WIDN blog: July 2009 Archives
What's inside the BOX
July 31, 2009
Can you create something out of the box – thinking from inside the box? Here’s a great chance to strain your right brain and hone your imaginative minds.
British Designers NoChintz in collaboration with 100% Design London and eskimo creative have launched a design competition, ‘the Box Project’.
International Stone Architecture Award 2009
As part of the 44th Marmomacc in Verona this fall, the International Stone Architecture Award will be given out.
It’s considered one the most prestigious recognitions for architectural works that are examples of “significant and technical-expressive quality in their use of stone.” Here is a preview of the nominees for this year’s award.
Aesthetics and Infrastructure at London 2012
We are still three years away from the London Olympics and already it looks like the buildings housing the infrastructure will be the best architecture to come out of the event.
London: Eight Members Club
July 30, 2009
New rooftop Eight Members Club located in Finsbury Square is set over two floors of terraces and features a reception, dining room, lounge, library and meeting room set against the backdrop of the stunning London skyline.
Grand visions at Le Grand Pari(s)
The politically motivated proposal by Roland Castro
It is always surprising and a cause for excitement when high-profile politicians turn their discussions to architecture. When the Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë and French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a research competition on the future development of Greater Paris, there was a great surge of anticipation amongst the city’s large community of architects.
Concept cars
July 29, 2009
Pictures by Arthur Couprie
It was with a mixture of delight and disappointment that I stumbled across the pictures of this automotive showroom and leisure complex for GB Auto in Cairo, designed by Parisian architect Manuelle Gautrand.
Adventures in Corian #6 - MYYOUR
And it's back to Italy for today's Corian masterpieces! Featured here are some examples of MYYOUR's Community table, which comes in seating schemes of 6, 8 or 10.
Ron Arad: No Discipline
July 28, 2009
The painted-fiberglass New Orleans chair. Photo by Erik and Petra Hesmerg.
Moma will open its Ron Arad: No Discipline exhibition this week on its sixth floor gallery.
Arad stands out for his daredevil curiosity about form, structure, technology and materials. His work spans industrial design, handcrafted studio pieces, sculpture, architecture and mixed media installations, and he’s experimented with a wide array of materials.
HoXton Collection - C P Hart
This is HoXton, the new range from designer bathroom supplier C.P. Hart. The range mixes traditional ceramics with antique furniture and was prompted by an increase in demand for classic, timeless design.
100% Design: Bridge of Weir
Glasgow School of Art student Angela Porchetta, centre left with Director Jonathan Muirhead, centre right
Bridge of Weir Leather Company will be attending 100% Design this year at stand K84 and will be joined by a talented young textile student from Glasgow School of Art.
Adventures in Corian #5 - Jarl Fernaeus
July 27, 2009
Today's Corian design marvel isn't Italian... for a change, it's Swedish! This is by Jarl Fernaeus' final entry in this year's Prix Emile Hermés, and was one of 17 (out of 2500 entries!) that made it in to the final. Glacier Hallway Group comprises of a table, stool and lamp. The table is designed for the modern home and its seemingly endless need for chargers for mobile phones, iPods and cameras - it is the table is equipped with an electric socket underneath, meaning items can be charged neatly and therefore eliminate the usual unattractive nest of wires that come with multiple charging.
Love The Home You're In
London was pretty wet this weekend, and it got me craving TV again (as opposed to BBQing anything edible). One show I really like is Love The Place Youre In, which is about having a house as a home and not as an investment. It encourages viewers to fall in love with their homes again, and embrace interior design wholeheartedly!
Britain's got talent
Britain’s got talent. Much as I think of design as an international concept, the UK has some terrific creative ideas.
Paper City: Urban Utopias
July 24, 2009
Peter Cook, Gavin Robotham and Lorene Faure
The Royal Academy of Arts will be hosting our exhibition, Paper City: Urban Utopias from next Friday, 31 July. It is an opportunity for us to share the extraordinary images that artists, architects, illustrators and designers have contributed to our back-page ‘Paper City’, since its introduction in September 2006.
