There is something about the work of Simone Brewster that feels at once ancient and futuristic. Artist, designer, educator and cultural change maker, her practice has a distinct aesthetic – bold silhouettes, tactile surfaces and symbolism – but is shaped by something less tangible: memory, inheritance, and the emotional charge carried by objects.

Throughout her work, she challenges viewers to consider what kinds of stories are embedded in materials, what kinds of bodies are allowed to be celebrated, and what kinds of histories are carried through our public and domestic environments.

'To me, design isn't just about creating objects – it's about giving voice to identity, heritage and memory,' explains the London-based designer. 'Through scale, material and form I aim to make visible what has often been invisible and to share narratives that connect us and ground us to objects and to each other.'

In February 2026, Simone Brewster became the second designer to feature in PLATFORM, the London Design Museum's annual free-to-visit display series dedicated to bringing contemporary design practice into wider public view.

Following Bethan Laura Wood's 2025 presentation, the new edition marks Brewster's first museum show – a significant moment for a multidisciplinary designer whose work resists easy categorisation, spanning art, architecture, sculpture, adornment and furniture.

Here, Wallpaper* reflects on some of Brewster’s most significant works to date.

Training and approach

Born and raised in London, the daughter of a Jamaican mother and Trinidadian father, Brewster originally trained as an architect at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, before obtaining an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art. Her education lends an architectural discipline to her objects, which are rarely treated as isolated products, but instead as fragments of a larger environment. Her forms often borrow from structural logic – columns, arches, thresholds – while retaining the sensuous presence of sculpture.

She has described her approach as an 'architecture of intimacies': a way of looking beyond the physical properties of materials and instead translating their geographic, historical and emotional associations into three-dimensional form. It is a framework that challenges some of the assumptions embedded in contemporary design culture, returning repeatedly to questions of value: what we consider precious, what we dismiss as decorative, and what histories we allow materials to hold.

Objects

Although Brewster experiments with a wide range of materials – including hair, copper and cork – it is wood, in particular, that has become one of her most distinctive and resonant mediums. She frequently works with repurposed ebony, mango and tulipwood, elevating the material through carving and scale, and treating it with a reverence more often reserved for metal or stone.

In her 'Ebony Revolution' jewellery series, dark wood is combined with warm copper tones to create oversized rings, bracelets and statement necklaces. Their graphic geometry and heightened proportions shift jewellery away from delicacy and towards presence – pieces that assert themselves as objects, rather than accessories.

That interest in ornament as cultural language is also apparent in Brewster’s 'Crown' series of sculptural wooden combs. In many African cultures, hair has long been tied to identity, status and community; Brewster’s combs function not only as tools, but as tributes to those traditions, their carved forms transforming something intimate and everyday into something monumental.

Public works

If Brewster’s smaller-scale objects speak to intimacy, her public works tend to amplify the same concerns through space and atmosphere. 'Spirit of Place', a commission for The Strand during London Design Festival 2023, for instance, saw her collaborate with Portuguese cork manufacturer Amorim to create a forest of cork pillars. Intended to evoke the cork oak landscapes of Portugal, the sculptures drew attention to the environmentally positive processes behind the material.

That impulse – to build environments that feel ceremonial, spiritual or emotionally resonant – runs through much of her spatial work. A pavilion project such as 'Temple of Relics', commissioned by Brookfield Properties last year for the London Festival of Architecture at Principal Place, similarly used furniture and ornament as tools for storytelling. Appearing like fragments of ancient architecture, towering red and orange stucco structures formed archways with bench seating below, turning a public space into a 'place for reflection'.

Furniture

It is perhaps in her furniture works – particularly those that incorporate the female form – that Brewster’s practice becomes most potent. Her sculptural 'Mammy' bench and 'Negress' chaise longue confront the long history of Black women’s bodies being fetishized, commodified and objectified. In these works, the body becomes literal structure: breasts, thighs and torsos are transformed into supports and surfaces, bearing the weight of the furniture itself.

Brewster’s use of racist terminology here is deliberate, employed as critique – forcing the viewer to confront the violence embedded in language and the cultural stereotypes it continues to carry. It is design as confrontation, but also design as refusal: an attempt to give shape to what has historically been suppressed, dismissed or made invisible, and to reclaim the narrative around Black women’s bodies on her own terms.

simonebrewster.co.uk

2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for design lovers, with an array of global design exhibitions set to be staged at some of the world's most celebrated institutions. Our exhibition calendar includes retrospectives of design legends, from Verner Panton to Lella and Massimo Vignelli, and in-depth looks at the work of giants such as Isamu Noguchi and Alessandro Mendini.

We also can’t wait to delve deeper into the archives of some of our favourite grandes dames of design, with shows dedicated to Hella Jongerius, Es Devlin and Sabine Marcelis.

Below are the institutional exhibitions we are most looking forward to – mark your diaries, and don’t miss our 2026 design fairs calendar too.

2026 design exhibitions to discover

‘Fungi: Anarchist Designers’ at Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

This groundbreaking design exhibition curated by anthropologist Anna Tsing and designer Feifei Zhou presents fungi as 'radical designers in a world beyond human control'. On view at Rotterdam's Het Nieuwe Instituut, the display explores how mushrooms and moulds can cause decomposition, death and destruction, but also explores their potential to work together with human and non-human life. The curator commissioned seven new installations for the exhibition, created by designers working closely with scientists, and also includes artworks from artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Annicka Yi. The thought-provoking exhibition aims to challenge our perception of design while answering the question, what can we learn from non-human life?

Until 8 August 2026, Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25, 3015 CB Rotterdam

Alessandro Mendini at Estorick Collection, London

The first solo exhibition of Alessandro Mendini’s work in the UK, this show features a curation of over 50 pieces, ranging from furniture and drawings to paintings, rugs and objects. The playful poetry of Mendini's work is explored through the artistic references and inspirations that helped shape his career. Among the connections woven by the exhibition are those with Futurist artist Fortunato Depero, to whom the designer dedicated two works in fabric, and Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract paintings, referenced in Mendini's Kandissi sofa.

16 January – 10 May 2026, Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 2AN

‘Noguchi’s New York’ at The Noguchi Museum

Isamu Noguchi first arrived in New York City in 1922 and, despite his globe-spanning career in art and design, the city remained a base for him throughout his life – and its material, cultural, social and political landscapes a profound influence on his ideas and work. In turn, Noguchi left his own mark on the city – with public art proposals and communal spaces designed for engagement and play (many of which faced opposition from figures such as NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses). Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, this exhibition examines Noguchi’s enduring efforts to give back to the city that inspired him. It also celebrates the museum itself as one of his most lasting contributions to New York, highlighting the dialogue between art and surroundings that defined Noguchi’s vision and legacy.

4 February – 5 July 2026, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York

‘Art of Noise’ at Cooper Hewitt, New York

This major exhibition examines how design has shaped the way we experience music over the last century. From concert posters and album covers to the design of radios, phonographs, digital players and sound systems, ‘Art of Noise’ brings together over 300 objects from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to reveal how designers have influenced our relationship with sound. The exhibition also features dynamic audio environments by Stockholm-based Teenage Engineering and multidisciplinary artist Devon Turnbull, inviting visitors to engage with sound and design in entirely new ways – from custom listening rooms to innovative seating environments – showing how visual and industrial practices both reflect and shape cultural, technological and social shifts in music.

13 February – 19 July 2026, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

‘Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things’ at Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

The first retrospective of Hella Jongerius’ work, this exhibition follows the Vitra Design Museum's acquisition of her archives and charts the Dutch designer's creative trajectory across several disciplines, including textiles, ceramics, furniture, lighting, and sculpture. Alongside the archives will be an overview of Jongeriuslab, the designer's studio, and its unique approach to creativity, shaped by a mix of 'layering ideas, drawing connections, emphasising materiality, exposing process, and researching deeply, with a dedication to craft, colour, and cosmic thinking'.

14 March – 6 September 2026, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany

‘Lella and Massimo Vignelli’ at Triennale Milano

A major retrospective dedicated to the work of Lella and Massimo Vignelli, this exhibition is a testament to the designers’ crucial impact on popular culture through product design and visual communications. The Vignellis left post-war Milan and settled in New York to establish their studio in 1965, and their ‘intellectual and human journey’ is narrated through a curated selection of objects, furniture, interiors, drawings, models, sketches, photographs, manuals, trademarks, books, covers, and magazines. The exhibition is designed by Jasper Morrison, and created with the support of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), which preserves more than 750,000 objects from the studio's history.

25 March – 6 September 2026, Triennale Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, Milan

‘Verner Panton: Form, Colour, Space’ at Vitra Schaudepot, Weil am Rhein

It’s no exaggeration to say that Danish architect and designer Verner Panton (1926-1998) transformed furniture, interiors, fabrics, lamps and buildings with his bold forms, vibrant colours and visionary ideas. In 2026, he would have celebrated his 100th birthday; to mark the occasion, the Vitra Design Museum’s Schaudepot exhibition – one of the most significant collections of Panton’s designs – is presenting his work chronologically and thematically. The exhibition highlights iconic pieces such as the ‘Panton’ chair and the 1970 ‘Visiona II’ installation; it also reconstructs the designer’s 1970 ‘Fantasy Landscape’, a walk-in environment that transformed the way people experienced space, colour and form. The exhibition places Panton’s work in its historical context, examining his innovations in materials and production, the postwar social shifts that shaped his designs, and the influence of the Space Age.

23 May 2026 – 9 May 2027, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany

Es Devlin at the Design Museum, London

This is the first major UK survey of Es Devlin’s 30-year career, showcasing her work across sculpture, performance and light installations. Operating at the intersection of art, performance, architecture and technology, Devlin is known for elevating stage design to an art form. Her work treats audiences as ‘temporary societies’ – rather than serving as a backdrop, it shapes how people gather, move and feel within a space, whether that’s through kinetic stage sculptures for artists like Beyoncé, U2 and The Weeknd, or monumental installations for events such as the Olympic ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime show. Developed in close collaboration with Devlin, this retrospective features rare maquettes, sketches, annotated texts and process materials alongside new sculptures and installations created specifically for the exhibition, highlighting her transformative influence on contemporary art and design while revealing the ideas and processes behind her most ambitious work.

18 September 2026 – 11 April 2027, Design Museum, London

‘Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley’ at Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas

In the 15 years since establishing their design studio, twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas have crafted a world filled with magical creatures and larger-than-life biomorphic ideas that also happen to be brilliant design objects. This exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art explores the Austin natives' magical output; discover sculptural objects made in a variety of techniques and materials, including porcelain, bronze, wool, glass beads, fur, and more.

26 September 2026 – 17 January 2027, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

‘Sabine Marcelis – Light and Color’ at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Sabine Marcelis’ first museum exhibition is dedicated to the Dutch designer’s impeccable colour and light work, exploring the past few years' output alongside newly commissioned light pieces. On view at Zürich's Museum für Gestaltung, the show presents an insight into Marcelis' practice, with samples and material studies offering a look behind the scenes of her work, combined with a carefully conceived spatial experience that honours her expressive designs.

30 October 2026 – 14 March 2027, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Pfingstweidstrasse 96

‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ at the Design Museum, London

This landmark exhibition highlights contemporary Black designers who are reshaping the British and global design landscape. Ambitious and wide-ranging, it encompasses furniture, architecture, fashion and installation. The featured designers, including the likes of Mac Collins, Samuel Ross, Bianca Saunders and Giles Tettey Nartey, draw on identity, culture and community to create work that reflects the complexities of modern Black experience. The exhibition situates this work within a broader historical context, referencing movements such as the Black Aesthetic of the 1960s and the New Black Aesthetic of the 1980s, while interpreting these legacies for today’s landscape. ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ reveals the transformative ways Black designers are shaping design, as well as inviting audiences to rethink entrenched narratives about who defines it.

6 November 2026 – 8 August 2027, Design Museum, London

'More than Human', a new exhibition at London’s Design Museum (opening on 11 July and running until 5 October 2025), explores the idea of non-human-centric design. It focuses on design that considers how other species interact with the built world, inviting us to reimagine design as a tool for interconnection and conservation.

‘More Than Human’: non-human-centric design on view at Design Museum

‘More Than Human’ assembles over 140 works by more than 50 artists, architects and designers, all asking how they might respond to the living world rather than dominate it.

The answer is explored in three sections. The first, ‘Being Landscape’, showcases art and design that represents the connection between humanity and nature, including organic-inspired paintings by Solange Pessoa; drawings by Hélio Melo which reflect his memories of his birthplace, the Brazilian state of Amazonas; and photographs by Federico Borella and Michela Balboni that document the Italian Rumiti ritual, in which men dressed as trees silently process through the hills of Basilicata. Audiences will also discover bronze masks inspired by pagan ritual figures made from corn husks and basketry from the Ye’kuana community of the Venezuelan Amazon.

The second section, ‘Making With The World’, thinks about practical, design-led solutions for ecological restoration. It includes marine infrastructure designer Reef Design Lab’s ‘Living Seawalls’ and ‘Modular Artificial Reef Structure II’, and a reconstruction of the Alusta Pavilion by Elina Koivisto and Maiju Suomi – a mini‑park that provides shelter for both humans and insects. Also featured: Johanna Seelemann’s ‘Oase’ collection – terracotta vessels which use ancient Greek irrigation methods to hydrate trees more efficiently.

At a time when human activity is changing the natural world in ever-more detrimental ways, this exhibition offers a vision of how design, art, and architecture might help us reconnect with the more-than-human world.

'More than Human' is on view at the Design Museum until 5 October 2025

Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG, designmuseum.org

London- and Cornwall-based designer Lulu Harrison is the winner of the 2025 Ralph Saltzman Prize, the Design Museum’s annual accolade celebrating emerging designers. Harrison will also receive a £10,000 bursary to support her work, along with a solo exhibition at the Design Museum running from 24 June to 25 August 2025.

Lulu Harrison: 2025 Ralph Saltzman Prize winner 

The award was established in 2022, with British designer Mac Collins as the inaugural winner, followed by Marco Campardo (2023) and Attua Aparicio (2024). It was created by Lisa Saltzman, as a legacy to her father, Ralph Saltzman, co-founder and chairman of Designtex, the leading company in the design and manufacturing of applied materials for the built environment.

This annual award celebrates designers that are innovating around material use and manufacture and who have set up their own practice in the past five years. It is a way to offer emerging talents an opportunity to expand their work, through a financial contribution and exposure.

‘I created the Ralph Saltzman Prize four years ago to honour my father, who was an innovator and a pioneer. He was truly passionate about design and believed that great design could improve our lives. This prize is his legacy,’ says Saltzman. ‘I hope he would have liked Lulu Harrison’s originality, left-of-field thinking, experimentation with working with an everyday material and, mostly, her commitment to sustainability. Her passion and commitment to her craft very much reminds me of my father.’

Harrison is the fourth recipient of the prize. Her submission is ‘Thames Glass’, a project inspired by the idea of creating geo-specific glass using local, abundant and waste materials from one location or region. As a geo alchemist glass artist, Harrison has always been drawn to working with natural materials including river sands, wood ashes, and waste quagga mussel shells from rivers, especially having grown up by the River Thames in Oxfordshire.

Harrison’s work was selected by a jury made up of industrial designer, Konstantin Grcic, author Seetal Solanki, designer Stephen Burks and editor and presenter Michelle Ogundehin. The jury said, ‘Harrison’s methodology for developing “Thames Glass” is incredible. She’s a great researcher and communicator, both in terms of mapping the raw materials that go into making the glass and visualising it for an audience to make it easy to understand. We were really blown away by the quality of her work.’

Harrison’s studio is currently based in Falmouth in Cornwall. From here she travels across the country and worldwide, working alongside glass chemists, glass blowers, and glass studios to inspire her research. ‘Thames Glass’ highlights circular glass production by integrating modern-day waste materials and applying it to glassmaking.

Lulu Harrison's work will be on display at the Design Museum running from 24 June to 25 August 2025 designmuseum.org

In partnership with reMarkable

Tim Marlow likes to write things down. If the London Design Museum director has a plan to work on or an idea to flesh out, he immediately puts pen to tablet, releases creative flow from head to hand and watches his thoughts take shape on the page. A mental note, he believes, cannot develop into a structured concept until it’s written.

‘It’s really important to be able to make notes the second something occurs to you,’ he says. ‘Once I’ve written an idea down, there’s a sense of relaxation; that it’s right there, in front of you. That’s when you can start to think more creatively around it.’

Marlow’s method – jotting down lists, mind maps, inspirational flashes and skeleton plans, in black and white and full colour on his reMarkable Paper Pro tablet – lets him think with more focus, clarity and structure. ‘Scribbling, mapping, and drawing – whether it’s a note, a more progressive realisation of an idea, the working through of an idea or the reflection on that idea afterwards – I find all that stuff really important.’

There are proven benefits to this tactile, visual, immediate and manual process. A recent study found that working on a reMarkable paper tablet might actually make for a less stressed and a sharper, more creative human being.

Using electroencephalogram (EEG) brain monitoring, the study measured working professionals’ biometric responses and heart rate variabilities while performing the same tests on a paper tablet versus similar activities on a PC or laptop.

When focusing on a single task on a reMarkable paper tablet rather than the alternatives, test participants exhibited some extraordinary results; 35 per cent lower stress levels, 30 per cent lower cognitive demand and a 25 per cent increase in creative thinking. Focus was up 20 per cent. There was a 17 per cent uptick in deep thinking and a 17 per cent better memory. In a world full of distractions, the reMarkable Paper Pro is designed to help creative minds capture, refine, and elevate their thoughts.

An unmatched writing-on-paper-like feel is reMarkable Paper Pro’s signature feature. The pleasure of a smooth-tipped pen on quality stock is replicated using a specially designed electronic paper display with a textured surface. A precision-engineered, pressure-sensitive pen (Marker and Marker Plus, the latter with an inbuilt eraser, are the two options designed for the device) provides micro levels of friction that effectively mimic the tactile sensation of nib meeting paper. Every stroke has just the right amount of resistance, making writing, doodling, or annotating documents feel totally natural.

You can write, draw, and sketch in black and white or colour using pencil, paintbrush, highlighter or shader modes. With latency – the delay before pen strokes appear – as low as 12 milliseconds, the display sets a new industry benchmark for responsiveness, the distance between the Marker tip and the digital ink having been reduced to less than 1 mm. The reMarkable Paper Pro then stores your handworked files in its internal 64GB of storage or shares them to the cloud for export to your PC or Mac.

User comfort is also considered. Compared to LCD or LED screens found on laptops and smartphones, the device’s 11.8-inch Canvas Color display doesn’t use bright, flickering lights to produce colours, and reflects natural light for a more comfortable reading experience. In dim lighting conditions, an adjustable reading light illuminates the display, making it easier to work without eye strain.

‘reMarkable Paper Pro adds just enough technology to your workflow without getting in your brain’s way,’ says Phil Hess, CEO of reMarkable.

‘We’ve used advanced technology to recreate something unimaginably complex yet incredibly simple: the feeling of putting pen to paper,’ adds Mats Herding Solberg, the company’s chief design officer. ‘It’s perfect for anyone who wants to bring the focus and clarity you get from working on paper into the digital age.’

remarkable Paper Pro, from £599, remarkable.com

Of all the garments to inhabit a wardrobe, swimwear is perhaps the most loaded. Sharing many of the same properties as underwear – in terms of proportions (frequently small) and cling factor (typically high) – that it is designed to be worn in the public arena carries additional significance.

