African American community.
The first library branch to be named after King, it was completed in 2018 by Moody Nolan, a local, Black-owned studio run by Curtis Moody and Howard E Nolan. The project won the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) Phil Freelon Professional Design Award in 2020.
Founded in 1982, Moody Nolan is now the largest Black-owned architecture studio in the country and has worked on a number of large-scale projects.
From the Ground Up is on show at MOHAI in Seattle from February 4 to April 30. Visit Dezeen’s Event Guide for more events, exhibits and talks about architecture and design.
Designers Inma Bermúdez, Moritz Krefter, Jorge Penadés and Alvaro Catalán de Ocón have created three playful wooden furniture pieces on show at Madrid Design Festival.
Devised by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Natural Connections was on show in the entrance hall of the cultural building Matadero Madrid.
Top: Natural Connections features playful furniture pieces. Above: the exhibition took place in the Matadero Madrid
Each of the three furniture pieces was designed to encourage interaction with wood – with one acting as a bench, the other a climbing frame and the third a hanging light installation.
The designs were created in response to a brief provided by AHEC, which sought pieces made by Spanish designers out of maple, cherry, and red oak hardwoods sourced from American forests in an effort to encourage the use of the material.
Catalán de Ocón designed Nube, a hanging light installation
“We challenged the design studios to present these chambers in a public space – in a public context – so that visitors get to experience a connection,” AHEC European director David Venables told Dezeen.
“The design teams worked with maple, cherry, and red oak to create playful, original, and highly innovative installations that we hope will provide engagement, excitement and a connection for visitors to these wonderful natural materials,” said Venables.
Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter created several “bovine-shaped” seats
Designer Catalán de Ocón created a six-metre-long hanging light called Nube – which translates to cloud in English – made of 4,000 interconnected spherical and cylindrical individual pieces of wood.
Nube is lit by several LED lights that were placed in the middle of the hollow structure. A brass cable runs from the bass into the mesh structure, branching into positive and negative electric currents.
Positive poles run through the cherry wood while negative poles run through the maple pieces, which form a complete circuit when they touch and illuminate the bulbs.
Visitors can perch on the benches and touch the woods
Its design was informed by Catalán de Ocón’s fascination with the manufacturing process for small utilitarian wooden objects such as pegs, matches and blinds.
“I was inspired by the little match or the pencil, or the wooden pin for hanging the clothes – those kinds of manufacturing techniques, where you get an object which is repeated over and over and over again,” Catalán de Ocón told Dezeen.
Jorge Penadés produced a bleacher-style structure
Meanwhile, La Manada Perdida, or The Lost Herd, by Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter was influenced by the Matadero’s former function as a slaughterhouse and cattle market.
The Spanish design duo produced a series of red oak, maple and cherry benches for Natural Connections that reference equine and bovine animals such as horses and cows. The pieces were given minimal finishing to mimic the texture of the tree they came from.
“They appear as benches or seats, but their design goes beyond furniture to incorporate aspects of imagination and play to help people encounter and rediscover nature,” said AHEC.
Madrid-based designer Penadés responded to the natural connections theme by producing a tiered seating piece called Wrap that is connected by ball joints.
The designer, who is known for his interior projects with Spanish footwear brand Camper, glued and rolled 0.7-millimetres-thick pieces of cherry veneer into tubes to create tubular hollow components, which form a bleacher-style seat when joined together.
Wrap is made from thin rolls of cherry veneer
Natural Connections is one of several exhibitions at Madrid Design Festival, a month-long event that sees a design programme take over the Spanish city. After the exhibition ends, the furniture will remain in the cultural centre for a year.
Also at this year’s edition is Slow Spain, an exhibition by university students that aims to explore American hardwoods and mindful furniture consumption.
Last year saw lighting designer Antoni Arola and Spanish light manufacturer Simon use a smoke machine, lasers and a small tree to create Fiat Lux 3 Architectures of Light.
Natural Connections is on show at Matadero Madrid as part of Madrid Design Festival 2023, which takes place from 14 February to 12 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the month.
Designers: Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter, Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, Jorge Penadés Partners: American Hardwood Export Council, Matadero Madrid, Madrid Design Festival, Tamalsa