Adventures in Corian #4 - Ginepro
July 23, 2009
Corian time! Today we have a selection of Corian-tastic design that I am really really excited about. For those of you who aren't avid readers of the WIDN blog, I am obsessed with having some sort of computer game house, so these geeky items from Italian designers Ginepro have totally short circuited my brain!
Adventures with Corian #3 - Wine rack
July 22, 2009
Robert Barnby of Nottingham Trent University created this Corian wine rack for this year's New Designers event. His brief cited that he had to explore the properties of Corian and to apply the knowledge learned to a small range of domestic household products that would charm and entertain.
Another chance to see Roger Hiorns' Seizure
Roger Hiorns at Seizure. Photography by Nick Cobbing, courtesy of Artangel.
It might not be interior design as we would usually think of it, but Turner Prize-nominated artist Roger Hiorns’ Seizure, a work of art which has turned a south London council flat into a cavern of twinkling blue crystals, is a parable of the often grim reality of modernist planning – and it’s well worth paying a visit when it reopens this month.
The TepanGrill Table by Troy Adams Design
Forget barbecueing this summer, how about having a Tepanyaki party? The TepanGrill Table by Troy Adams Design is an outdoor dining table with built-in stainless steel cooktop. It is available in absolute black granite, but it can be custom built in any material or size. It's suitable not only for Yakiniku and steak, but also for seafood. Yum!
Adventures with Corian - #2 Quattrifolio
July 21, 2009
More interesting design using Corian, this time from Italian design agency Quattrifolio. I am really impressed with the scope of the designs I will be posting over the next few weeks! Episode 2 of my adventures with Corian kicks off with these lights, amazing!
Finers Stephens Innocent office design
Finers Stephens Innocent LLP were originally set up in 1936 - to me, imagining such a well established law firm's office brings images of stuffy libraries, dark wooden furniture and old dusty men shuffling around - so when I saw these images of their new office refit I was certainly surprised!
Launch of the Alessi Utensil Series
July 20, 2009
Next week, Alessi – the Italian kitchen product design company – are launching a new series of abstract metal bowls, baskets and centrepieces. Black and white squares and rectangles that look like business cards, are stuck together seemingly at random, forming a bowl or basket shape.
Modell Bauhaus: Berlin
To celebrate the Bauhaus design school’s 90th anniversary, an exhibition titled Modell Bauhaus starts Wednesday in Berlin.
It's show time at New Designers
July 17, 2009
This Thursday saw the start of week 2 at New Designers at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The show brings together work from design graduates all over the UK and it is as creative as you would imagine. Week 2 comprises spatial, product and furniture design, as well as One Year on which shows how 2008's graduates are now getting on in the industry. Here are a couple of my favourites
Toyo Ito: Eco stadium for the World Games
July 16, 2009
The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung (Taiwan) will hold their opening ceremony Thursday in the world’s first eco stadium. Designed by Japan’s Toyo Ito, the 40,000 seat Main Stadium was constructed in two years.
Roughed Up: Rabih Hage Designs Revisited
July 15, 2009
The ‘Tonneau Chair’
To coincide with this year’s London Design Festival, Rabih Hage is presenting his latest collection in an exhibition entitled ‘Roughed Up: Rabih Hage Designs Revisited’.
Jacques Tati and Architecture
A ‘Tati trip’ is what curators Macha Makeïeff and Stéphane Goudet call the major retrospective, currently hosted by the Cinémathèque Française this summer. Over 650sq m of design, fashion, film extracts, soundtracks, costumes, accessories and sketchbooks fill the space and tell the story of this unique artist and ‘Jacques of all trades’ who began his career as a music hall performer and a mime artist.
Adventures with Corian - #1 Altha
The lovely people at Corian have brought my attention to some really cool design using their durable material that aren't kitchen worktops! Here is a selection of images from Italian design company Altha. Keep an eye out for more cool uses of Corian over the next week or so... enjoy!
Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19
Pamela
This exhibition takes a fresh look at a singularly creative moment in the history of modernist craft and design in Britain, the Omega Workshops Limited, which was a laboratory of radical design ideas, and involved many of the most avant-garde artists of the day.
De Luxe kitchen by Allmilmö
July 14, 2009
Allmilmö has launched De Luxe, a state of the art kitchen from its Modern Art range. The concept is devised to incorporate cooking, eating and living. It features an island kitchen unit that includes a clever sliding system that conceals the hobs and downdraught when not in use. There is also a built-in sliding cabinetry system which has been designed to reveal a variety of kitchen appliances and storage facilities when they are needed, keeping the kitchen streamlined between uses. The multiple storage options and technologically advanced systems make it one of the must-have kitchens on the market. Despite the good design, I personally think this faux-wood finish is gross.
Inside Out Contracts Ltd – Eco Chair
London based contract furniture specialists,
Inside Out, have taken the proverbial eco-aware bull by the horns and launched the Eco Chair. The stackable chairs feature a curvy black plastic seat and colourful back which are made from 100% recycled computer games consoles!
SANAA at the Serpentine
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 Designed by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA © 2009 Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA Photograph: Luke Hayes
The Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park has officially opened its 2009 summer pavilion.
Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of Tokyo-based SANAA have designed a floating mirrored canopy that spills out through the trees and over the grass, undulating between waist height and two storeys and open on all sides.
State of Design: Melbourne 15-25 July
July 13, 2009
The State of Design Festival in Australia kicks off this week. An initiative of the Victorian State Government, it will host more than 100 interactive events, exhibitions, workshops and talks from 15 – 25 July.
The Festival holds several major programs in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, focusing around the 2009 theme ‘Sampling the Future’, including trade fairs and series of business discussions.
Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design
Lathe Chair VIII by Sebastian Brajkovic is an exaggerated love seat seemingly made from a single 19th-century chair stretched into two.
This summer the V&A will explore the recent trend among European designers for limited edition pieces that push the boundaries between art and design.
Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design will bring together around 50 objects that share common themes such as fantasy, parody and a concern with mortality. The exhibition will feature furniture, ceramics, lighting and large scale installations by designers including Tord Boontje, Maarten Baas, Jurgen Bey and Studio Job.
Reliving Chandigarh: The Furniture of Le Corbusier and Jeanerret
The Furniture of Chandigarh in a cavernous underground space at P3, presents a series of 1950s furniture that were part of the buildings Le Corbusier with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, were responsible for designing. After Indian independence in 1947 and the subsequent partition of India and Pakistan, there was a need for a new administrative capital for the Indian Punjab.
Brimming over with talent
It’s that time of year again with lots of fresh faced (or exhausted looking) students presenting the fruits of their labour to the waiting world.I spent the evening with the graduates of London’s KLC school of interior design on Wednesday as they received their awards and certificates from the great and good of the interior design world.
WOOD at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen
July 10, 2009
Stephen Bretland ‘Trestle candleholder’
WOOD is an exhibition of witty, innovative and ethically designed products for the home or garden designed by TEN; a group of ten designers who collaborate once a year to create products that reflect their shared ethos.
Press release: Stop the hyper-regulation of public space
Blueprint undercover researchers at More London. Credit: David Cowlard
Blueprint answers Mayor Johnson’s call for ideas for London’ great spaces: Remove the rules and regulations!
In a series of experiments around London’s squares and piazzas, undercover Blueprint researchers have performed a series of activities to test the limits of public space. The researchers undertook a host of different activities in various guises and logged the responses of the public, the police and security guards, with photography by David Cowlard.
John Lewis gets Christmassy
July 9, 2009
Once I got over the surreal-factor of looking at red robin wrapping paper, roaring fires and Happy Christmas bunting in July, the John Lewis preview of its Autumn Winter collection had quite a few interesting additions to its range.
And finally….Christmas 2009, John Lewis style
Knitted baubles, owls and upside-down Christmas trees, this is your Xmas 2009, you heard it here first.
Toky-YO!