What these spaces are, and how we engage with them, socially and sartorially, is highlighted in a new exhibition at the Design Museum, ‘Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style’ (until 17 August 2025). Exploring the role of design in relationship with water, the exhibition is separated into three key sections: the swimming pool, the lido and nature (think seas, rivers, lakes), while also considering magazine spreads, TV series, movie posters, sports competitions and fashion shows. Swimwear, it argues, is primed for storytelling.

‘Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style’ at Design Museum

‘It can tell us loads,’ the show’s curator, broadcaster and historian Amber Butchart, tells Wallpaper*. ‘What bits of the body are acceptable to display in public spaces, about access to public spaces. One of the big stories [here] is contemporary designers creating swimwear for bodies who have not had specific swimwear created for them before – because if you don't have swimwear, you do not have access to these places. You can't go to a pool naked.’ To this point she credits brands like Rebirth Garments, Chromat, and Beefcake Swimwear, who design with trans and non-binary people in mind, as well as swimmers with disabilities.

Growing up by the coast (today she lives in Margate), Butchart has long been drawn to bodies of water and what they can tell us about style, publishing a book, Nautical Chic, in 2015, which examines the relationship between maritime dress and the fashionable wardrobe. ‘So it's always been a strand in my work,’ she explains. ‘I’ve always been interested in this idea of the seaside as a fashionable space, going back to the 18th century, then it becoming unfashionable as people were able to go further afield, to places like the Mediterranean.’ Ideas for the new exhibition had been percolating for a while, she says, a product of her wider research, before the closure of leisure centres during the pandemic (and the subsequent crescendo of cold water swimming’s popularity) streamlined the project.

Playing out against a bold set design by ScottWhitbyStudio, there is much to absorb in ‘Splash!’, which features some 200 items (many borrowed from coastal museums around the UK). These range from vintage swimsuits and bathing accessories to high fashion designs and pieces worn for monumental sporting achievements, as well as architecture, film and graphic design. There’s a pair of elaborate swim caps from Miu Miu’s S/S 2017 collection and a metallic blue wet look dress by Greek label Di Petsa (A/W 2024); a poster for the 1984 Olympics featuring David Hockney’s ‘Swimmer, 1982’; and an Indian movie poster from 1967, for Shakti Samanta’s An Evening in Paris (controversially for the country at the time, it featured an actress in a swimsuit). Meanwhile spreads from the men’s fitness magazine, A Young Physique, nod to the homosexuality laws which shaped the 1960s and the introduction of a posing pouch that doubled as swimwear.

Elsewhere, the exhibition addresses the developments in technology that have informed swimwear’s manufacturing and its physical capabilities, highlighting the evolution of sustainability in particular. ‘We explore materials and making in the show, thinking about wool developments in the 1920s, using circular knitting machines, then obviously the synthetics revolution of the mid 20th century and the development of nylon in the 1930s; polyester in the 40s, and then things like Lycra, which still dominate swimwear design today,’ says Butchart, who worked with the Design Museum’s Tiya Dahyabhai. ‘It’s probably impossible to get fully sustainable swimwear, but there are companies like Aquafill creating yarn made from recycled fishing waste nets and industrial waste. Companies like this, pushing forward this research into sustainability, will hopefully have wider impacts elsewhere in fashion.’

While the more familiar showstoppers on display include Pamela Anderson’s famous signal-red Baywatch one-piece and the iconic Monokini by Rudi Gernreich (initially conceived as a statement about liberating women from hyper-sexualisation), the origin story of the bikini moniker is maybe the most intriguing. The two-piece had always existed in some form, dating back to the Chalcolithic era, but the modern term arrived in 1946, courtesy of French designer Louis Réard. He named the garment after Bikini Atoll, the site of American nuclear test explosions during the 20th century (Réard had named an earlier design ‘Atome’).

‘It really plays on the idea that it's very small, atomic in scale, and will have an “explosive impact”,’ notes Butchart. ‘Very tasteless today, obviously, but it shines the spotlight on this moment at the beginning of the atomic age, where these ideas were infiltrating design and pop culture. I'm hoping people will take away some of these unexpected stories, because it is a design story, but there are also real social histories.’

‘Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style’ runs at the Design Museum, London, until 17 August 2025.

designmuseum.org

Students from The Piggott School in Reading won the Design Ventura 2023-2024 competition with their project ‘Colour Countdown’, a portable card game inspired by the childhood classics I Spy and Uno. Designed to encourage young kids to put devices down and ‘look at the world’, it will be available to buy from the Design Museum Shop later this year.

‘You can play anywhere at all,’ explained the four-strong team. ‘You draw cards of different colours – red, blue, orange, green etc – and you have to look around and find objects in that colour.’ Made using FSC-certified card and wood pulp cellophane, the cards have coloured windows to allow for a combination of colours. 

It’s a bright response to this year’s brief, set by London-based textile designer Kangan Arora, which asked students to design a new product inspired by the theme of Colour and Community. ‘I set this theme in order to challenge them to think in their teams about the importance of community practices, supporting and learning from one another and also consider the wider community who may be their “core customer”,’ explains Arora.

It’s the second year in a row The Piggott School wins the competition (their 3D puzzle last year was another hit). They clearly know how to impress the judging panel, who said of this year’s winning design: ‘It responded to the brief in a way which was creative, fun and appealing to a range of audiences. We didn’t want to put the product down and we knew that customers in the Design Museum would feel the same.'

Among the other nine shortlisted projects were a modular, tangram-inspired lamp by Comberton Village College, Cambridge; a tool to help you simplify your wardrobe by Dover Girls Grammar School, Kent; a Braille desktop calendar by Haggerston School, Hackney; a self-assembly, flat-packed revision organiser by Heathcote School, Chingford; and a board game inspired by dishes from all around the world, by Upper Shirley High School, Southampton.

Design Ventura offers secondary school students the chance to respond to a real-world brief, bringing the business of design to life. The competition is run by the Design Museum in partnership with Deutsche Bank’s global youth engagement programme Born to Be. Now in its 14th year, it has seen over 110,000 students participate and grow their creative and entrepreneurial skills by designing and developing a product for a real target audience.

The  shortlisted and winning entries will be on display at the Design Museum for two months, while the ‘Colour Countdown’ game will soon be available from the  museum’s shop, with money raised from the sales going to the winning team’s chosen charity.

ventura.designmuseum.org

Spanish-born, London-based designer Attua Aparicio is the winner of the 2024 Ralph Saltzman Prize, the Design Museum’s annual accolade celebrating emerging designers. As part of the prize, Aparicio is being awarded a £5,000 bursary, while the museum will present her work through a solo exhibition from 1 February until 15 April 2024.

The award was established in 2022, with British designer Mac Collins as the inaugural winner. It was created as a legacy to Ralph Saltzman, co-founder and chairman of Designtex, the leading company in the design and manufacturing of applied materials for the built environment. 

It is a way to offer emerging designers an opportunity to expand their work and reach, through a financial contribution and the exposure of an exhibition, building on Saltzman’s legacy of championing innovation in design and sustainability. 'My father was an innovator and a pioneer who had a keen eye, great taste and was renowned for his creativity,' says Lisa Saltzman, who created the award on behalf of the Saltzman Family Foundation. 'He was a visionary, and I know he would be proud to be supporting the best emerging design talent through the prize. The Ralph Saltzman Prize is a significant opportunity for young designers to showcase and develop their talent.'

Attua Aparicio: 2024 Ralph Saltzman Prize winner 

'Attua's work is outside of fashion and does not follow any trend,' says Martino Gamper, who nominated Aparicio for the award. 'It defies readings and twists references to the past to create new forms. Apparicio has the enthusiasm and positivity to confront the future in her own way. She is very experimental and un-afraid, trying things out in new and often radical ways.'

Operating at the intersection between design, craft and art, Aparicio works primarily in clay, which she crafts into organic, experimental forms, often mixed with glass or combined with neon lights (made by designer Jochen Holz). Her pieces vary in scale, from small vessels to furniture, like the ‘Solaris de Esgueva’ bookcase in clay and wood, created in collaboration with her sister, designer Saelia Aparicio, for an exhibition at Gallery Fumi. 

Aparicio graduated with an MA in Design Products from London’s RCA, and founded Silo Studio with designer Oscar Lessing. Collaboration is a key aspect of her design practice: 'The collective creative energy is contagious. [Oscar] was possibly the most influential person in my career together with my sister Saelia Aparicio and my partner Jochen Holz,' she says. 'With them, I share ideas, fears and dreams.' 

But she also credits Gamper for his role in shaping London's creative network: 'With his generous soul and inclusive personality, he has helped to create a very tight community of designers, all of whom I respect and helped me in my development.'

'Attua’s work is imbued with an energy and creativity that I know my father would have loved,’ adds Saltzman. ‘Her deft handling of a range of materials results in a visually arresting portfolio of work with sustainability and tactility at its heart.’

The work of Attua Aparicio will be on display at the Design Museum from 1 February until 15 April 2024

designmuseum.org

The Design Museum has announced the new cohort of Design Researchers in Residence who will spend the next year at the London institution to work on projects that respond to the climate emergency. The programme is a new development of the museum's Designers in Residence, which ran between 2007-2020, and was established to support emerging design thinkers working in response to the climate emergency. 

Designed to support emerging design thinkers, the initiative is part of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

'Welcoming a new group of Design Researchers in Residence is always an exciting moment because you know to expect nine months of unconventional thinking and challenges to design as a practice,' says Justin McGuirk, Director of Future Observatory at the Design Museum.

Meet the Design Museum's Design Researchers in Residence

The 2023/24 Design Researchers in Residence are April Barrett, Eliza Collin, Jamie Irving and Freya Spencer-Wood, a cohort representing a variety of design specialisms. During their residencies, they will explore the theme of 'Solar' through a broad range of themes including the housing retrofit agenda, how the scent of plants is changing under environmental stress, peatland restoration, and waste heat produced by data centres.

The end of the programme will be marked by a publication and public display at the Design Museum, planned for June 2024, where the researchers will be able to display their processes. 

'A rapidly heating planet means we have to redesign our relationships with heat and light, and how we make precious use of the energy associated with them, comments George Kafka, Future Observatory Curator. 'Whether thinking through architecture and community infrastructure for domestic heating, or the impact of warming atmospheres on carbon sinks and plant life, this is a timely moment to research and reframe the role of the solar in our lives.'

April Barrett

Hailing from Canada, April Barrett has a background in the video game industry. among her most recent research topics (which she developed during the Design for Change MA program at the University of Edinburgh) were data centres, the facilities that house the computing infrastructure organisations need to store and process data. Her research led her to specifically look into 'the colonial nature of data centre expansion in Scotland and the tensions that arise when communities have their own visions for land use.'

For her residency, Barrett will carry on her research focusing on 'the potentially damaging impact of data centres on the energy supplies available to local communities.' Such centres, she observes, 'often compete with neighbouring towns for the vast amount of resources they require to function;' her research will explore how waste heat generated by data centres can be harnessed and redistributed, while also questioning the validity of Big Tech’s 'increasing entanglement with renewable energy futures.'

 Eliza Collin 

A 2021 graduate from the Central Saint Martins' Material Futures MA, Eliza Collins research work focuses on 'building sustainable systems, with future perspectives relating to material, resources and the environment.' Collins has worked in on projects relating to water within the government design team Policy Lab, collaborated on a rainwater harvesting system for the BlueCity Rainwater Hackathon in Rotterdam and co-developed urban planning and non-human lead policy recommendations for the Gemene Grond residency, ‘Water is what we make it’, in Utrecht. Most recently, she developed a project titled 'Wet Zones' (developed with the support of Fondazione Studio Rizoma), which explored water usage and displacement in Sicily, also proposing community-led design solutions to facilitate the community's agency in water futures.

Through her residency, Collin plans to explore how the scent of plants has been changing as a result of the climate emergency, a project that continues her collaboration with agroecologist Dr Coline Jaworski. With her work, she will examine how this effect has been affecting local ecosystems. 'For example, changes in smell are having adverse effects on wild bees and their pollination, resulting in disruptions to food systems and increasingly oily molecules in the air which may contribute to the ferocity of wildfires.'

 Jamie Irving

An architect, educator and co-founder of the design and research practice Entropic Group, Jamie Irving teaches Design Studio and Tectonics at Kingston School of Art and his collaborations include the Architectural Association, University of Cambridge and ETH Zurich. His work focuses on 'enhancing environments through an understanding and awareness of how cultural, ecological and building systems come together.'

The project he aims to carry out during his residency will look into the role of the sun 'within the retrofit agenda as a way of establishing a more dynamic relationship between the interior and the exterior.' His research will explore the potential of conservatories as insulative and heating spaces, underpinned by the idea that 'reducing energy consumption within housing offers opportunities for reimagining the relationship between our built environment and the climate.'

 Freya Spencer-Wood

Freya Spencer-Wood is an interdisciplinary designer and researcher working on set design, land politics and queer identity. A 2019 graduate of TU Delft, she is Associate Lecturer at Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins, her previous experiences include the V&A design studio, We Made That, East and JA Projects, with whom she collaborated on a wide range of exhibition, public realm, community engagement, urban strategy and policy-making projects. 

Her Design Museum research will explore Scotland’s lack of sun, wet climate and peatland restoration, viewing is as 'an opportunity for impactful climate action and equitable land reform.' Recognising 'the inherent link between spatial and climate justice,' she will investigate bogs as queer spaces; often misunderstood, in-between landscapes, they become the starting point for a research into the potential of greater intersectionality in landscape policy, 'to expand engagement with the socio-spatial and political crisis of the climate emergency.'

designmuseum.org

'Skateboard' at the Design Museum (20 October 2023 - 2 June 2024) is a new exhibition charting the history of skateboard design from the 1950s to today. 

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Olivares, who also conceived a 3.5ft mini skate ramp with an 8ft extension for the museum's spaces, in collaboration with Betongpark, among Europe’s industry leaders in skatepark design and construction. Olivares' research into the discipline's design and history is also the subject of a Phaidon book, published later in 2023.

'Skateboard' at Design Museum

The exhibition embodies the spirit of the Design Museum as a space of connection through design. 'We are really pleased to be unveiling the newest skateable ramp in London, and what we think might be the first mini-ramp the public can skate on inside any major UK museum,' says Design Museum director Tim Marlowe. 'This is a really dynamic and important part of our skateboard show as it speaks to the ways in which skaters have long repurposed aspects of the built environment, and poetically reinterpreted the function they were designed for.'

The exhibition comprises over 100 rare and unique boards, as well as objects, tapes, magazines and ephemera from some of the movement's most memorable moments. 'The display,' reads a note from the museum, 'shows the skateboard technical developments alongside its evolving social acceptance.' 

The exhibition was created with the support of California's Skateboarding Hall of Fame Museum, opened in 1997 as the first museum dedicated to the discipline, and Nick Halkias, a Skateboard archivist & collector whose collection includes historical skateboards and apparel.  

Displayed in chronological succession throughout the exhibition, the history of skateboard culture on show spans from 1950s sidewalk surfing to the development of the industry in the 70s up to the admission of the discipline to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Notable objects include the early home-made boards and Tony Hawk’s first ever professional model skateboard from the 1980s among others. 

'Skateboard design history is a grey area, recorded in printed and video magazines, YouTube channels, blogs, podcasts, books, Instagram posts and oral histories from those who lived it,' says Olivares. 'While skateboarding history is the incalculable sum of the hours spent by individuals skating, skateboard history is finite, limited to the vast number of skateboards that have been made. This exhibition is centred around a single question: how did the skateboard get to be the way it is?'

Adds Marlowe: 'With the global skate community today reaching 85 million, and with the sport’s inclusion in Paris 2024 likely to push that number even higher, now is the perfect time to be hosting this exhibition at the world’s leading museum for contemporary design. This is a story of design, performance and communities evolving together.'

'Skateboard' is on view at the Design Museum from 20 October 2023 to 2 June 2024

Exhibition ticket holders who have some prior experience of skateboarding are invited to book a free slot to be able to skate on the ramp as part of their visit. There will be two open skate slots available every day, with three on Saturdays. 

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

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In 2024, London’s Design Museum will host a retrospective looking back at Barbie’s history to celebrate the doll’s 65th anniversary. The Barbie exhibition will be curated by Design Museum curator Danielle Thom and cover the history of Barbie design through fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicles, among other elements.

Barbie exhibition at Design Museum: the design story of a cultural icon

The much-anticipated Barbie exhibition has been three years in the making: the Design Museum team has been given access to the Barbie archives in California to chart the history of the cultural icon. Within the exhibition will be rare and unique items from the archives as well as museum acquisitions and private loans that together will map the story of the iconic brand. 

The story of Barbie started in 1959, when Ruth Handler decided to create a doll that would serve as a toy but also a model for her daughter Barbara, giving her a narrative that differed from what was available to children at the time. 

Over the years, Barbie has become the centre of a unique cultural movement that has given kids everywhere the chance to challenge stereotypes and imagine a wider web of professional and personal possibilities while experimenting with design through iconic Barbie Dreamhouses, diverse fashion and more. 

The story of Barbie started in 1959, when Ruth Handler decided to create a doll that would serve as a toy but also a model for her daughter Barbara, giving her a narrative that differed from what was available to children at the time. 

Over the years, Barbie has become the centre of a unique cultural movement that has given kids everywhere the chance to challenge stereotypes and imagine a wider web of professional and personal possibilities while experimenting with design through iconic Barbie Dreamhouses, diverse fashion and more. 

'Barbie is one of the most recognisable brands on the planet and as we’ve seen recently, her story evolves with each new generation,' said Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum. 'I am delighted that we can announce that we’re planning to mark Barbie’s 65th birthday with a major exhibition, and I want to thank Mattel for collaborating with us through their extensive archive to help us tell this story. We look forward next year to displaying a whole range of eye-catching objects, some familiar but many never seen before, to showcase the evolution of design across the decades of Barbie’s world.'

'Barbie' is going to be on view 5 July 2024 – 23 February 2025, tickets will go on sale from Spring 2024

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

designmuseum.org

‘There’s been chatter about the death of email for over a decade, and every time there’s a new thing, “experts” speculate on its extinction; see: SMS, social media, and instant messaging platforms,’ muses Christian Widlic, group creative director at Intuit Mailchimp, an email and marketing automations platform for growing businesses. ‘With the rapid expansion of AI that’s happening, we found the chatter about the death of email to be, quite frankly, hilarious. In fact, with the help of AI, our inboxes are becoming increasingly personalised, helping marketers reach the right audience with the right message at the right time. In essence, email is becoming smarter than it’s ever been.’

It is a subject that forms the core of the Design Museum’s new exhibition, ‘Email is Dead’, though the Intuit Mailchimp team are quick to reassure us they are not, in fact, mourning email, but rather celebrating its longevity over the last 50 years. Its journey is traced in the exhibition, which encourages visitors to touch, listen, look at and even smell email throughout the decades.

‘Email is Dead’ at London’s Design Museum

‘Our core concept was to “make the mundane magnificent”, and we knew early on that we wanted to make this experience feel immersive with tangible, interactive touchpoints. Some of our favourite art experiences are extremely interactive and engaging, like laying down in a Turrell skyspace, or walking through a Richard Serra sculpture. For us to achieve this we really had to take a 360-view of email. One big question for us was what does email look, smell, feel and sound like? And we put a lot of intention into exploring those themes throughout the exhibition. 