Philip Watts, of Philip Watts Design at a branch of YO Sushi
You’re never far from a branch of the much imitated YO Sushi chain these days. Since opening the UK’s first Kaiten-zushi (conveyor-belt sushi bar) in Soho in 1997, the chain has swelled to a mighty 41 branches in the UK alone. But as I found out last night, a one-size-fits-all approach to design just isn’t good enough for YO Sushi.
How to hold a meeting in an artwork
July 8, 2009
I recently had the amazing experience of taking part in a meeting, for the London Cultural Strategy Group (which I joined in November 2008), in front of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. The setting forms an installation, The Nature of the Beast, by Goshka Macuga at the Whitechapel Gallery (pictured above), which reopened in April. It turns out that anyone can book the round table between now and April 2010.
Zaha Hadid Architects: Manchester chamber music hall
July 7, 2009
Photography by Luke Hayes
In response to Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, Zaha Hadid Architects has created an extraordinary new chamber music hall, which will be installed within Manchester Art Gallery for the duration of the Manchester International Festival.
Barneby Gates Wallpaper
Created by Vanessa Barneby, Vogue Living Editor and Alice Gates, graduate of London Art School and fashion textile designer, the Barneby Gates collection of wallpapers have a quintessentially English feel and give classical ideas a contemporary twist using subtle metallic finishes and a touch of irony.
Bonhams: Furnishing Severin Wunderman’s home
Severin Wunderman, famous for building up the Gucci watch franchise and also owned the Swiss watch brand, Corum, filled his eight-bedroom Chelsea home with an eclectic mix of watches, skulls and images that spoke of time passing. A collection of furniture and fittings from this home will go on sale at Bonhams on September 30.
Save 25% on New Designers tickets
July 6, 2009
New Designers 2009 is a chance to see the final projects and portfolios from more than 3500 graduate designers who are emerging from 200 design courses across the UK. The event runs from 9-12 and 16-19 July at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London. WIDN readers can claim a 25% discount on the ticket price.
An intern's first week at FX & WIDN
My first prediction even before I walked into FX magazine’s office on my first day of Work Experience was that it would be different to my usual, relaxed school life.
Book Porcupine by Holly Palmer
This is one of the best bookcases I have ever seen - well technically, it's a book porcupine. Holly Palmer's book porcupine has 18 sections in various sizes for holding your favourite books. When a book is removed, the fluorescent compartment behind it is revealed, the concept behind the piece is 'negative spaces' - the book's negative representations are made permanent in the structure of the unit.
Unique by Eggersmann
July 3, 2009
The Unique kitchen from Eggersmann appears to be visually "seamless", transforming the kitchen into a sculpture where function follows form, and each kitchen becomes a work of art. After I've been cooking in it, the mess would make it even more artistic, as if Jackson Pollock had been at the helm of the meal!
Tendence 2009: This weekend in Frankfurt
All images courtesy of Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH
This international consumer goods fair presenting interior design and home furnishing trends opens today at Messe Frankfurt and runs through Tuesday, July 7, with an array of products such as textiles, lighting, furniture, collectables and gifts.
The Play Collection by Sonia
As usual another bathroom post from me! I really love how bathrooms are venturing away from white (or in some cases peach!) and are being given more vibrant colourschemes. Baths don't have to be boring, they can be splashing!
Winning Wallpapers
July 2, 2009
I had a great experience being one of the judges at the Murespec wallpaper competition with the 2nd Year Printed Textile students at Loughborough University School of Art and Design. That's me on the right end, next to the winner Amy Humphries and the Muraspec team and my fellow judge Gemma Emslie from Total Hospitality and Total Retail.
JOI-Design: Park Inn Krakow
July 1, 2009
JOI-Design, in partnership with local firm Ovotz Design Lab, created the interiors for Poland’s first Park Inn hotel. Colour played a key role in meeting the design brief.
Interview with a designer
Javier Mariscal should be tired. For hours, the Spanish designer, painter, ceramist and filmmaker has been talking to a steady steam of journalists brandishing digital recorders, each hoping to capture the essence of the Design Museum’s latest exhibition, Mariscal: Drawing Life.
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