‘The whole exhibit is interactive, but some of our favourite moments are the email-personality-test-machine, which discovers what kind of emailer you really are. In looking at the future of email, we are displaying inventions that might tackle some of emails flaws – like your dreaded piles of unanswered emails or the temptation to fire off an email that really shouldn’t be sent – and offered up dreamy cures like an Inbox Elixir (recipe included) or an Email Therapy Machine for everyday problems.’

Synthesised sounds of the familiar whoosh and ding, a scent developed with Something Special Studios and Tatiana Godoy Betancur, and a celebration of the typeface used in the first email sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 are just some of the immersive facets of the experience. ‘We wanted to bring email to life in that same bright and playful way, using sculpture and digital content to amplify the joyfulness of the executions using a variety of scale, surprise, and imagination,’ Widlic adds. ‘And while the playfulness helps visually to tell the story, we think visitors will be pleasantly surprised at just how much email helps shape our work lives, relationships, cultures and economies.’

‘Email is Dead’ at the Design Museum, 28 September – 22 October 2023, designmuseum.org

In 1993, the UK was in the depths of a brutal recession. Unemployment was high, the economy was stagnant, and the city’s creative institutions were suffering. With London Fashion Week reduced to a smattering of shows that year, the British Fashion Council decided to throw the city’s young designers a lifeline: inviting them to present their collections on clothing rails at The Ritz. One of these designers was Lee Alexander McQueen, whose subversive collection ‘Taxi Driver’ was crafted from fabric bought with dole money out of his council flat in Tooting Bec, where he lived with printmaker Simon Ungless. Taking inspiration from the clubs, pubs, energy and exploits in the city as a young gay man, his display marked the arrival of an affrontingly rebellious talent that would impact London fashion forever. ‘If you leave without emotion, then I’m not doing my job properly,’ McQueen once said of his visceral shows. ‘I want you to leave repulsed or exhilarated: as long as it’s an emotion.’

Inside ‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ at the Design Museum

Three decades later, and that informal event at The Ritz has evolved to become the behemoth that is the BFC’s Newgen programme, a fashion incubator that has helped forge the careers of over 300 designers in Britain, from McQueen himself to Kim Jones, Grace Wales Bonner to Christopher Kane. Curated by Sarah Mower and sponsored by Alexander McQueen, a sprawling new exhibition at the Design Museum, titled ‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’, celebrates the initiative’s anniversary and the fearless creative forces that it has nurtured. 

A vast collection of designs, video footage and ephemera is thoughtfully grouped in its rooms, which tell the stories of the young minds who have transformed contemporary British fashion through raw explorations of identity, calls for social change and sustainable innovation. As the exhibition notes state, these are makers who have ‘predicted new ways to dress, and new ways to be’.

Rather than unfolding chronologically, ‘Rebel’ presents an immersion into the places from which this creativity has sprung, taking visitors on a journey through the capital’s fashion schools to sweaty dance floors and the runway itself. ‘There are so many memories and powerful fashion moments from the last 30 years scattered throughout this exhibition,’ Caroline Rush, chief executive of the BFC, says of the show, which includes culturally significant pieces such as McQueen’s provocative 1990s ‘bumster’ trousers, the infamous swan dress Björk wore to the 2001 Oscars, by Marjan Pejoski, and a floral gown from the collection Richard Quinn presented in front of Queen Elizabeth II in 2018. 

‘It transports me back to the 1990s when I was 20 years old, blagging my way into a Lee McQueen show without a ticket. I am truly blown away by the incredible craftsmanship, diversity, culture and creativity on display – it is a true testament to UK fashion, and I encourage everyone to go see it for themselves,’ adds Rush.

Beyond headline-grabbing designs, ‘Rebel’ also shines a light on moments of quiet resistance and personal discovery. Molly Goddard’s shockingly blue, seven-tiered tulle dress floats proudly above the ‘Art School’ section, under which the designer looks back at her days as a student: ‘I remember my tutor Sarah Gresty saying, “Just go bigger, explore!” It was very much fun, realising there was no kind of limit.’

Elsewhere, the show displays a look from a Craig Green collection which reduced an entire audience to tears; a specially commissioned film directed by Priya Ahluwalia that documents how five designers grew their brands from bedrooms into businesses; and a booming club room in which archival footage from parties and underground raves plays on loop, recognising the immense influence of music and nightlife on London fashion. 

‘Being a part of Newgen was such a whirlwind experience,’ designer Bianca Saunders tells Wallpaper*. ‘Seeing the exhibition made me look back on how far I’ve come.’ An array of the designer’s works appears in the exhibit, including a moving documentary film investigating Black masculinity shot during her MA at the Royal College of Art, and her standout A/W 2020 collection inspired by Jamaican dancehall, which ignored the typically static presentation format to see models dancing in partitioned booths. 

‘I wanted them to dance like they were enjoying themselves in their own spaces. It was very sexy, and it captured the feeling of the clothes. It was at 9am, and I remember Sarah Mower being a little bit shocked – but in a good way, because she remembers it so well. She wanted it to be in the exhibition.’

Newgen was founded in dire economic times not too dissimilar to those we are living through now. Darkness, it seems, always sparks new light in creativity and acts of rebellion, pushing ideas forward for a better future. The cohort that makes up 2023’s Newgen programme is testament to this grit and ingenuity, from Sinead O’Dwyer’s celebration of body shapes rarely seen on the runway, to British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker’s pioneering marriage of sportswear shapes and hijabi dress. 

‘The more you show who you are, the more interesting the work becomes,’ Saunders says, reflecting on what makes London such a special place for emerging talent. ‘People from all over come here and want to tell a story about where they came from, who they are as people, and I think that's very important.’

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ at London’s Design Museum, sponsored by Alexander McQueen, runs from 6 September 2023 – 11 February 2024.

designmuseum.org

Announced this morning, ‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ (September 16 2023 – 11 February 2024) at the Design Museum will celebrate three decades of trailblazing designers who have lived and worked in the British capital. 

Sponsored by Alexander McQueen and created in association with the British Fashion Council’s Newgen incubator scheme – which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2023 – the display of more than 100 looks will feature boundary-pushing works from designers and brands including Christopher Kane, Craig Green, JW Anderson, Meadham Kirchhoff, Matty Bovan and Wales Bonner.

Each is defined, say the organisers, by a ‘fearless’ approach to design, the exhibition itself offering ‘an unprecedented look at how careers in fashion are forged, and the multitude of opportunities London’s fashion scene offers young creatives’. Several of the items have not been on display since their presentation.

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ at the Design Museum

Exhibition highlights include Björk’s infamous ‘swan’ dress, designed by Central Saint Martins alum Marjan Pejoski and worn by the musician to the 2001 Oscars (the look even saw her ’lay an egg’ on the red carpet). The dress will be on display in the UK for the first time, alongside other memorable pop culture fashion moments – like a ruffled blue Molly Goddard dress worn by Rihanna in 2017. Both Pejowski and Goddard were part of Newgen, which provides funds and mentorship for emerging British designers.

‘It is impossible to underestimate the influence London has on Britain’s fashion talent a city that produces wave-after-wave of young designers that value originality, wearing what you believe in, and tackling social issues to make a better world,’ says guest curator Sarah Mower MBE, the BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent, who will work alongside Design Museum senior curator Rebecca Lewin on the display.

‘This landmark exhibition will take visitors on a remarkable journey through London’s creative landscape, and to all the locations where all this fashion magic happens,’ she continues. ‘The city’s art schools, clubs and catwalks will be brought to life like never before.’

As such, the exhibition is divided into various sections:  ‘Art School’, showing objects relating to London’s art educational institutions, ‘Backstage Pass’, a look behind-the-scenes of a runway show, and ‘Runway’, which promises a front-row seat to some of the past three decades’ most memorable runway shows.

‘We are delighted to be collaborating with the British Fashion Council to showcase and explore the youthful energy, creative vision and rebellious spirit that is so central to their Newgen programme,’ adds Tim Marlow, Design Museum director and CEO.

‘Visitors are going to be stunned by many of the instantly recognisable fashion items on show, but we hope they’ll also be captivated by the breadth, depth, diversity and world-class talent that has emerged from the London fashion scene in the past three decades.’

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ will coincide with the S/S 2024 edition of London Fashion Week, opening on September 16 2023 and running until 11 February 2024. Tickets are available from today, here.

‘Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion’ will run at London’s Design Museum from September 16 2023 – 11 February 2024.

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Students from Reading’s Piggott School won the Design Ventura 2023 competition with a proposal for a 3D architectural puzzle. Titled ‘Stack It!’, the wooden puzzle comes with a series of challenge cards inviting users to create different tasks. Over the next few months, the puzzle will be developed for manufacture and later sold at the Design Museum Shop in London for around £15, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.

For Design Ventura 2023, students from secondary schools across the UK were invited to conceive and develop products based on the theme of 'Place', and their work was assessed by a jury. This was led by brief-setter Selasi Setufe, senior architect Innovative Sites manager at BeFirst and co-founder of Black Females in Architecture, and included: Sujata Burman, editor at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale; designer Sebastian Conran; Preena Patel, buying and merchandising manager at the Design Museum; and Christoph Woermann, chief marketing officer for Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank division.

'The first time I considered a career in design was whilst I was at secondary school, and I am glad the Design Ventura experience is inspiring a new generation of designers and entrepreneurs,' says Setufe. 'Whilst the competition was tough, The Piggott School stood out for their 3D architectural puzzle structure, 'Stack It!'. The product is both visually striking and socially responsive, with a focus on their target audience’s needs.'

Adds Tim Marlow, CEO and director at the Design Museum: 'Design Ventura is now in its 13th year and I’m always so impressed by the level of creativity and business acumen shown by all the student teams. The programme does fantastic work in helping children to develop business knowledge as well as nurturing creativity and placing design back on their curriculum. Every day at the Design Museum we see first-hand the important role that creativity and design plays in a child’s education and we’re so glad to be able to encourage school kids across the UK to develop these skills whilst gaining valuable business experience.'

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Ahead of his major show at London’s Design Museum, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has unveiled a homage to Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, constructed entirely of Lego. 

The piece, titled Water Lilies #1, is Ai’s largest Lego artwork to date, spanning 15m in length and comprising 650,000 studs of Lego bricks in 22 colours.

The new work will be on view as part of the Design Museum’s much-anticipated exhibition ‘Ai Weiwei: Making Sense’, which opens on Friday 7 April, and will be the artist’s first exhibition to focus on design and architecture, as well as his largest solo show in eight years. 

In Water Lilies #1, Ai probes notions of reality and artifice. Although Monet’s word-famous painting represents the epitome of natural beauty, the pond and gardens he depicts were in fact a man-made construct, designed and created by Monet himself at the turn of the 20th century. In Ai’s work, the Lego bricks eliminate the humanistic gesture of Monet’s brushstrokes in favour of a simplified, depersonalised language of pixel-like parts and colours. Through this, Ai comments on contemporary modes of digital image consumption, and all that might be lost in the process. 

As Ai Weiwei commented, ‘Our world is complex and collapsing towards an unpredictable future. It's crucial for individuals to find a personalised language to express their experience of these challenging conditions. Personalised expression arises from identifying with history and memories while creating a new language and narrative. Without a personal narrative, artistic narration loses its quality. In Water Lilies #1 I integrate Monet's Impressionist painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the East, and concrete experiences of my father and me into a digitised and pixelated language. Toy bricks as the material, with their qualities of solidity and potential for deconstruction, reflect the attributes of language in our rapidly developing era where human consciousness is constantly dividing.’ 

Ai Weiwei first deployed Lego bricks as an art medium in 2014 when he used them to create portraits of political prisoners. Now a key element of his practice, Lego will also feature heavily in the Design Museum show, most notably in Untitled (Lego Incident) which will see thousands of Lego blocks fill the gallery floor. Ai sourced the materials for the work (seen fully assembled for the first time at the Design Museum) via public donations from around the world, in response to Lego briefly refusing to sell their products to him in 2014. 

Justin McGuirk, Chief Curator at the Design Museum and curator of ‘Ai Weiwei: Making Sense’ said: ‘Several of the works in this exhibition capture the destruction of urban development in China over the last two decades. With Water Lilies #1, Ai Weiwei presents us with an alternate vision – a garden paradise.’ McGuirk also describes how Ai has embedded a more poignant narrative into the piece: a dark portal on the right-hand side, representing the door to the underground dugout in Xinjiang province where Ai and his father, the acclaimed poet Ai Qing, lived in forced exile in the 1960s. ‘On the one hand, he has personalised it by inserting the door of his desert childhood home, and on the other, he has depersonalised it by using an industrial language of modular Lego blocks. This is a monumental, complex and powerful work and we are proud to be the first museum to show it.’

‘Ai Weiwei: Making Sense’ runs at the Design Museum from 7 April-30 July 2023. designmuseum.org

London-based Italian designer Marco Campardo is the winner of the Design Museum’s second edition of The Ralph Saltzman Prize, an annual award for emerging designers. As part of the prize, Campardo is being awarded a £5,000 bursary, while the museum will present his work through a solo exhibition from 2 February until 3 April 2023.

The award was established in 2022, when it was won by British designer Mac Collins. Created as a legacy to Ralph Saltzman, it became a way to offer emerging designers an opportunity to expand their work and reach, through a financial contribution and the exposure of an exhibition. Ralph Saltzman was the co-founder and chairman of Designtex, and through his company, he championed many innovations in design and sustainability. 

Marco Campardo: Ralph Saltzman Prize winner 2023

‘Marco is a fitting winner of the prize: his work is very of the moment and visually arresting,’ says Lisa Saltzman, Ralph Saltzman’s daughter and the force behind the award’s establishment. ‘He is using a lot of waste material and showing a clear sustainability narrative. His idea of reusing and the focus on sustainability is utterly compelling. This is something my father was doing over 20 years ago, so he is continuing that legacy.’

Campardo is best known for his ‘Jello’ series of furniture, part of a solo exhibition at design gallery Riviera, curated by Simpleflair and shown during Fuorisalone 2022. The exhibition, the designer noted, ‘explored the ways in which objects can be generated by shaping systems of production and making, rather than focusing on individual form-giving’. Made of UV-resistant polyurethane resin in a series of bright hues, the simple shapes of the designs were achieved with a low-tech mould, leaving traces of the process on the final object.

But Campardo’s material reach also includes furniture made of reclaimed Alpi wood, safety glass, brass, and, most recently, expanded clay and sugar, for Selfridges’ 'Visions for the Future’. Campardo was nominated by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the award’s shortlist being put together by five established designers and studios.

‘I am extremely honoured to have received The Ralph Saltzman Prize,’ comments Campardo. ‘Having moved to London from Italy and set up my practice in 2019, the fact my work has been recognised by the judging panel is extremely humbling, as well as an encouragement for the future development of my work. The fact that the Design Museum has decided to reward work that is often speculative and sits somewhat outside the canon of industrial design is perhaps a testament to the richness of the contemporary design landscape. I would also like to thank Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for nominating me for this prize, giving me this unexpected but incredibly exciting opportunity to showcase my work to the wider public, and to Lisa Saltzman for making it all possible.’

Concludes Justin McGuirk, chair of judges for The Ralph Saltzman Prize, and chief curator at the Design Museum: ‘We are delighted that Marco has won this year’s Saltzman Prize. His practice spans an impressively diverse range of approaches, including inventive uses for waste materials. The way he creates small-scale versions of industrial processes is particularly intriguing. Whatever his process, the outcomes are always alluring.’

The exhibition of Marco Campardo's work will be on show from 2 February until 3 April 2023.

224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG

marcocampardo.com
designmuseum.org

‘A smiling face dispels unhappiness.’ This is but one of the many Nigerian sayings that can be found in the Design Museum’s new exhibition ‘Yinka Ilori: Parables of Happiness'. Open from until 25 June 2023, the free display charts the creative journey of British-Nigerian designer, Yinka Ilori. Skilfully weaving together furniture, graphic design, and architecture the show invites visitors to engage with West African culture.

Bursting with colour, the solo show follows Ilori's unconventional voyage into the world of design. Here visitors can view his community-focused commissions, murals, and installations. Projects such as the vibrant play area ‘The Flamboyance of Flamingos’ and early career furniture can be seen alongside more notable work such as a sample of the maze-like 2021 BRIT Awards stage. In the exhibition, visitors can watch a short film on the ‘Brick Laundrette of Dreams’ made from 200,000 LEGO pieces and find out about the now dismantled ‘Colour Palace’ Dulwich pavilion, while learning about Ilori’s humble upbringing in North London.

The exhibition showcases over 100 items which include a selection of artworks, fabrics and key reference material that help give context to Ilori’s work. As you meander around the Design Museum, a copy of the discontinued Black lifestyle magazine DRUM can be seen paired with British rapper Kano’s debut album Home Sweet Home. ‘I remember looking outside my window dreaming of design as a kid and playing ‘Sometimes,’ ‘P&Qs,’ ‘Reload it’,’ says Ilori.

In the display, a traditional talking drum named the Dùndún can be found on the same level as a striking maquette by Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez. These objects provide an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of Ilori. The Design Museum worked with the designer to acquire pieces such as the elegant Washington Skeleton Side Chair designed by Sir David Adjaye for its permanent collection to showcase furniture that inspires the British-Nigerian designer in the exhibition. Adjaye has acted as a mentor to Ilori and encouraged him to tap into his West African heritage throughout his work.

One of the most powerful parts of the exhibition is Ilori’s gold name badge from when he worked at British retailer Marks & Spencer. It is a powerful reminder for designers to not give up or stop pursuing their dreams. ‘I grew up in a council estate in North London and I think sometimes people see what I am doing now but don’t quite know my story’ says Ilori.

At the heart of the exhibition is the belief that art and design should be accessible to all. For this reason, the display is in the atrium of the Design Museum, a democratic zone that is free for visitors. ‘If you are going to tell a story about inclusive design then there isn’t a better space to show it’ says Design Museum Head of Curatorial, Pryia Khanchandani. ‘I want museums to be accessible for people like me and I want to open doors for kids that have a passion for design,’ states Ilori.

‘Yinka Ilori: Parables of Happiness’ celebrates the designer’s rich portfolio of work while unpacking the key components of his iconic visual language. ‘The exhibition is a clever fusion of cultural references that demonstrate that Ilori’s work goes much deeper than simply injecting colour into spaces’ states Khanchandani. The display shows the world that Ilori’s projects aren't simply an exercise in colour but a powerful amalgamation of Black identity and West African culture. The carefully curated show illustrates how Ilori uses design to evoke feelings of empowerment, hope, and love and aims to put a smile on the face of its visitors.

INFORMATION

'Yinka Ilori: Parables of Happiness' is on view until 25 June 2023
designmuseum.org
yinkailori.com

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British designer Mac Collins is the winner of the Design Museum’s inaugural Ralph Saltzman Prize, an annual award for emerging designers. As part of the prize, Collins will be awarded a £5,000 bursary, and will show his work at a solo exhibition at the Design Museum, from 2 February until 2 April 2022. 

The Design Museum’s Ralph Saltzman Prize

‘I created The Ralph Saltzman Prize as a legacy to my father,’ says Lisa Saltzman. Ralph Saltzman was the co-founder and chairman of Designtex, and through his company, he championed many innovations in design and sustainability. ‘The Prize will be a way to give young designers an opportunity, an honorarium and a show,' she continues. 'Mac is a worthy winner. In addition to the aesthetic quality, Mac brings personal narratives into his work and considers his practice as an exploration of his identity within the African Diaspora, and that is interesting.’

The work of Mac Collins

Collins was nominated by designers Kim Colin and Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility, and was chosen by a jury chaired by Justin McGuirk, chief curator at the Design Museum. Collins’ work was selected for the personal approach to his designs, and for his ability, McGuirk notes, to ‘break away from paradigms and introduce clean decisions: there is something quite strong in his processes as a designer’.

Collins graduated from Northumbria University, Newcastle, in 2018. Through his work, he explores personal and cultural narratives, in particular his own identity and Caribbean heritage.

Collins’ graduate project, the ‘Iklwa’ chair, was acquired by Benchmark and produced by the British brand as a collection that includes two chairs and a table. Collins was also part of Discovered, an initiative from Wallpaper* and AHEC, supporting the work of emerging designers through mentorship, the manufacturing of their design, and an exhibition at the Design Museum. In September 2021, Collins was awarded the Emerging Design Medal during London Design Festival.

‘It is an honour to receive the inaugural Ralph Saltzman Prize at the Design Museum,’ says Collins. ‘The bursary provides a degree of financial, and thus creative, freedom to communicate a current narrative through a new collection of works. This accolade also provides a physical platform to present work within an institution that carries considerable weight.’

INFORMATION

designmuseum.org
maccollins.com

‘Of all the products of human hands, [waste] is the oeuvre that no one wants to own, discuss or preferably even see,’ says Justin McGuirk, chief curator of the Design Museum, as the institution unveils ‘Waste Age: What Can Design Do?’ (until 20 February 2022). Co-curated by McGuirk alongside Gemma Curtin, the exhibition coincides with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and features the work of design visionaries and pioneers of new ways of repurposing and reinventing our relationship with waste.

The waste problem

The exhibition opens with a section titled ‘Peak Waste’, highlighting the environmental and waste cost of mass production. Considering landfills, mass production, and throwaway culture through history and design, the display culminates in a timeline exploring humanity’s relationship with waste from the 1700s until today. 

The timeline in particular offers a sense of the urgency of the problem, as the issues of production, consumption and waste become more multifaceted and complex in contemporary history. ‘We must face the problem of waste – we can no longer ignore what happens to things when we get rid of them,’ says Curtin. 

Designing with waste

After walking through data and images that might give visitors a sense of facts-induced doom, the exhibition opens up (literally and figuratively) into a hall filled with ideas, proposals, prototypes and hope. This section, divided into ‘Precious Waste’ (celebrating the designers repurposing leftover materials in their work) and ‘Post Waste’ (exploring ways in which waste can be repurposed for design) is where things turn optimistic, highlighting how designers, makers and creatives are addressing the issue with practical solutions. 

‘Instead of thinking of objects as things that have an end life, this exhibition proposes that they can have many lives,’ says Curtin. 

The pieces on display demonstrate the breadth and depth of the design industry’s involvement in tackling the waste problem, from Formafantasma’s ‘Ore Streams’ investigations to Christien Meindertsma’s ‘Renoleum’ project, to Drift’s ‘Materialism’, the result of ongoing research into materials (from steel and rubber tomato oil and porcelain) and their appearance. 

The ‘Precious Waste’ section exhibits range from fashion by Stella McCartney, and Adidas x Parley for the Oceans, to recycled plastic furniture designs by the likes of Soft Baroque, James Shaw and Jasper Morrison for Emeco, and PriestmanGoode’s ‘Zero’ takeaway packaging design. Bricks, tiles and other construction materials are also featured, as are projects that look at repurposing architectural structures in the spirit of adapting and repairing. 

‘Post Waste’, on the other hand, includes the ongoing work by designers who are working with materials such as mycelium, rice husks, fish-farming and agricultural waste. This section includes innovations such as Faber Futures' ‘Project Coelicolor’, or Fernando Laposse’s agave and corn husk waste furniture. 

‘Design has helped create our wasteful society, and it will be crucial in building a cleaner future,’ says McGuirk. ‘That means rethinking the lifestyles and materials that do so much damage. This optimistic exhibition demonstrates the energy and ingenuity being applied to the challenge – and we want it to mark a turning point. There is so much we can do, but it begins with understanding our waste.’

Specially commissioned installations

Aurora, by Arthur Mamou-Mani, in partnership with Dassault Systèmes

Suspended from the Design Museum’s soaring atrium is a 3D-printed modular installation by London-based French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani, a pioneer in additive manufacturing. The architect, who has created 3D-printed architecture for the likes of Burning Man and Milan Design Week, has on this occasion devised a cascading curtain of some 300 modules, printed from bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA), a non-toxic thermoplastic derived from sugarcane. Titled Aurora, it’s an example of how design, science and industry can come together and enable us to produce more sustainably.

With gentle variations in form and opacity, the alluringly patterned modules are testament the capabilities of parametric design and 3D-printing; their relatively small size and simple metallic rods that hold them in place ensure that they can be easily dismantled and reassembled at another location, or repurposed as room dividers once the exhibition ends. Spotlights have been strategically placed around the installation, filtering through the translucent modules to create playful patterns of light and shadow across the atrium floor. 

An accompanying display on the mezzanine level includes statistics that illustrate the virtues of PLA – compared to ABS, a petroleum-derived thermoplastic, it requires less water, minerals and metals, and comes with less risk of respiratory and carcinogenic effects. A 3D-printer and plastic crusher are installed adjacent, so visitors can witness the modules being crushed, melted and reformed, as PLA is recycled and printed again in a continuous loop.

Says Mamou-Mani of the presentation: ‘It’s crucial that designers start thinking beyond the time frame of their projects, where the material came from, where it is going, how it can be reconfigured. The entire lifecycle needs to be taken into consideration. Aurora demonstrates that this is possible today, if only we adjust our thinking.’

Fadama 40, by Ibrahim Mahama

Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, known for transforming materials gathered in urban environments into ambitious installations that explore migration, trade and exploitation, has created a new installation for ‘Waste Age’. Titled Fadama 40, it comprises 40 CRT television sets salvaged from Agbogbloshie, the world’s largest electronic waste dump, situated outside the city of Accra.

Agbogbloshie is a consequence of the developed world’s infatuation with the new – in our aggressive pursuit of sleeker, faster, slimmer electronic devices, we rarely hesitate to throw out older versions. Many of our old electronics end up here, imported as ‘secondhand consumer products’, then improperly disposed of, causing widespread pollution and chronic illness. Mahama’s installation, which has the 40 TVs arranged into a gigantic media wall, suggests the enormity of the issue, but also points to the toil and ingenuity of Agogbloshie’s scrap dealers, recyclers and makers.

On some of the screens, we see video footage of people using rudimentary methods to extract copper from electric wires, burning the plastic insulation and creating toxic fumes in the process. Mahama has used this recovered copper to create new frames for the TVs, offering physical evidence of the possibility of renewal but also pointing to its human cost.

Not enough people take the time to understand the people of Agbogbloshie, explained Mahama in a talk at the Design Museum shortly before the opening of ‘Waste Age’. They have often been stereotyped, their home likened to Sodom and Gomorrah. He hopes that the installation will give visitors a renewed sense of perspective, a greater appreciation for the hard labour that goes into recycling, as well as a heightened awareness of the global implications of our relentless consumption.

INFORMATION

‘Waste Age: What Can Design Do?’ is on view until 20 February 2022
designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

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Wallpaper* and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) reveal the results of Discovered, the collaborative platform to promote and support design’s next generation. On show at the Design Museum (13 September – 10 October 2021), the exhibition presents the work of twenty young designers from 16 countries who were tasked with creating new objects in wood, inspired by their pandemic experience to represent the functional and emotional connections to our everyday items.

‘To be able to create an opportunity that gives a platform to a new generation of designers, to express their ideas and communicate their approach to today’s challenges and, at the same time, introduce them to important sustainable materials and connect them to some of the most skilled making workshops, feels absolutely the right thing to be doing,’ says AHEC’s European director David Venables, who led the project alongside Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas and a quartet of international mentors – Tomoko Azumi, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska, Adam Markowitz and Nathan Yong. 

‘Emerging designers from across the globe have experienced personal and professional challenges during the pandemic, and the 20 young practitioners have produced a collective display that is inspiring and which shows the resilience and ingenuity of creative design,’ comments Tim Marlow, chief executive and director of the Design Museum. 

Over the course of several months, each designer developed a piece in collaboration with specialist workshops, working with a specially selected palette of woods. American red oak, cherry, hard and soft maple were chosen for their tactile and visual appeal, and to address the sustainable opportunity of designing with underused and widely available timber that grows abundantly in the American hardwood forests, and has incredible design and performance potential.

‘The environmental case for using more American hardwood in design is totally compelling; low impact, carbon storing, sustainable for the long term and, most importantly, they can provide the performance demanded by good design, as the Discovered collection truly demonstrates,’ says Venables.

The designers’ approaches to the project varied, highlighting different pandemic experiences and exploring how lockdowns and isolation impacted on local cultural practices.

‘Although there was a brief, it was a reflection on lockdown, and on the pandemic world and how we move out of that,’ comments British designer Mac Collins (winner of LDF’s Emerging Design Medal), whose ‘Concur’ chair celebrated ‘romanticised connotations of contentment, serenity, contemplation and a sense of withdrawal from the rigmarole of socially prescribed routine’.

For Adelaide-based Ivana Taylor, the pandemic was a moment of ‘really precious quiet time, and mental spaciousness’ during which her practice developed towards a more sculptural approach. This is evidenced in her ‘Reframe’ series of ‘contemplative sculptural objects that triggered reflection on the multi-layered nature of any experience, including isolation’.

Designers involved their families in the design process as they were working from their homes, and were inspired by mundane experiences and everyday life, the desire to connect with nature and the outdoors, and their personal responses spanned both a desire for public connection and an affinity for isolation. 

‘This is a time when the next generation needs support more than ever,’ says Sarah Douglas. ‘We are honoured to partner with AHEC and the Design Museum in presenting Discovered, to ensure the designers of tomorrow have the platform they deserve.’

Explore the Discovered projects

Sizar Alexis, Lahmu
Eskilstuna, Sweden
Woods: cherry and scorched red oak

Having lived through the Iraq war in the 1980s, Alexis imagined his home as a bunker, protecting his family and newborn son during the pandemic. Drawing from the similarities between his own childhood experience and his young son’s, his sculptural pieces are defined by stark monolithic forms and stillness, representing the emotional connection to his thoughts in the pandemic. The chunky volumes serve as side tables or stools, and together as a bench or low sideboard, inspired by bunker architecture. Alexis chose two contrasting woods: one half of his piece is in American cherry, for its warmth, and one half is in red oak, its surface burned with a scorching technique.

@sizaralexis

Isabelle Baudraz, Presences
Lausanne, Switzerland / Athens, Greece
Wood: cherry

Fighting a feeling of isolation, Baudraz recreated tactile and emotional connections through her four objects. Inspired by the idea of bringing natural movements and forms into the home, her collection comprises two suspended mobiles, a desk object, and a wall-mounted installation designed to create moments of tactile connection during isolation. Her pieces are made of American cherry: ‘It was an instinctive choice,’ she says. ‘We received all these beautiful samples from AHEC and I was touched by the colour of the cherry and the texture of its grain. I also liked the fact that it was going to evolve and get darker with age.’

@isabellebaudraz

Nong Chotipatoomwan, Thought Bubble
Bangkok, Thailand
Wood: red oak

A nostalgia for travel and social interaction guided Chotipatoomwan’s creative thinking through her project. Physical transitions were replaced with changing states of mind, and the physical realm merged with the psychological realm through domestic space. The designer looked at furniture created for relaxation, and landed on a rocking motion, which became the basis for her chair, offering a mix of relaxation and repetitive movement to enhance mindfulness. She used red oak for the chair, because she was fascinated by its grain. ‘It’s quite expressive and I was interested in its porous nature.’

@nong_kornpetch

Mac Collins, Concur
Newcastle, UK
Wood: cherry

While the term ‘isolation’ has acquired negative meaning over the past 18 months, Collins takes a more positive view. ‘For me, the word has always carried romanticised connotations of contentment, serenity, contemplation and a sense of withdrawal from the rigmarole of socially prescribed routine,’ he says. During his time alone, books became precious companions, and this inspired him to create a place for reflection and reading. His lounge chair and bookrest, a ‘companion object’, encourage the sitter to tune out of daily life and focus on an analogue task. Collins chose cherry for his chair, aiming to create a welcoming, warm and inviting piece.

@maccollins__

Pascal Hien, Migo 01
Berlin, Germany
Wood: red oak

‘The pandemic was a time for pause and reflection, when we became more present with ourselves and our surroundings,’ observes Hien. His object, a multifunctional stool, is the result of his reflections during a time of change and uncertainty, as he learned to adapt and tune out of his fast-paced life. The stool represents a period of constant change: ‘You can adapt it in various ways, there is no front or back, no right or wrong.’ It’s a helper around the house or a place to sit. He chose red oak for its strength and worked on a design with a rational construction: each chair is made from a single plank of red oak (so you get consistency of grain), and its parts are held together with dovetails. While living with his family during the pandemic, Hien involved them in the testing of the piece, for the first time making them a part of his design work.

@pascal_hien

Kodai Iwamoto, Pari Pari
Tokyo, Japan
Wood: red oak

For his project, Iwamoto researched traditional Japanese techniques, such as uzukuri (giving texture to wood by scrubbing) and chouna (chiselling the surface with an adze), and then started experimenting directly on the wood, peeling its layers to create a new veneer. Working with red oak, he peeled it by cutting the panel’s edge and removing the surface by hand, resulting in a jagged effect where the texture of the grain emerges. These imperfectly textured panels became the starting point for a design exploration that led him to a round table shape, using the subtle material as a base to create the effect of an ancient tree trunk.

@kodaiiwamoto

Josh Krute, Toteemi
Helsinki, Finland
Wood: hard maple

Inspired by totems (toteemi meaning ‘totem’ in Finnish), Krute created a multifunctional storage system. As domestic spaces get taken over by work materials during time at home, Krute imagined a series of stackable boxes to stow work supplies and small objects, while other components serve as a side table, tray or stools. The design features a ‘lip’ that serves as a handle, and each box has a different colour on the inside, providing them with a distinguishable character; Krute chose hard maple because of its light hue and ability to take colour. The modular system explores tactile wooden objects, birdhouses and small structures, which Krute streamlined into a compact, practical design. ‘Toteemi provides solutions for how we delve between living and working in the same environment,’ he says.

@josh_krute

Siyanda Mazibuko, Kumsuka (Evolve Your Space)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Wood: thermally modified red oak

The inspirations for Mazibuko’s piece include isicholo, a hairstyle symbolising tribal identity in several African cultures, and indlamu, a traditional Zulu dance practised in celebratory ceremonies. He paired these visual references with a reflection on themes of engaging human behaviour, and the role of design in people’s lives. ‘Engaging with other people is an intrinsic human trait,’ he says, citing this as the reason for his design, a modular, layered seat imagined for public spaces. He took a practical approach, looking into ergonomics and function to create his bench, composed of interlocking strips of thermally modified red oak – timber that has been baked to a high temperature, making it suitable for the outdoors.

@_kumsuka_

Mew Mungnatee, Corners Lamp
Bangkok, Thailand
Woods: soft maple and cherry

Mungnatee’s emotional response to the objects surrounding her took in the relationship between form, light and shadow, and with this project, she explored this connection through geometry. Her lamp designs, inspired by pagodas, are based on a bulb casting a shadow over surfaces below thanks to an intricate grid composition featuring wooden slats and indented corners. She worked with soft maple, because of the manner in which light bounces off its surface (‘The wood has an opalescent gleam,’ she explains) and American cherry for its ability to take stain.

@budd.designstudio

Trang Nguyen, The Roof Stool
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Woods: cherry, red oak and hard maple

Nguyen looked at traditional Vietnamese roof tiles for her project, creating a collection of nesting stools that replicate the way the tiles overlap to hide the connecting structures below. Her simple stool design is inspired by traditional temple architecture and Vietnamese dresses, and features pins made of contrasting wood at the joint, which remains hidden when the stools are stacked and is revealed when they are in use. ‘I chose the three different types of wood because of their colour differences,’ explains Nguyen. ‘By randomly using two of the species for the pins and another one for the rest for the stool, users can explore the various timbers when they unstack each piece.’ As people have been spending more time at home, her design is imagined to provide additional seats, while creating a beautiful composition when not in use.

@tra.ng.trang

Alessandra Fumagalli Romario, Studiolo 2.0
Milan, Italy
Wood: cherry

During extensive Zooming, video meetings and Insta-lives, Fumagalli Romario observed people’s curated backgrounds, which got her thinking about ‘the importance of objects as extensions of ourselves: from one side, many boundaries are created, from another, boundaries disappear, private and public are mixed together’. She likened this curated space to the small studioli found in Renaissance paintings, and to cabinets of curiosities. Inspired, she created a visual background, a cabinet to present oneself through objects that may be exhibited or hidden. Adding to its intrigue, she angled the vertical planes that divide the cabinet; together with gradient finishing, this creates the illusion of greater depth. Of her cherry wood choice, she says, ‘I wanted a wood that talked by itself. Also, I love its warm colour. It’s a wood that changes colour quickly if exposed to light. It’s important nowadays to have objects that remind us that they come from nature and change and mutate over time.’

@alessandra.romario

Taiho Shin, Ikare
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Wood: hard maple During his time in isolation, Shin noted that ‘objects help human resilience through unusual situations’, and this thought served as the basis for his project. Guided by the ‘Ikea effect’ (consumers place higher value on products they partially created), he thought of a half-made design that users could partly assemble to foster interaction with their objects. He created one small table, put together thanks to an ingenious but simple-to-use joint system (no glue necessary), and the design multiplies to create a stackable system of shelves, suitable for different spaces. He chose hard maple, as the density of the timber means the joint can be moved in and out without crushing the fibre of the wood.

@taihoshin

Mimi Shodeinde, Howard Desk
London, UK
Wood: hard maple

The pandemic world is all about newness, observes Shodeinde: new dangers, and new ways of interacting, living and working. ‘In designing furniture for this new paradigm,’ she says, ‘we should lean into the familiar and the comforting. We should seek freedom, connection, stability and strength.’ These qualities are to be found in her design: a solid desk whose light forms contrast with the rigorous construction and weight of the wood. The designer looked to a vast pool of cultural references, from the compositions of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth to the modernist architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, and the aerodynamics of flight (pilot Howard Hughes inspired the name of the piece). These influences converged into a sinuous silhouette, a design that challenges the familiar but also offers a sense of safety.

@miminat_designs

Juan Carlos Franco & Juan Santiago Sierra, Riverside Medellin,
Colombia / Barcelona, Spain
Wood: cherry

During isolation, objects change their function and their meaning, and we find ourselves looking for space within our space. This was the observation that kicked off Franco and Sierra’s project, which looks at how our furniture changes purpose and how adaptability is key (in a pandemic as much as in modern living). Inspired by adaptable design (such as the pile dwellings, or stilt houses, in Colombia), they created a bench that suits different needs, thanks to the addition of accessories such as trays, dividers and storage that fuse into a central fissure. This way, the bench becomes a multifunctional space that can adapt to home, workspace or public environment. The designers chose cherry for their piece: ‘We’d never worked with cherry before, and it was a great opportunity to take advantage of that wood,’ says Sierra. ‘Also, we saw what our mentor, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska, did with her table and chair in AHEC’s previous project, Connected. It was made from cherry and it was really beautiful: we loved the grain and the texture.’

@juancarlosfg @juan.santiagosierra

Ivana Taylor, Reframe
Adelaide, Australia
Woods: hard maple, cherry and red oak

Taylor’s own experience of solitude led to extensive periods of reflection, ultimately inspiring her to change her approach to designing and making. For this project, she aimed to ‘design a contemplative sculptural object that triggered reflection on the multi-layered nature of any experience, including isolation’. A recurring theme of her research featured ways of framing a view at different scales, and the resulting design is a sculpture made from a series of small carved objects that layer to create a composition acting as a ‘sculpted path for light’. Working with three woods, Taylor was interested in exploring different material hollows, cutting each layer to expose the wood’s grain.

@ivanataylordesign

Martin Thübeck, Rå
Stockholm, Sweden
Wood: red oak

While confined at home with his young children, Thübeck found inspiration in the way they adapted their surroundings for play, challenging conventional ways to use furniture: ‘Limitations became possibilities,’ he comments. After looking at traditional furniture and playground equipment, he developed a piece (Rå, meaning ‘pure’ in Swedish, also referring to a mythical forest creature from local folklore that can change its appearance) whose construction is informed by Swedish craft, and whose function can be interpreted either as a chair or a slide, as it is flipped upside down. He chose red oak for his design, based on the way the wood soaks up pigment and gives depth to it. ‘This piece is a symbol of coexistence, and the act of turning it is like moving between worlds,’ he says, citing an approach that merges the indoor and outdoor, staticity and movement, adults’ and kids’ points of view. ‘My intention is not to fully merge the two functions, but to see what happens when they are so close to each other that they are perceived as one,’ he says.

@mratin

Yunhan Wang, Winding Stream
Zhuhai, China
Wood: hard maple

Unable to carry out certain customs during lockdown, people are confined to performing rituals at home. There is a novel need for suitable furniture and objects that can fit a small space but serve the same purpose. Wang wanted to create a domestic alternative to the ‘winding stream party’, a Chinese drinking custom in which poetry is composed while a cup is floated down a stream with people sat on both sides; the person sitting in front of the cup that stops has to drink it. Inspired by Hakka round houses, Wang created a compact table design with storage concealed in the legs and a central slit to fit trays and cups. The table is also equipped with a drain so users can dispose of their water through the twisting gully, and it then trickles into a waste bucket housed in the main leg. Wang chose hard maple for Winding Stream because she was drawn to the light colour, and the timber has been spray-painted to prevent rot from setting in.

@dorisofia21

Vivienne Wong, Iuxta Me (beside me)
Melbourne, Australia
Wood: cherry

Dancer-turned-designer Wong looked at non-verbal communication as the starting point of her project, approaching the task from a personal point of reflection and knowledge. ‘I wanted to translate my previous understanding of how we can connect and communicate,’ she says, and looked to create a piece to nurture strength, intimacy and connection. Invisible physical boundaries and the creation of textures through light formed the basis of the project, which developed into a coffee table featuring interlocking echoed forms, where the functional joinery also became a decorative motif for the piece. Wong chose American cherry because of its grain and colour. ‘It has a beautiful warmth in its pinkish, red hue,’ she says. ‘I felt that supported everything I was trying to put into this piece.’ Her design’s name (using the Latin word for ‘beside’) represents the desire for human connection and closeness that guided the process.

@vivienne_l_wong

Tan Wei Xiang, Recollect
Singapore
Woods: hard maple and red oak

Searching for a tangible physical connection to loved ones (beyond virtual calls), Tan turned to keepsakes as a way to fight nostalgia. His keepsakes cabinet is imagined as a way to hold, preserve and give respect to the items we hold dear. Its forms were inspired by Singapore’s ubiquitous construction sites and the ridged zinc sheets used to protect them. Tan recreated this motif as the outer shell of his tall, lean cabinet, and created curved shelves to sit inside it, with a mirrored, polished brass circle, mimicking the sun setting on the horizon. The designer had worked with maple before but never from the American hardwood forests and, for this project, he selected a combination of hard maple of different thicknesses to achieve the ‘crinkled’ effect on the shell, and red oak for the curved shelves inside.

@helloweixiang

Duncan Young, Shelter Within
Adelaide, Australia
Wood: hard maple

Young focused on the materiality of timber, and how this organic material can help us connect with nature while confined at home. ‘For those in dense urban environments, lockdowns have impacted our physical and mental strength by limiting the biological need humans have for being in outdoor spaces,’ he says. He looked at studies analysing the positive impact of nature on physical and mental health, and in response created a modern cabinet of curiosities as a pillar to nature, for the user to engage with the natural world while at home. Featuring a solid carcass with discreet joinery and a moiré-effect shelf (a design inspired by the historic symbolism of the cabinet as a theatre), the simple plinth includes two glass sculptural elements handmade at Young’s studio, refracting and distorting the light to evoke the effect of walking beneath a canopy of trees. Young used hard maple to create the carcass. ‘It’s such a pared-back timber,’ he explains. ‘It has a gentle grain structure and I thought the lightness would soften the heaviness of my piece’s form.’

@duncanyoungstudios

INFORMATION

Discovered is on view at the Design Museum from 13 September to 10 October 2021

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

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In partnership with Rémy Martin

Delight comes from on high at London’s Design Museum. Hanging from the brutalist, hyperbolic paraboloid construction’s roof on Kensington High Street is an artwork that glints and shimmers weightlessly in the reflected sunshine. Hundreds of gold origami figures twist and dance in the vast atrium, beckoning visitors toward ‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’, an exhibition of the French designer and architect’s glittering career.

Created by designer Charles Kaisin, the mobile sculpture – Rémy Martin: the Centaur – is made up of 1,724 centaur figures, each one hand-gilded by renowned goldsmith Atelier Thiery to represent the Rémy Martin logo. The number of centaurs is a reference to the year 1724, when the cognac house was founded.

The mobile’s proximity to the Perriand exhibition (showing until 5 September 2021) is no accident. Intended to celebrate French talent and craftsmanship, both classic and contemporary, the kinetic installation helps shine a light on the work of a giant of 20th century design: a free spirit who championed good design for all.

Marking 25 years since the last significant presentation of Perriand’s work in London, the exhibition follows Perriand’s creative process through sketches, photographs, scrapbooks, prototypes and final pieces. It also showcases Perriand’s life as a fiercely independent pioneer, sportswoman and global traveller, who helped define the look of the modern European interior.

Acknowledging Rémy Martin’s longstanding association with craftsmanship, the sculpture project is a collaboration between two major creative talents.

Belgian Kaisin transforms and recycles everyday materials into contemporary design objects, making work that touches on the theme of geometry in movement. A qualified architect and a graduate of Ron Arad's class at the Royal College of Art in London, Kaisin completed an internship at Jean Nouvel’s studio in Paris before moving to the Kyoto University of Arts, where he studied the art of paper folding. He articulates his work – often whimsical, arresting, uniting, and powerfully celebratory – around three axes: object design, architecture, and scenography. His pieces, he says, are ‘a way of bringing people together through shared wonder’.

Atelier Thiery is a family-run gilding studio based in Paris, responsible for the restoration and beautification of some of the world’s most celebrated venues and works of art. The workshop employs traditional, artisanal techniques, passed down from generation to generation.

To mark the collaborative project’s residency at the Design Museum, a limited-edition bottle of Rémy Martin XO, produced by the house and designed by Atelier Thiery, pays homage to the illustrious dialogue between cognac and gold. Featuring an 18ct gold leaf detail, the bottle is enclosed in a gilded case inspired by the centuries-old French technique of verre églomisé, and honouring the rich blend of up to 400 eaux-de-vie that comprises Rémy Martin XO.

INFORMATION

The exclusive Rémy Martin XO x Atelier Thiery bottle is available at Selfridges. selfridges.com

Rémy Martin: The Centaur is at the Design Museum until 28 June 2021. designmuseum.org; remymartin.com

Under the UK government Covid-19 restrictions, London’s public museums will remain shuttered until 17 May 2021. But the Design Museum and Bombay Sapphire have thought up an inventive solution to welcoming back art- and design-deprived visitors for a vital dose of creative fuel. Taking advantage of non-essential retail restrictions lifting on 12 April 2021, the Design Museum shop will transform into a pop-up supermarket stocking its shelves with essential sundry items packaged in artworks created by a line-up of emerging artists.

Ten emerging artists and designers were hand-selected to create original artworks for the essential stock, and hail from myriad backgrounds and disciplines. They comprise Charlotte Edey, Holly Warburton, Isadora Lima, Jess Warby, Joey Yu, Katherine Plumb, Katie Kimmel, Kentaro Okawara, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, and Ruff Mercy. ‘It’s about the role of creativity and the all-pervasive nature of design and creativity, how it involves all areas of our lives. But it’s also giving a platform to designers who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to design this sort of quotidian packaging,’ says Tim Marlow, chief executive of the Design Museum.

The products will include kidney bean tins and face masks by Kentaro Okawara, pasta boxes by Holly Warburton, toilet rolls by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, rice boxes by Joey Yu, washing-up liquid by Jess Warby, and Bombay Sapphire gin and tonic bottles by Ruff Mercy. ‘The past year has been really challenging for artists who haven’t been able to show work or collaborate as normal. “Supermarket” is a great way to not only support the Design Museum, but also shine a spotlight on the ten brilliant young artists who through this project have a new platform for their work,’ Walala explains. All proceeds from the initiative – which will be available both ‘in store’ and online until 25 April – will be directed towards the Design Museum’s new Emerging Designer Access Fund, a ‘pay it forward’ scheme that offers free Design Museum tickets to up-and-coming artists and designers, supported by Bombay Sapphire.

The space will be a hybrid of gallery and supermarket, decked out in Walala’s signature immersive, polychromatic design and pattern clashes. The artist, who is known for vibrant outdoor and indoor interventions, drew inspiration from 1980s supermarkets and the Memphis design movement for the project. The exterior of the supermarket resembles a collage: bold pastel colours punctuated by stark black and white stripes. Inside, the colour riot continues with an eclectic meld of patterns and hues including Bombay Sapphire Blue on the floor tiles. ‘Camille uses colour in an incredibly inventive way that is both gently confrontational but also immersive and reminds us of joy, energy and verve', says Marlow.

Each product in the supermarket will be available in a (somewhat generous) limited-edition run of 1,200 per item, offered at similar price points to goods found on regular supermarket shelves. ‘We wanted the pricing to be accessible because that really underscores the point of this, that creativity is essential and we wanted people to buy pieces of art at everyday prices,’ says Natasha Curtin, global vice president of Bombay Sapphire, a brand that has a track record for collaborations with emerging artists. ‘I just hope we don’t have people stockpiling our beautifully designed and not overpriced lavatory paper at the end of it,’ Marlow adds.

INFORMATION

‘Supermarket’ will be open physically and online from 21-25 April 2021 at the Design Museum

designmuseum.org

bombaysapphire.com

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

The Design Museum's ‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’ showcased the work and ideas of the French architect and designer through a series of thematic displays, presenting her creative process with an impressive series of sketches, photographs, notebooks, as well as furniture design prototypes, final pieces and faithful reconstructions of some of her most famous interiors.

‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life’ at the Design Museum

This new exhibition marked 25 years since Charlotte Perriand’s last exhibition at London’s Design Museum, held in 1996, and was put together in collaboration with the Perriand family and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, with the support of Cassina (whose catalogue includes numerous Perriand furniture reissues), and exhibition design contributions by Assemble and A Practice for Everyday Life. 

‘Charlotte Perriand was a hugely influential figure in design,’ said Design Museum chief curator Justin McGuirk. ‘Her life spanned the 20th century and her career reflects the twists and turns of the modernist movement.’ 

The Design Museum exhibition explored her work through three thematic sections, which will help outline Perriand’s design approach: ‘The Machine Age’; ‘Nature and the Synthesis of the Arts’; and ‘Modular Design for Modern Living’. Perriand’s creative transition from a modern machine aesthetic to her preference for natural forms sculpted from wood is chronicled through the show, and this process comes together in her all-encompassing vision of a ‘synthesis of the arts’, where design, art and architecture combine. 

Described as ‘a free spirit who championed design for all’, Perriand subscribed to modernist aesthetics that were reflected in her furniture and architecture designs. She famously said ‘dwellings should be designed not only to satisfy material specifications; they should also create conditions that foster harmonious balance and spiritual freedom in people’s lives’, and the Design Museum exhibition helps bring her ideas back to life. 

Exhibition design and graphics

The Museum collaborated with Assemble for the exhibition design, and A Practice for Everyday life supplied the graphics for the space (and designed the accompanying monograph), including a threedimensional typeface made of bent steel tubes that referenced Perriand's furniture. The exhibition’s bold colour palette reflected Perriand’s own use of colour, and partitions throughout the space frame compositions of her works and interiors spaces. Bespoke folded metal captions were integrated into display surfaces and structures, made of modular concrete blocks.

Charlotte Perriand: her life in art, design and architecture

Perriand was born in Paris in 1903, and studied furniture design at the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. She came to prominence soon after graduating in 1925, with projects such as the 1927 ‘Bar sous le toit’ (Bar under the roof) created for her own apartment-studio in Paris’ Saint-Sulpice. This minimalist and functional apartment space that she designed for her life and work was faithfully reproduced at the exhibition’s entrance.

Early examples of modular metal furniture, as well as the sketches, models and plans behind the designs formed the core of ‘The Machine Age’. Several vignettes recreated Perriand’s interiors, demonstrating the modernity of her aesthetic and approach to space and living. It was during this time that she started working with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, a decade-long collaboration that resulted in furniture pieces such as the 1928 ‘Chaise longue basculante’ or the ‘Fauteil grand confort’ from the same year, as well as several interiors, including an installation proposing single-room living at the Salon d’Automne in 1929. 

In the 1930s, Perriand’s interest shifted from metal furniture and industrialised production towards nature, and her artistic work took a turn in this direction. Brilliantly exemplified through ‘Nature and the Synthesis of the Arts’, this shift included organic furniture forms in wood and leather, inspired by personal collections of found natural objects such as rocks, sticks and fossils. The exhibition included black and white photography and experimental sketches; mixed with furniture from the time, these give a sense of how these inspirations were translated through Perriand’s sensibility.

‘Modular Designs for Modern Living’ forms a synthesis of Perriand’s trajectory through modernity, and shows her work in modular furnishings, interior design and architecture. She strived to create affordable and adaptable interiors, and some of her best known furniture works include bookcase designs originally conceived for student dormitories – a fitting example of democratic design, featuring a simple, modular construction in wood and plastic. The exhibition culminates with the legendary work for the French ski resort Les Arcs in 1968, with a life-sized model and a film that helps visitors immerse themselves in her pragmatic design thinking. 

Perhaps most poetically, the show’s last item on display demonstrates Perriand’s curiosity and humour. It’s a vase she had bought in Brazil in the 1960s, made from an everyday plastic bottle that, she had said, captured the essence of good design to be resourceful, intelligent and infused with humanity. 

‘The last time Perriand had an exhibition at the Design Museum, in 1996, she was concerned at first that she was being presented as a furniture designer,’ says McGuirk. ‘Twenty-five years later, there is no risk of any misunderstanding. Here, she is presented as a synthesiser, a collaborator, an integrator. A Perriand interior remains kind of ideal, a harmony of contrasts and disciplines that is difficult to replicate. And it is this ideal that she offered as a framework to those who wished to live a modern life, like her own.’

INFORMATION

‘Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life' is at the Design Museum, London, 19 June-5 September 2021

designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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London’s Design museum announced the recipients of the annual Beazley Designs of the Year. Winners include Alyssa Eckert’s 3D rendering of SARS-CoV-2, Telfar’s vegan leather, gender neutral bag, Brick arches by Hong Kong protestors, ModSkool by Social Design Collaborative, vegan meat by Impossible Foods, Colectivo Lastesis’ protest performance denouncing sexual violence against women and LGBTQ communities, and the Teeter-Totter Wall, a seesaw installation by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello with Colectivo Chopeke which popped up at the USA-Mexico border in 2019.

Chaired by BBC News broadcast journalist Razia Iqbal, the jury included material designer Seetal Solanki, fashion designer Samuel Ross, Google AI principal designer Matt Jones and artist Camille Walala.

The Teeter-Totter Wall was nominated winner of the Transport category, and also picked by judges as the awards’ overall winner. The seesaw installation was installed at the border allowing kids from both sides to play together. It was only up for 20 minutes before being dismantled, but in that short time it united the two sides by play in a way that was both touching and memorable. ‘This was an idea that really moved the judges,’ says Iqbal. ‘[It’s] not just something that felt symbolically important, it talked about the possibility of things; that all kinds of things are possible when people come together with great ideas and determination.’

‘It is great to see a project that is seriously playful and playfully serious is the winner of our Beazley Designs of the Year Award for 2020,’ echoes Tim Marlow, Director of the Design Museum. ‘The Teeter-Totter Wall (...) encouraged new ways of human connection and struck a chord that continues to resonate far beyond El Paso in the USA and Juarez in Mexico. It remains an inventive and poignant reminder of how human beings can transcend the forces that seek to divide us.’

All of this year’s winners, Marlow notes, ‘contain powerful messages of change and demonstrate design’s capacity to explore new ideas that confront some of the difficult issues the world currently faces.’

Explore the full shortlist from the Beazley Designs of the Year.

Impossible Burger 2.0, ‘A Better Meat for the Planet’ by Impossible Foods was awarded in the product category. "Some of the reasons [it] really stood out to be the panel and myself was this notion of food being a format for design as we move further into the twenty-first century,’ said judge Samuel Ross. ’The idea that meatless, carbon-neutral food products can carry the same semantic language in the form of visual and product representation through taste, touch, feel and density really feels like a step forward into a far more conscious way of food consumption’

Alyssa Eckert’s rendering of SARS-CoV-2 was one of the most ubiquitous images of 2020, and won the accolade in the graphics category. ’The rendering exacerbates and emphasises the characteristics of the virus and the threat we were facing, to communicate that to the public, but also be part of the solution in how we might respond to it with vaccines and the like,’ said member of the jury Matt Jones, Principal Designer at Google AI

Winner of the architecture category, the ModSkool by Social Design Collaborative is a structure for a school that can be easily installed and dismantled, created to respond to forced evictions of farming communities on the floodplains of the Yamuna river in India. ’An elegant piece of design addressing a real critical situation and providing genuine social good,’ was the comment of Edwin Heathcote, Architecture and Design Critic at The Financial Times and member of the Beazley Designs of the Year jury

The Telfar bag had already been dubbed ’the accessory of the decade’, and this award in the fashion category cements its importance in the world of fashion design in 2020. The makers of this vegan leather, gender neutral bag was chosen for its ability to ’redefine the relationship between themselves and their customers, so much so that owning a Telfar bag is not just owning a brilliant product, it’s about making a vote for things to be done differently,’ said Emily King, the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition curator. ’Telfar have redefined what luxury means and, in an era where true luxury is having a functioning health and social security system, I think their slogan - ‘Not for you, for everyone’ - rings very true’

A Rapist in Your Way (‘Un violador en tu camino’) by Colectivo LASTESIS won the awards’ digital category. A protest performance to denounce sexual violence against women and LGBTQ communities, the initiative started in Chile in 2019, and was later replicated in multiple languages across the world. ’When the judges were discussing this entry, we were struck by how powerful it is,’ comments judge Camille Walala. ’The song highlights the use of political sexual violence by the police during a social uprising in Chile, but has since been replicated by feminists in India, Kenya, Mexico and beyond. The rhythm of the chant, as women stomp their feet and pump their fists, is infectious’

INFORMATION

designmuseum.org

For most of us, 2019 feels like a bit of a faded memory, but inside the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition at Design Museum London, it all comes rushing back. Announced today, the shortlist captures all of the peaks and troughs of those 12 months, and unravels as the poignant rollercoaster it has been.

This year’s exhibition was curated by Emily King, who described the showcase as a ‘portrait of the year through design,’ referencing the social justice themes throughout. Taking centre stage in the exhibition is the stab-proof vest that was worn by Stormzy, and designed by Banksy. This was a powerful symbol that addressed structural racism in a visceral way at Glastonbury, where the musician was the first Black British artist to headline the Pyramid stage. Next to this on display is the non-conforming typeface and graphic design of Kiss My Genders, an exhibition at Hayward Gallery that explored artists that engage with identity politics.

‘This is not a show that you just have to look at, it needs words,’ King comments on the mass of descriptions, demonstrations and taglines posted throughout the show. Examples of this flow through the past year’s efforts in bouldering towards a more circular future – projects like Indus, a wall that cleans wastewater, a brick made from 90 per cent recycled construction and demolition waste, and a reusable swap were given recognition.

Looking to the optimistic power of design are projects like energy efficient social housing Goldsmith Street Norwich, the rapidly built Leishenshan Hospital that was created in response to Coronavirus in Wuhan, and a Self-Sanitising Door Handle by Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li. Healthcare is certainly a theme throughout too, and included is Luke Hale’s 3D printed Biomimetic Neck Collar, and accessible Judy emergency kits. Injustices in the medical field are also acknowledged with Women and Heart Disease: Physician Bias and AI – a set of simple illustrations that highlight the lack of diagnosis women receive.

Many social media sensations made the list too with Atlanta-based Jalaiah Harmon’s dance challenge on TikTok (which you can practice inside the exhibition) and Central St Martin’s graduate Fredrik Tjærandsen’s balloon dresses that flooded Instagram. Meanwhile, The Sari Series, a non-profit digital anthology of 80 films of ways to drape a sari by Border&Fall showed a great example of an initiative that kept people busy over lockdown.

The showcase is organised chronologically, reading like a blueprint of 2019-2020 with page numbers and a blue and white identity throughout. This visual narrative was created by London-based studio design kollektiv, who built scaffolding to hold up the displays – many of these in 3 metre billboard-style boards, spelling 12 months of chaos and hope.

Like a book, the exhibition ends with a clear written ‘Conclusion’ that ‘there are concrete ways to build a healthier, kinder and more equal world.’ While the show climaxes in January 2020, you can’t help but think of the mound of change experienced throughout this year. Priya Khanchandani, head of curatorial and interpretation at Design Museum recognises that many of these nominations were realised before the pandemic became a global issue – ‘the exhibition brings to the fore broader phenomena that have been underscored by the pandemic, such as climate change, activism and inequality,’ she says. ‘I don’t think that design can or should gloss over that but there is optimism to be found in the ways in which design is giving voice to new narratives and questioning the status quo.’

Winners of each category will be picked by this year’s esteemed judges, Razia Iqbal, Edwin Heathcote, Matt Jones, Dr Philipp Rode, Samuel Ross, Seetal Solanki and Camille Walala in November. 

Explore the Beazley Designs of the Year nominees below

Goldsmith Street, Norwich
Designer: Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley

Housing No.8 (Laboratorio de Vivienda)
Designer: MOS Architects

L’Arbre Blanc
Designer: Sou Fujimoto Architects, Nicolas Laisné, Dimitri Roussel and OXO Architectes

Leishenshan Hospital
Designer: 10,000 workers

Lin’an History Museum
Designer: Amateur Architecture Studio

Material Institute
Designer: Assemble with Material Institute and MONA

ModSkool
Designer: Social Design Collaborative

Parasite set design
Designer: Lee Ha Jun

UCCA Dune Art Museum
Designer: OPEN Architecture

Z33: House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture
Designer: Francesca Torzo

A Rapist in Your Way (‘Un violador en tu camino’)
Designer: Colectivo LASTESIS (Daffne Valdés Vargas, Paula Cometa Strange, Lea Cáceres Díaz and Sibila Sotomayor Van Rysseghem)

Chernobyl Sound Design
Designer: Joe Beal, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stefan Henrix and Stuart Hilliker (Sound), SISTER, The Mighty Mint and Word Games (Production), HBO and Sky Atlantic (Networks)

ICEYE One-Metre Radar Satellite Imaging
Designer: Rafal Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila

Make Your Own Masters
Designer: Stacie Woolsey

Manifold Garden
Designer: William Chyr, Arthur Brussee, Laryssa Okada and Martin Kvale

Miquela
Designer: Founder and CEO: Trevor McFedries; Co-founder: Sara DeCou; Chief Content Officer: Nicole de Ayora; Head of Design: Isaac Bratzel; President: Kara Weber; General Manager Lauren Goulston

NAE Cities Index
Designer: Li Lai, Briteweb, Andrew Lim and Nan Wu

The Renegade Dance Challenge
Designer: Jalaiah Harmon

The Uncensored Library
Designer: Reporters Without Borders in collaboration with DDB Germany; Architect: blockworks; Production: MediaMonks; Strategy: The Humblebrag

US & THEM
Designer: Alice Wong with Aryan Javaherian

Xenobot
Designer: Doug Blackiston, Josh Bongard, Sam Kriegman and Michael Levin

Adrift
Designers: Rui Zhou

Dakala Cloth – A New African Textile
Designers: Nkwo Onwuka

Kalank costume design
Designers: Manish Malhotra

Moments of Clarity Collection
Designers: Fredrik Tjærandsen

Nothing New
Designers: Phoebe English, Clara Jedrecy, Nataliya Brady and Ellie Grace
Cumming

Reconstructed Superstars, Spring/Summer 2020 Collection
Designers: Helen Kirkum with Bethany Williams

The Sari Series
Designers: Border&Fall

Scrap Case
Designers: Nicole McLaughlin

Telfar bag
Designers: Telfar

3D rendering of SARS-CoV-2
Designers: Alissa Eckert (MSMI) and Dan Higgins (MAMS)

 A *New* Program for Graphic Design
Designers: Author: David Reinfurt; Designer/Publisher: Shannon Harvey

Babylon Berlin title design
Designers: Design: Saskia Marka; Music: Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer;Production Company: X Filme Creative Pool

Breast Friends
Designers: Director: Caitlin Young; Sound Design: Ioannis Spanos; Sound Mix: Yin Lee; Voice Actor: Suzy Oxenham

Climax title sequence
Designers: Director: Gaspar Noé; Titles Designer: Tom Kan.

Color of the Year: Bleached Coral
Designers: Designer: Huei Yin Wong; Writer: Jack Railton-Woodcock

Cover art for i,i  by Bon Iver
Designers: Eric Timothy Carlson and Aaron Anderson

Hellscape jigsaw
Designers: Artwork, Design and Concept: Christopher Spencer; Design and Concept: Carl Gosling; Packaging Design: Danny Mitchell; Manufacturer: Map Marketing

Kiss My Genders graphic identity and typeface
Designers: Design: Studio Frith; Client: Hayward Gallery, London; Exhibition Curators: Vincent Honoré and Tarini Malik; Publisher: Hayward Publishing.

Ok Glacier Memorial
Designers: Designers: Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer; Text: Andri Snær Magnason; Story: Oddur Sigur› sson; Manufacturer: Grétar Márfi orvaldsson

Stormzy’s stab-proof vest
Designers: Banksy

Tokyo 2020 Official Art Posters Project
Designers: Tokyo 2020 official art posters project team, Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee

Women and Heart Disease: Physician Bias and AI
Designers: Karthik Dinakar, Catherine Kreatsoulas, Analise Alexandra Emhoff and Irina Kruglova

Artes y Oficios
Designers: Fabien Cappello

Batch.works and Batch.shield
Designers: Julien Vaissieres, Milo Mcloughlin-Greening and Salomé Bazin

Biomimetic Neck Collar
Designers:  Luke Hale

Border as Producer of Design
Designers: Shneel Malik, Dr. Brenda Parker and Prof. Marcos Cruz (Bio-ID Lab, UCL) with Richard Miller (Froyle Tiles)

DO Black
Designers: Magnus Jakobsson and Mattias Alfborger

For.Form
Designers: Kate Strudwick

Förändring by IKEA
Designers: Lolo Stigenius, Akanksha Deo, Iina Vuorivirta and Helene Davidsson

Fronda Stool
Designers: Sam Hecht, Kim Colin, Romain Voulet, Luca Corvatta and Mattiazzi Srl

Impossible Burger 2.0 ‘A Better Meat for the Planet’
Designers: Impossible Foods

Indus
Designers: Shneel Malik, Brenda Parker and Marcos Cruz; Researcher:
Laura Stoffels; Fabricator: Richard Miller

Judy emergency kits
Designers: Simon Huck, Josh Udaskin and Red Antler with various
manufacturers

K-Briq
Designers: Gabriela Medero and Samuel Chapman

LastSwab
Designers: Isabel Aagaard, Nicolas Aagaard and Kaare Frandsen

LEGO Braille Bricks
Designers: LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group in collaboration with official partners in the international blind community

MarinaTex
Designers: Lucy Hughes

Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%
Designers: Nike Sport Research Lab

Nünude
Designers: Joanne Baban Morales (Nünude) and Vivian Murad (Skin Bandages

Ooho capsules
Designers: Notpla with Lucozade

Ouroboros Steak
Designers: Andrew Pelling, Orkan Telhan and Grace Knight

Reflectacles Privacy Eyewear
Designers: Scott Urban

Self-Sanitising Door Handle
Designers: Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li

SmartHalo 2
Designers: Xavier Peich, Gabriel Alberola and Jonathan Beaulieu

Soluboard
Designers: Jiva Materials Ltd

Soundbops
Designers: Michael Tougher and RPD International

The Water Box Mobile Filtration System
Designers: Just Water and 501cTHREE

Brick arches
Designers: Hong Kong protestors

The Station of Being
Designers: Rombout Frieling Lab and Research Institutes of Sweden, Umeå

Teeter-Totter Wall
Designers: Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello with Colectivo Chopeke

INFORMATION

Beazley Designs of the Year is on view until 28 March 2021

designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
Kensington
London
W8 6AG

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London’s Design Museum unveils the projects created by its Designers in Residence 2021. The group of four designers, operating across different fields, were supported by the museum to develop a project based on the particularly timely theme of ‘Care’.

The Design Museum programme, now in its 13th iteration, aims to support designers at the start of their career, giving them financial and practical means, as well as industry assistance, to develop crucial work. This year, Enni-Kukka Tuomala, Abiola Onabule, Cynthia Voza Lusilu and Ioana Man have been selected to create new work with the support of the museum, and their design explorations will look to improve some of the social and environmental challenges we are facing today. 

Designers in Residence at the Design Museum

This is an important time for creatives to think about how our post-pandemic world can be shaped by design, looking at technology, human relations, the environment and self-care. ‘At a time of upheaval and tragedy, design has shown itself to be up to the task of equipping us to face adversity, with designers manufacturing vital PPE and other equipment during the pandemic,’ says Priya Khanchandani, the Design Museum’s head of curatorial and interpretation. ‘In a post-Covid environment, it is more important than ever that we support emerging designers whose work has the capacity to solve problems, grow empathy and build bridges of understanding.’

The multidisciplinary, all-female quartet represents a new generation of creative thinkers particularly equipped to face the present and future challenges through their diverse specialisms. ‘Right now, it is imperative that designers are engaged in conversations about Forest Empathy/Understanding the Perspectives of Trees.care as we enter a period of greater social, political and ecological uncertainty. These designers are proposing tools and systems to help us navigate this landscape,’ says Sumitra Upham, the Designers in Residence project curator.

Enni-Kukka Tuomala

London-based Finnish designer and artist Enni-Kukka Tuomala’s work ‘is focused on fostering issue-based cross-cultural empathy’, which she has addressed through projects such as the Empathy Chamber and Campaigns for Empathy in London and Cambridge.

At the Design Museum, Tuomala focused on developing an immersive ‘empathy training programme’, which resulted in her ‘Forest Empathy’ project, exploring the relationship between humans and trees. For the project, Tuomala created a film to reveal ‘the complex personalities and perspectives of forests’; an Empathy Ecosystem reflecting on the role of empathy in human (and non-human) life; and a tour of the trees local to the Design Museum – an invitation to visitors to connect with London’s urban forests. 

Abiola Onabule

Fashion designer Abiola Onabule’s garments are inspired by her Nigerian heritage. Through her residency, Onabule considered the stories of West African women living in the UK to investigate how the exchange of skills and craftsmanship techniques can become an important act of care and conversation. 

Onabule focused on adire, a Yoruba technique for indigo dyeing: in her collection, adire is used to explore the use of West African textile design in contemporary fashion. Through her project, Onabule has also produced a film reflecting on care, looking at local and ‘slow’ production and the conversations around the cultural importance of cloth.

Cynthia Voza Lusilu

Paris-born Cynthia Voza Lusilu’s design research work has had a focus on care from the start of her practice – ‘put care first, always’, reads her personal manifesto. ‘My recent research is centred around ways of engaging with people through community-based participatory practices. I explore care and repair as vehicles to support emotional wellness and sense of place,’ she says of her work.

Titled BALM (Black Alliance for Lewisham Minds), her project at the Design Museum focuses on how design can support mental health in Black British communities. Voza Lusilu collaborated with a team of mental health professionals, urban planners and Black residents from the London borough of Lewisham to design a series of supportive tools. The tools include care packages and an online platform intended to become a support system to promote resilience and the creation of healing spaces. 

Ioana Man

Multidisciplinary designer Ioana Man’s work revolves around architecture, set design and critical practice with a focus on science and biology. Through her Design Museum residency, Man wanted to develop ways to protect ecosystems impacted by architectural planning and modern construction practices, to focus communities around urban nature. 

With the use of new scientific technology, she created a series of interactive digital walks that help imagine a future where agriculture is integrated into urban life, with food gardens forming an important asset for the life of both humans and microbes. 

‘Embarking on their residency, this year's all-female cohort faced the crucial challenge of considering the question of “care”,’ says Khanchandani. ‘A cause that was long obscured by the pursuit of more, and has now been thrown into stark relief.’

INFORMATION 

See the designers’ projects at designersinresidence.designmuseum.org

Headphones and 3-D spectacles are essential for the recently re-opened, fully immersive, audio / visual / multi-sensory, hyper-experiential exhibition ‘Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers’ at the Design Museum, London.

The showcase is a celebration of contemporary club culture, artwork and ephemera and a history of electronica-related equipment. Experience The Telharmonium (aka the first ever synthesizer or ‘the Victorian Spotify’) from 1901 through to a personally curated reimagining of French electronic music maverick Jean-Michel Jarre’s recording studio, right up to the cutting edge, tripedal synthesiser custom-made for Detroit DJ Jeff Mills by Yuri Suzuki, which looks more like an X-fighter dashboard than a traditional drum machine.

Kraftwerk

Former Wallpaper* guest editor Ralf Hütter, co-founder of Germany’s Kraftwerk, is represented by a sequence of still-captivating 3-D film shorts from the band’s 2017 tour. Art and graphic design – for vinyl record sleeves, posters, streaming imagery, rave and club flyers – is showcased as a visual response to the music, an extension of the electronic artist and their genre.

Fusing disciplines

The exhibition looks at how artists like Christian Marclay, Andreas Gusrky, Peter Saville, Mark Farrow and Studio Moross fuse typography, photography and fine art with the contemporary electronic soundtrack’s beats, bleeps and squelches. Norway/USA-based design outfit Non-Format’s work for London record label Lo Recordings is a dazzling exercise in typographic invention with studio founders Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss creating unique fonts and dynamic monochrome graphics for each of the label’s many vinyl releases.

Exhibition design

An adaptation of the hugely popular exhibition from Musée de la Musique - Philharmonie de Paris, Electronic’s original concept and 3D design is helmed by Paris- based 1024 Architecture, the studio contributing its own exhibit in the form of a robotic sculpture titled ‘Walking Cube’. Aurally sensitive and activated by ambient beats, the shape shifting cube’s jerkily diverse transformations are driven by air-powered mechanics prepared and executed with brutal force. ‘A demonstration presenting the chaotic possibilities in the deconstruction of a common and minimal form,’ explain the cube’s designers.

Working in collaboration with London’s All Things Studio, 1024 Architecture also conceived the truly mesmerising CORE light installation, a three dimensional soundwave of multicoloured rods inspired by the electronic music experience’s narcotic, synaesthetic perceptions.  

The Chemical Brothers

Ending on a high we take a trip into the visual world of The Chemical Brothers’ Smith & Lyall-designed live shows where doomy and dreamy, IMAX-size film imagery and weapons grade laser lights interact to viscerally devastating effect. At this, the exhibition’s peak, uplifting music pumps while giant and vivid, almost tangible, cuddly/creepy Leigh Bowery-esque figures dance amongst the visitors. The Design Museum has never looked, or sounded, so good.

INFORMATION
Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers is open until 14 February 2021. designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
Kensington
London
W8 6AG

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Behind the Berkshire workshop of British furniture brand Benchmark flows the River Kennet. On any given day, its slowmoving water is alive with water voles, brown trout and demoiselles, but recently it has been home to something else – pieces of red oak and cherry that would eventually form parts of a chair, designed by Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami of Studio Swine.

The chair in question is part of Connected, Benchmark’s latest collaborative project with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). Initiated and carried out against the backdrop of a global pandemic, Connected has seen nine designers come up with something that would enhance their working-from-home experience. The obvious twist is that they have been unable to visit the workshop or see their pieces in the flesh, and have instead relied on a lot of Zoom calls, countless WhatsApp conversations, and a good helping of trust.

‘Without a physical visit, it’s a much bigger leap of faith for the designers to trust the craftsman from a technical, visual and sensory perspective,’ explains Sean Sutcliffe, who co-founded Benchmark alongside Terence Conran 36 years ago. ‘They’re having to take our word on things that they would normally feel and see in person.’

That trust is how Studio Swine’s thronelike chair came to be submerged in the river, which flows through the Conran estate, home to the Benchmark workshop. Mark Carey, who headed up the project on the production side, explains that in order to steam-bend the wood, they needed to get it adequately drenched. Thus, the backrest, arms and front legs were lowered into the water and left for a week before being put into the steaming box and clamped up into their final form. Resourcefulness at its finest.

It’s this kind of problem-solving approach that makes Benchmark unique. Its workshop employs 58 craftspeople, many of whom did their training at nearby colleges and are experts in their field.

‘When I go to a craftsman with an idea, the answer is all too often “No, we can’t do that”,’ says Wallpaper* Designer of the Year Sabine Marcelis, who has spent the lockdown in her Rotterdam loft alongside her partner and newborn baby. For Connected, she has created a simple-looking maple-veneer box named ‘Candy Cubicle’, which opens at its middle to reveal (but, most importantly, hide) an acid-yellow interior, and the tools for home working – namely her partner’s ‘ugly’ monitor. ‘At Benchmark, they really want to push the limits and challenge themselves,’ she adds. ‘It’s also a chance for them to showcase what they’re capable of.’

As with previous collaborations between AHEC and Benchmark, such as Legacy and The Wish List, sustainability is at the core of Connected. The nine designers chose from three woods to work with: red oak, maple and cherry – which together, according to AHEC, account for 40 per cent of the standing timber in American hardwood forests, but remain a largely untapped resource. ‘Red oak is the most widespread, while the soft maple is the fastest regenerating hardwood species,’ says David Venables, European director at AHEC. Part of the work conducted by AHEC is to make ‘unfashionable’ woods modish again, as a way of making use of everything that nature supplies. ‘The choices consumers make through designers and manufacturers have a direct effect on the composition of the forest and we are trying to show designers that the obvious species aren’t always the only “right” woods to use,’ he adds.

The material, as well as the lockdown, appears to have reignited an appreciation for the natural world in the designers. From Thomas Heatherwick’s maple planters, CNC-carved using an algorithm based on biomimicry and providing welcome greenery at his new London home, to Studiopepe’s ‘Pink Moon’ chair based on lunar movement, each designer has drawn on nature in order to feel closer to it.

‘The predicaments faced by the designers as a result of the pandemic have been similar, and it’s their crying out for nature that struck me,’ Sutcliffe says. ‘They all want to express the grain of the timber, and almost make the woodiness even more woody.’

For all the common threads, the designers’ individuality shines through in each case. While Maria Bruun has gone for a simple, typically Scandinavian-style table enhanced by clever joinery and her choice of rippling maple, Jaime Hayon’s ‘Mesamachine’ is an out-and-out lesson in complexity – showcasing his signature humour and a great deal of moveable parts in cherry wood.

For Ini Archibong, Connected was a way of channelling his concerns about the wellbeing and livelihood of others during the Covid-19 crisis. ‘The Gate’ is characteristically fantastical, both in form and concept. Its hexagonal plinth, made up of a mix of red oak and cherry, was inspired by the basalt landscape of the Giant’s Causeway, while its tabletop is representative of the earth and sky. Archibong also incorporated tactile, moveable brass petals in the piece to keep his children occupied.

Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska’s seat is subtly curved, and was crafted using a process similar to barrel-making. Sebastian Herkner devised a modern take on the Lazy Susan for his tabletop, allowing organically shaped trays to slide along it in an oh-so-satisfying way.

Having had no physical contact during the process, the designers will see their pieces in person for the first time when they go on show at London’s Design Museum from 11 September. Perhaps a bit risky? ‘I don’t think so,’ says Marcelis. ‘With Benchmark, there’s a blind trust that it’s going to be OK.’

Explore the ‘Connected’ by Benchmark and AHEC projects below

‘Nordic Pioneer’ by Maria BruunRippled maple

Bruun’s choice of wood, rippled maple, is one often used for stringed instruments and has a wiggling grain formed by a genetic mutation. She has designed a gateleg table with a timber hinge, allowing a work surface, for example, to be raised and lowered as needed. It comes with a chair, and stackable stools with rounded wooden seat pads to match the table and chair feet.

‘Arco’ by Maria Jeglinska-AdamczewskaCherry

Jeglinska-Adamczewska’s designs are all about sculptural curves, with forms based on the architecture of Benedictine abbeys. The shape of her chair has been constructed using barrel-making techniques, while her accompanying table features angled legs and planks that have been grainmatched and machined.

‘Humble Administrator’s Table & Chair’ by Studio SwineRed oak and cherry

Throne-like in its stature, Studio Swine’s chair features perhaps some of the most ambitious steam-bending undertaken by the Benchmark workshop – it took six craftspeople and a specially constructed jig to complete. The design duo’s cleanlined cherry table design incorporates a simple laptop shelf.

‘Pink Moon’ by StudiopepeMaple

The ‘Super Pink Moon’ phenomenon (a supermoon occurring in April) is named after a pink spring wildflower, Phlox subulata, and is often associated with new beginnings. Studiopepe’s ‘Pink Moon’ collection features a maple ‘moon’, suspended within a Charles Rennie Mackintosh-inspired chair frame. Table legs feature graphic, stained timber inlays.

‘Mesamachine’ by Jaime HayonCherry

Hayon’s collection features a table with storage and extendable shelves, a bench, and two stools, each with a smiley face carved into its top in a typical show of wit. Earlier in his career, wood was Hayon’s material of choice, and Connected offered him the opportunity to revisit it. He was keen to let the cherry wood speak for itself, opting to finish it simply with a clear oil.

‘Stammtisch’ by Sebastian HerknerRed oak and maple

Narrow tracks run along the tabletop of Herkner’s ‘Stammtisch’ collection, allowing plinth-like trays to move across its surface in a swift, satisfying motion. Keen to create a ‘landscape’, he has used different woods and finishes: the table is in bleached red oak with a white matt oiled finish, the larger tray is in ammonia-fumed maple, and the stools and small tray are in scorched red oak.

‘The Kadamba Gate’ by Ini ArchibongRed oak and cherry

Archibong’s outdoor collection is inspired by the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. The table’s underframe is made from stepping stone-like extrusions in a mix of timbers. The cambered red oak top is coated in a glossy green lacquer, with inlay brass details doubling as drainage. Two matching benches have seat pads made by leather specialist Bill Amberg Studio.

‘Candy Cubicle’ by Sabine MarcelisMaple veneer

During lockdown, Marcelis became fed up of seeing her architect partner’s monitor on the dining table of their open-plan loft. So she devised her ‘Candy Cubicle’ – a plain maple veneer box that conceals tools for working, including an all-important space to hide the monitor. In a nod to the briefcase scene in Pulp Fiction (its contents remain a mystery), she created an acid-yellow interior, only visible once the box is opened.

‘Stem’ by Thomas HeatherwickMaple

When Heatherwick moved close to his studio in London’s King’s Cross, a home office wasn’t a priority – until lockdown hit. Then, keen to create a green, Zoom-friendly work space, he designed a glass-topped table with stack-laminated, CNC-carved table legs that double as planters, a shelving unit, and a CNC-carved seat upholstered in Gotland shearling. Inspired by nature, each carved rib on the timber is unique

A version of this article originally featured in the October 2020 issue of Wallpaper* (W*258)

INFORMATION

‘Connected’ is on view at Design Museum, 11 September -11 October

designmuseum.org; benchmarkfurniturecom; americanhardwood.org

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and since the outbreak of Covid-19, designers across the globe have been pouring their creativity into producing inventive products that could help to prevent the spread of the virus. Hoping to harness this wave of creativity and raise money for the Red Cross in the process, experiential design company, Bompas & Parr teamed up with the Design Museum to launch a hand sanitiser design competition named The Fountain of Hygiene.

Open to designers, makers or those simply with a good idea, participants were invited to submit their designs for a future vision of hand sanitising. ‘It is hoped that this will accelerate the establishment of new behavioural norms, which benefit the ongoing health of global society,’ says the organisers, who donated the competition’s suggested entry fee to the British Red Cross to support its efforts fighting the pandemic. ‘Ultimately, the aim is to explore how people can safely re-enter the public realm.’

The entries were divided into eight categories that included Luxury Design, Sustainable Design and Hygiene Innovation Beyond the Sanitiser. Each entry was evaluated by a panel of esteemed panel of design experts and judged on its innovation, functionality, social impact and aesthetic.

Topping the Luxury design category, Sally Reynolds’ Step One is a pedal-activated sanitiser dispenser unit made from recycled plastics that have the appearance of colourful terrazzo stone. Activated by a copper foot pedal, the unit dispenses the gel through an elegant copper spout without the user having to touch anything with their hands.

Conrad Haddaway, Twomuch Studio & Inga Ziemele won in the Hygiene Innovation Beyond the Sanitiser category, for their ‘Centrepeace’ which is designed to sit in the centre of the table at mealtimes. Three shelves designed to hold two phones are positioned around a central stem where an ozone-generating UV light shines onto and sterilises the phones when inserted. The design not only ensures hands stay clean at the table but also encourages peaceful mealtimes free from digital distractions.

Terry Hearnshaw was crowned winner of the Sustainable category with his unit dose dispensing system, the Seaweed Capsule. Gumball-like capsules made from seaweed are dispensed from the machine and designed to burst open in clenched hands to release a measured amount of hand sanitizer.

The winning projects are displayed currently at the Design Museum, and will soon be auctioned off by Christie’s to generate further funds for the Red Cross.

‘Developing widely adopted strategies for safely socialising is essential for the continued dynamism of the global economy,’ says Harry Parr, director of Bompas & Parr. ‘Humans are social beings and the right artefacts have a role in getting us through.’

INFORMATION

bompasandparr.com

London Design Museum's weekly #DesignDispatches series sees the museum's chief executive and director Tim Marlow in discussion with leading lights from the intersecting worlds of fashion, design and architecture. In this special edition, which you are able to watch on the museum's Instagram at 2pm on Saturday 16 May, Marlow moderates the conversation between architect Sir David Adjaye and fashion designer Stella McCartney.

Alongside inspiring insights into the two creative giant's careers, they discuss the similarities between their respective industries, how sustainability plays a central part in their ethos', and how technology is influencing both worlds. They also speak to the very prescient matter of how the architecture and fashion communities will respond to the Covid-19 world.

‘It's the first time in history that we're going be able to have geography lessons on this impact. And understand what the true impact is of the human on the planet and its resources,' says McCartney during the discussion, of the pandemic.

The pairing of the two speakers is a clever one; it speaks to the intersection of their respective industries. ‘Exploring the interconnected nature of various areas of design as well as their differences is something that fascinates me, explains Marlow. ‘So the chance to bring Stella and David together and listen to their ensuing conversation was inspiring and revelatory. It reinforces the idea that design in its broadest and richest sense holds the key to so much of our collective future.'

The talk forms part of a lively digital programme from the Design Museum, which also features a design-minded home schooling course. Stella McCartney, too, is presenting collaborative work on its Instagram, where creatives from across the ‘StellaVision' network come together to share the ways to thrive and survive in this new reality.

INFORMATION

designmuseum.org

Overall and digital category winner: ‘Anatomy of an AI System’ by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler

Do we know our voice assistants well enough? This is the question posed by the overall winner of the Beazley Designs of the Year award, a project from the Digital category by Kate Crawford of AI Now Institute and Vladan Joler. Anatomy of an AI System allows you to visually navigate how your AI devise has impacted the world over time.

Problem solving and technology spearhead the winning list of projects, chosen by this year’s judges: Wallpaper* Editor-in-Chief Sarah Douglas; vice chancellor at Royal College of Art Dr. Paul Thompson; designers Yinka Illori and Martino Gamper; product design director at Facebook Melissa Hajj and creative director at Dr. Martens, Damien Wilson. Anatomy of an AI System is a map that delves deep from the birth to the death of a devise – from how the listening tools capitalise on our emotions with targeted advertising to the environmental dump of metal pollutants in our hills and streets long after we part ways with the product.

Presenting the data in a consumable chart, the project asks whether these atmospheric assistants are worth it on a long-term scale. ‘[This project] makes everyone who sees it think about all the unseen impact of tech hardware. You will never look at your smart home hub in the same way again,’ says Thompson, chairman of the 2019 judges.

Digital tools were found useful in Sameep Padora and Associates’s project that scooped the Architecture category accolade for Maya Somaiya Library in Mumbai. This space is much more than just a book cove though, as it doubles as a usable landscape for the public to explore. Using high-tech form-finding software, its curved brick structure is realised – a feat of engineering that is an ode to Uruguayan engineer Eladio Dieste.

‘The Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition brings to the forefront the most revealing, intriguing and exciting new design from around the world and is a vital part of the museum’s programme,’ says Deyan Sudjic, co-director of the Design Museum. Adidas was honoured in the Fashion category, with its Korean-inspired Cozy Collection by Ji Won Choi – an architectural street wear range that reimagines the three stripes in hues of lilac, red, navy and green.

Problem solving projects come by way of the Graphics, Product and Transport winners. Here, Sascha Lobe from Pentagram’s architectural branding for cosmetic brand Amorepacific’s HQ in Seoul was awarded the Graphics prize. Working closely with David Chipperfield to create signage that reflects the surroundings, like the river, mountain and park, they devised a new type of Latin to help connect the dots between language and communication. Elsewhere, British designer Hans Razman’s portable HIV test, CATCH: The HIV Detector, won the best Product category. The low cost kit tests for the virus in just three steps and hopes to provide rapid diagnosis in locations without easy access to healthcare.

While safety around self-driving remains sceptical, its innovations are still recognised, like the Transport category winner, the GACHA Self-driving Shuttle Bus, by MUJI and Sensible 4. This is a forward-thinking model that aims to help smaller communities and the older generation with its compact, minimalist design that is weather resistant. Meanwhile, this year’s public vote winner has been awarded to MySleeve by Marie Van den Broeck, a simple yet effective silicone cover that allows for grip and extra comfort on crutches.

Until 9 February, these designs along with the 70 other nominations will be on view in exhibition curated by Beatrice Galilee and realised by 3D designer Pernilla Ohrstedt with graphics by Zak Group. Explore the full shortlist here. 

INFORMATION

Beazley Designs of the Year, until 9 February 2020

designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St, Kensington, London W8 6AG

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The European Space Agency often get asked why they want to explore Mars. The first answer is, because it’s there, and secondly it has a huge amount to teach us – mainly concerning the evolution of the solar system, rock formations, greenhouse effects. But what does that mean for you and I, and the next generation?

The question of actually inhabiting Mars offers up a whole new set of queries – psychological, philosophical and practical ones. How do we stay human on a place not designed for humans? And, how are we going to stay safe and sane on a nine month journey to Mars? At what point do we become Martians? – these are some of the complex questions the exhibition asks through prototypes, research projects and products by scientists and designers.

The first part of the exhibition sets the scene with the history of our human knowledge of Mars and recorded resources, from Giovanni Schiaparelli’s drawings from the Brera Observatory in Milan to Percival Lowell’s 1896 book Mars. Popular culture references like copies of Authentic magazine to Paul Verhoeven’s film Total Recall set in 2084 capture our fictional fantasy accounts of the planet too, but soon, sci-fi turns to near future reality.

Looking at vacuum packed food by NASA and watching videos of astronauts floating in a rocket suddenly feels like watching an in-flight safety video. Designer Konstantin Grcic has designed a table for in-flight dining at zero gravity for the ride. While Anna Talvi, who works between biomedical science, material science and design, presents a bodysuit made out of a smart membrane that helps humans retain muscle in a microgravity.

But it’s not all slow-mo somersaults and chucking around M&Ms. Lucy McRae’s video work Institute of Isolation questions what might happen when you are confined with a few other people in a small space for a long time. A solution to homesickness might be smelling Talvi’s ‘Earth-memory smell-scape gloves’ that capture the scent of freshly cut grass, and other earthly smells.

It’s mid-afternoon on Mars, when you arrive, and there’s a hazy light descending over a landscape of red rocks near Glen Torridon, a mountain range namedafter its Scottish equivalent. It’s beautiful, but it’s not a sci-fi set. Suddenly, the air becomes thicker, instead of rain shower on Mars, where there is no water, a toxic dust storm descends, and it could last for months.

You take shelter inside your new home, built of compacted regolith, Mars’ loose sandy topsoil. The house has to be gas tight – SEArch+ suggest a high-density polythene lining, while Foster + Partners suggest an inflated inner pod. The exhibition offers up an opportunity to step inside a life-size Mars house designed by Hassell and constructed by ‘swarm robotics’ – a group of collaborative robots. It’s fun, but it’s lacking hygge.

There’s a kitchen, a hydroponic farming kit by GrowStack and you can also grow a Mars boot, designed by Liz Ciokajlo and Maurizio Montalti, out of fungal spores. There’s a sewing machine too – designer Graham Raeburn has designed a collection of clothing based upon reuse of solar blankets and parachutes, so you’ll need that when you get there.

While thinking speculatively about Mars, Raeburn’s design process, he explains, was very much tied to the problems we have here on earth too. To avoid polluting another planet, all of his designs are focused on sustainability, re-use and re-cycling. All evidence points to the looming possibilities of Mars travel, but the strength of the exhibition also lies in its ability to show the relevance of the projects back to earth.

Eleanor Watson, assistant curator, explained how the question of ‘being human’ became an open-ended query for the curators, not yet ready to be solved: ‘Does moving to Mars make you a post-human because you are having to adapt your body so much to another planet?’ she asks. ‘Mars has 40 extra minutes in the day. Do you live a normal day and have an extra 40 minutes at the end? Do you stretch the minute? What does that mean to your relationships on earth, your circadian rhythm?’

All these questions feel fairly unnerving and fururistic, but the reality is that most children seeing this exhibition will be able to visit Mars in their lifetime. For their contribution, SuperUber and futurist Thomas Ermacora created a video, Mars 2100 Expedition, to take you on the emotional journey of an astronaut travelling to space, placing you ‘into the shoes (or helmet) of an astronaut in 2100 going to Mars’. Using a first person narrative and animated visuals, the team hoped to create an approachable and accessible insight into that experience: ‘Such a leap for humanity probably shouldn’t be left to a few competing space entrepreneurs and governments to decide the purpose. It is time to ask the public what they think Mars should be about.’

INFORMATION

‘Moving to Mars’ is on view at Design Museum, London, until 23 February 2020

designmuseum.org

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High street
London
W8 6AG

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There's no life on Mars – yet. The prospect of humans going to the Red Planet could finally be leaving the realms of science-fiction: NASA plans a manned Mars mission by the mid-2030s; Elon Musk's Space X aims to get there in 2024. It is not just about the journey, though. Given the challenging travel windows (Earth and Mars align once every two years; a one-way trip takes six to nine months), any visitor to Mars is going to be staying there for some time. Conditions are hardly hospitable, either. Mars' gravity is 38 per cent that of Earth's, there is virtually no atmosphere, so air pressure is negligible, solar radiation levels are dangerously high, and the daily temperature fluctuation can be as high as 150 degrees centigrade. Meteor impacts are also common.

These radically different parameters are generating radical new kinds of architecture and design. ‘Moving To Mars’, a new exhibition at London's Design Museum this October, promises to be a major showcase for these new Martian arts; while US firm AI Spacefactory is creating a 3D printed experience of Mars life in the woods of upstate New York, completing this autumn to launch to the public in March 2020.

It is not just a design challenge; building on Mars is also a construction challenge. Transporting building materials 56 million km is out of the question. There is little choice but to work with the material available: Martian rock, known as regolith. The current thinking is to send autonomous robots in advance to process this regolith into a material suitable for 3D printing, then to construct habitats remotely, ready for the first human arrivals. Again, this is no longer as sci-fi as it sounds. For the past three years NASA has been running a 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, testing competing designs and materials, and moving the technology forwards – to the extent that new ‘interplanetary' architecture practices are emerging, combining old-school design skills and space-tech expertise.

MARSHA by AI Spacefactory

Winner of the final phase of NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, Marsha is for a relatively tall tower, enabling views across the landscape and a vertical separation of functions - outdoor and laboratory functions on lower floors, living quarters above.  New York-based AI Spacefactory, founded by ex-skyscraper architect David Malott, developed their own ‘Martian polymer', containing basalt fibres, which is stronger than concrete and fully recyclable. An Earth-friendly prototype of Marsha - Terrra - is currently under construction in upstate New York.

Mars Science City, Dubai by BIG

The UAE government is funding this 57,000 sq m experiment in ‘Martian vernacular architecture': a group of intersecting, transparent domes in Dubai's Mushrif Desert. On Mars, they will contain 3D-printed, semi-subterranean structures, protected from a least some of the Martian elements; in Dubai, they will house exhibition, research and education spaces - something like an interplanetary Eden Project.

Mars X House by SEArch & Apis Cor

New York-based, female-led Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+) entered an earlier phase of NASA's 3D Printed Habitat competition with an ingenious structure whose outer shell was of made of ice. That was considered bending the rules too far, however. This later proposal, which won NASA's 100 per cent virtual design stage, calls for a hyberboloid 3D-printed structure with hexagonal porthole windows and an external emergency stair exit resembling a helter skelter.

Mars Habitat by Foster and Partners

Fosters' Specialist Modelling Group has been exploring space-related projects for over 15 years, exploring concepts for the European Space Agency, developing materials and even designing construction robots (also to be included in the Design Museum exhibition). Their entry to the NASA competition consists of inflatable modules sitting within a 1.5 metre-deep crater, all covered by a protective, 3D-printed shell.

Mars Habitat by Hassell Studio

Hassell Studio opts for a Star Wars aesthetic with this low-slung design, squeezing prefabricated living and work pods underneath a thick 3D-printed shell. A full-scale mock-up of the habitat will be included in the Design Museum exhibition, equipped with clothing from Raeburn's 2020 spring/summer collection of clothing made from recycled solar blankets and parachutes.

Seed Of Life by Warith/Amir 

A novel alternative to the 3D printing route, this scheme proposes bamboo as a building material. The bamboo could be grown on Mars, suggest young Malaysian designers Zaki Warith and Amir Amzar. Robots would then weave it into a balloon-shaped shelter around a pressurised ETFE membrane. For extra protection from the Martian elements, the bamboo structure could be filled with ice, and habitats could be grouped together to create a greenhouse space in between. The logistics would be challenging, but there's an Earthly homeliness to it.

INFORMATION
‘Moving to Mars’; 18 October – 23 February. designmuseum.org

Festivities for the Design Museum’s 30th birthday have kicked off with the unveiling of a set of commemorative graphics drawn up by dozens of designers in honour of the London institution.

Salutations from the museum's founder Sir Terence Conran, its interior designer John Pawson and the fashion designer Paul Smith are among almost 40 contributions to the series, which began on social media. ‘It started off as a small fun project for social media. It has since snowballed. We realised that designers were enjoying the prospect of a such a simple, perhaps even frivolous, brief,’ says Josephine Chanter, the museum’s director of audiences.

Conran’s own offering to the project he considers the pinnacle of his career is an animated ‘30’ built from candy-hued triangles, circles and blocks. He says of the milestone: ‘[if I was] asked to pick the single most rewarding achievement in my long design career so far, I would not hesitate to say firmly the Design Museum in London.’

The Design Museum opened in July 1989 inside a former banana-ripening warehouse in Shad Thames, where it remained for 25 years before relocating to Kensington in 2016. It was a homecoming in a sense, as it was here in the V&A’s Boilerhouse Project in the early 1980s where Conran first experimented with the idea for the museum, spotlighting the Memphis Group at one of these early exhibitions. Founding member of the Milanese collective, Nathalie Du Pasquier, sent a characteristically patterned token to mark the momentous occasion.

The Design Museum now resides in the Grade II*-listed former Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street, remodelled for the purpose by OMA, Allies and Morrison, and John Pawson – who has extended his restrained style to the festivities with a ‘thirty’ inscribed by hand. Illustrator Quentin Blake followed suit with a simply sketched ‘30’, while Peter Saville turned to Roman numerals for his graphic.

Contributions spanning the industry – from the artist Antony Gormley and illustrator Matt Blease, to industrial designers Hella Jongerius and Kenneth Grange, and fashion designer Anya Hindmarch – continue the museum's ethos of exploring the breadth of design today. ‘If I go back to my original thinking about the Design Museum and what had influenced me, it was those wonderful Triennale exhibitions in Milan which showed excellent design from throughout the world, and that’s what I felt was important for the British economy,’ says Conran in an interview with 2019 designer in residence, Ella Bulley, to mark the anniversary. ‘Design is such a fascinating world and only recently people begin to understand how fundamental design is to the quality of life.’

The 2019 exhibition programme makes bridges to architecture and film with ‘David Adjaye: Making Memory’ (until 4 August 2019) and ‘Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition’ (until 15 September); and in the autumn a showcase of the years’s best new design, Beazley Designs of the Year 2019, will be presented alongside a look to the future of space colonisation with ‘Moving to Mars’.

An archival display, ‘Made in 1989 – Celebrating 30 years of the Design Museum’, is on also show until 12 January 2020, with the 30th anniversary emblems are presented online on the museum's website. ‘We have had lots of suggestions of what we should do with the 30s – a fundraising auction, a set of 30th birthday cards, an online gallery, watch this space!,’ says Chanter.

INFORMATION

designmuseum.org

Designing architecture exhibitions can be notoriously tricky. Attempting to represent the experience and impact of being in any particular building or interior, while in the constraints of an entirely different space, often thousands of miles away, is an elusive goal. Add to this the challenge of embedding exhibitions within a strong theoretical base, and curators are often faced with a tough task. The newly opened ‘David Adjaye: Making Memory' exhibition at London's Design Museum, successfully manages to avoid the common pitfalls, launching a succinct and to-the-point display that opens to the wider public from 2 February.

The show focuses on work by Sir David Adjaye and his London, New York and Accra-based architecture practice, Adjaye Associates, while examining the idea of the monument – a theme that, as the exhibition proves, has long been aligned with the studio's thought processes. Elaborating on ‘how architecture and form are used as storytelling devices', this showcase is informative and captivating, using clean design and an uncluttered language, while touching upon issues such as memory, experience and representation, and of course architecture's role within them.

‘The monument is no longer a representation, it is an experience of time and place that is available to everyone', says Adjaye. ‘Whether it’s for a nation, a race, a community, or a person, it is really used as a device to talk about the many things facing people across the planet. Democratisation does not mean that monuments cease to be relevant; it requires the monument to be transformed, so that it has an inbuilt openness and can be approached and understood from many points of view.'

The visitor's journey takes place through the lens of seven of the practice's key works – some completed, some in progress and some still in development stage. Included are the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C, the new National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra; the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London (with Ron Arad Architects as Memorial Architect, and Gustafson Porter + Bowman as Landscape Architect); the Sclera Pavilion for London Design Festival 2008 (in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council); the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory; the Gwangju River Reading Room in South Korea (in collaboration with the writer Taiye Selasi); and the first opportunity to see an ‘in-depth display' of the Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Boston (with contributions by African-American artist Adam Pendleton and type designer David Reinfurt). 

There are drawings, photography and architectural models – perhaps as expected – but there's also a lot of welcome video documentation of Adjaye talking about the projects, as well as input from his creative collaborators on some of these projects. 

The show was designed by Adjaye Associates together with the Design Museum – perhaps a challenge in itself (one could argue that it requires some distance to engage with a subject with a fresh eye), but one that the studio responded to with flair, offering an exhibition that's truly in sync with its subject matter.

Information

‘David Adjaye: Making Memory' is on at the Design Museum in London until 05 May 2019. For more information visit the Adjaye Associates website and the Design Museum website

Address

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

UK-based Forensic Architecture’s ‘Counter Investigations’ exhibition wins Beazley Design of the Year 2018, as announced at London’s Design Museum tonight. Meanwhile Thomas Heatherwick’s concrete marvel Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town wins the Architecture accolade and Erdem Moralıoğlu is honoured for his innovative Royal Ballet costumes in the Fashion category.

Forensic Architecture, an independent research agency based at Goldsmiths University London, was chosen by this year’s distinguished jury that includes designer Tord Boontje; Ian Callum, director of design at Jaguar; Paul Priestman, chairman of PriestmanGood; Robert Devereux, chairman of The Conduit; Melodie Leung, senior associate at Zaha Hadid Architects and fashion designer Roksanda Ilinčić.

The dynamic research in Counter Investigations acts as a digital examination unit that unearths miscarriages of justice and international war crimes via its architectural analysis of imagery, maps, texts, films and more. In addition to scooping the most prestigious award, the firm was also recipient of the Digital gong.

‘Their application of architectural skills to the re-creation of past events is extraordinarily innovative, intellectually rigorous and will make a significant contribution to justice,’ comments juror Devereux on the big win. Evidently a golden year for Forensic Architecture, the practice has also been nominated for the Turner Prize. Last year’s winner of the Beazley Design of the Year award was David Adjaye’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

In the Fashion category, womenswear designer Erdem Moralıoğlu was triumphant, winning for his armour-like twist on elegance in the form of Grecian-inspired Royal Ballet costumes for Christopher Wheeldon’s production of Corybantic Games.

Also victorious is Heatherwick Studio in the Architecture category with its disused grain silo on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. Described as a ‘museum carved from concrete', the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa has won numerous plaudits since its completion in September 2017.

The Beazley shortlist always reflects current global issues so naturally sustainable design was represented within the shortlist. Plastic Oceans Foundation and LADbible’s project that raises awareness about the plastic pollution problem scooped the Graphics award. They have created passports, stamps and currency – a ‘national identity’ – for a fictional ‘Trash Isles,’ an imagined area the size of France in the Pacific Ocean that is currently flooded with plastic.

Meanwhile, in the Transport category, SpaceX won for ‘Falcon Heavy’, its economical and reusable rocket for commercial space travel.

There were a handful winners operating in the medical arena too with Paperfuge, a low-tech kit which performs blood tests by Prakash Lab scooping the Product prize. Affordable and easily accessible, the kit consists of readily available materials – string, plastic and paper – and produces quick results.

Winning the 2018 People’s Choice prize, as voted for by Design Museum visitors, is SurgiBox. This groundbreaking portable operating theatre, created by Debbie Teodorescu, Mike Teodorescu, Stephen Okajima and Team SurgiBox, can fit into a backpack and is 99.9 per cent sterile.

Aric Chen from M+ museum in Hong Kong has curated this year’s Designs of the Year showcase at the museum, displaying the shortlist in categories of political, social and economical issues in our world today and putting these celebrated designs on a pedestal as powers to create positive change.

Jury member Devereux, whose members club The Conduit operates a programme focused on social and environmental change, was inspired by his experience of judging the Beazley awards. ‘It reminded me that design touches every part of our lives and that it potentially holds the solution to many of our current dilemmas,’ he said. ‘It left me full of hope.’

INFORMATION
Beazley Designs of the Year 2018 is on view until 6 September. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High St
Kensington
London
W8 6AG

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What has the past got to tell us about the future? That’s the question posed by the Design Museum’s upcoming show: ‘Home Futures’.

Curator Eszter Steierhoffer puts 20th century prototypes up against the latest innovations in domestic living, allowing visitors to wonder whether yesterday’s fantasies have become today’s reality (and which version of the future is better looking).

‘It became clear that a lot of the topics we’re dealing with today – lack of space in big urban centres, nomadic behaviours, tech in home, sustainability and self-sufficiency – are issues that were present throughout the 20th century,’ says Steierhoffer.

Steierhoffer’s jumping off point was MoMA’s 1972 show, ‘Italy: The New Domestic Landscape’. ‘In the 20th century, there was a special relationship with the future,’ she adds, ‘the future became the point of reference to determine the present.’

There are more than 150 objects and ‘experiences’ on display, including original furniture from the Smithsons’ 1956 House of the Future; original footage from the General Motors’ Kitchen of Tomorrow of the same year; and two delights from 1972: Ettore Sottsass’ Home Environment, and an original model of Joe Colombo’s Total Furnishing Unit.

And were these creatives’ vision of the future better looking than today’s efforts? That, says Steierhoffer, is very subjective. ‘21st century ideas look very different from an aesthetic point of view, and less futuristic. The most futuristic idea of the smart home today has midcentury furniture in it.’

New York-based architect SO-IL was tasked with creating an exhibition design that will display domestic behaviour in a museum context. Their solution: a number of areas zoned with semi-transparent mesh. Meanwhile, the graphics and catalogue are the work of London graphic design practice John Morgan Studio.

Come spring 2019, the show – which was organised in partnership with the IKEA Museum – will relocate to Älmhult, Sweden. 

INFORMATION

‘Home Futures’ is on view 7 November 2018 – 24 March 2019. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High Street
Kensington
London
W8 6AG

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Azzedine Alaïa dedicated his life to designing clothes that transcended trends, super-enhanced the female physique and upheld the classical ideal. His designs had an apparent simplicity, hard-won through fearless experimentation and technical complexity. One of the last projects he worked on before he passed away in November 2017 was a solo show at London’s Design Museum that would tie in with a new Maison Alaïa flagship store on Bond Street.

Alaïa had prepared the exhibition with gallerist Carla Sozzani, curator Mark Wilson, and the co-director of the Design Museum Alice Black. Entitled ‘Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier’, it will showcase more than 60 outstanding pieces in front of a series of five monumental screens. ‘There has never been an Alaïa show in London. He did not stage big fashion shows and while he was an icon, he was also quite private,’ says Sozzani, founder of Galleria Carla Sozzani and 10 Corso Como in Milan. ‘People don’t necessarily know about his work so it’s wonderful to have this show – the first fashion exhibition at the Design Museum’s Kensington location.’

‘We saw the show as an installation rather than a retrospective,’ says Wilson, who had masterminded two Alaïa shows in 1997 and 2011 at the Netherlands’ Groninger Museum, where he works as chief curator. He came up with the idea for the screens to highlight the sculptural qualities of Alaïa’s clothes: ‘The architectural interventions allow for a 360-degree take on every piece. And it was obvious as to who would make them, as Alaïa had such great relationships with those designers and collected their work.’

Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Kris Ruhs and the Bouroullec brothers were invited to collaborate. To all, Alaïa was a friend, patron and mentor. The brief was to create screens that would complement Alaïa’s work. All battled with the structural complexities of making vast freestanding pieces that could be assembled on site.

In terms of scale, Newson’s is the most ambitious. ‘It was crucial that the pieces remain about Alaïa rather than those intervening to enhance his work,’ says Newson. ‘That’s what we do as designers. I am always working for clients before working for myself. This project was no different, but there is a personal tinge to it because of our friendship,’ adds Newson, who first met Alaïa, through Sozzani, when living in Paris in the early 1990s.

Alaïa collected numerous Newson pieces, including the first aluminium lounger that he made as part of his graduate collection at art school in Sydney. ‘I’ve no idea of how he got hold of it,’ says Newson.

‘There are qualities in Alaïa’s work which shine through: simplicity mixed with technical complexity, rigour, subtlety, sensuality and transparency,’ he continues. ‘There is transparency in many of his garments and that is also the quality of a screen. It’s not a wall, but it has to have some play of light and movement within the absolute structural parameters.’ Newson chose anodised aluminium for his design, adding ‘the metal contrasts and complements the idea that everything around it is a textile’.

The piece, made by aluminium specialist Neal Feay in California, comprises 64 giant tiles, patterned using machine tools and boasting a soft, velvet-like surface. ‘The panels intersect, creating a random yet orderly pattern – almost like a houndstooth,’ says Newson. ‘The anodising process creates these subtle, profound colours – in this case, a flesh pink hue that Alaïa loved. It doesn’t look like hard metal, but sensual and tactile.’

The mission of giving hard surfaces a soft textile-like appearance is a nod to Alaïa’s own material experiments. If he could not find what he liked, he had it developed. He worked in densely-knit tricot for his famous body-sculpting dresses, in fine leather that he made appear as malleable as silk, in semisheer chiffon, sinuous bias-cut silk jersey and laser-cut lace. ‘He would often combine hard architectural elements, such as studs, with fluid materials, creating a tension,’ says Wilson, who has arranged the garments in themes, including volume, African-inspired outfits, black and bandage dresses.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec first met Alaïa in 2002 at the opening of their show at Galerie Kreo. Alaïa bought almost the entire collection. ‘It was a sympathetic meeting of shy people with like minds,’ says Ronan. For the Design Museum show, the duo decided on a glass screen. ‘Alaïa had a very precise understanding of silhouette. His clothes are elegant, refined and precise,’ says Ronan. Their textured glass panels (manufactured by Schott AG in Germany) are embedded with a film that creates a wave of gradating grey tones. ‘The quality is neither transparent nor opaque, but translucent,’ says Ronan.

It will be in sharp contrast to the contribution from sculptor Kris Ruhs, who worked with craftsmen in his Marrakech studio for a highly textural, organic piece. ‘It’s like a piece of jewellery, handmade in aluminium,’ says Ruhs. The artist, who created accessories for Alaïa, as well as store interiors, has also worked on a second screen for the show, to display artworks by Alaïa’s partner Christoph von Weyhe.

Konstantin Grcic’s screen is fashioned from polished stainless steel, manufactured by Ronchetti in Italy. ‘Because of the reflective surface, the material becomes somewhat immaterial, like a mirror,’ says Grcic, who constructed the piece from a grid-like pattern of panels. ‘The metal has an undulating surface and one edge is laser cut in a zigzag, like the cut of a tailor’s pinking shears.’ Alaïa owned several Grcic pieces, including a table and a vitrine from his Galerie Kreo shows.

Alaïa’s extensive collection of design and fashion is meticulously archived and housed in the Marais. ‘It’s a subterranean space that has to be as big as a Parisian block,’ says Newson. Works are also on show in his atelier and in stores. The 6,000 sq ft Maison Alaïa store on Bond Street, which is set over three floors, displays designs by Piero Lissoni, Renzo Piano, Naoto Fukasawa, wall sculptures by Ruhs and paintings by von Weyhe, curated by Alaïa and Sozzani, who will now oversee the studio and collections and head up the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation.

Alaïa’s last couture collection was presented in July 2017 and starred his friend Naomi Campbell in a striking velvet bodice and studded pleated gown. Several pieces from this collection will be on show. The giant-scale outfits are juxtaposed with film footage and Richard Wentworth’s almost forensic photographs of the atelier, which he shot over a period of two years. Legions of devotees, including Charlotte Stockdale, Farida Khelfa, Sofia Coppola, Brigitte Macron and Michelle Obama, worship the liberation (the construction is so meticulous that constrictive underwear is unnecessary) and refined eroticism of Alaïa’s clothes. At the time of his death, he was occupied with rescaling all the looks in the show to work with the epic dimensions of the installation.

Just as there is a sense of beautiful complicity between the couturier and the wearer, with Alaïa’s clothes there is also a union of design and culture. ‘All the designers you speak to have such reverence for Alaïa. Through the show we wanted to underline and appreciate that,’ says Black. Adds Newson, ‘Alaïa’s sphere of appreciation was just so broad – he was far more interested in design in general than fashion specifically.’

That like-mindedness was not simply theoretical. It was in Alaïa’s kitchen during his frequent gatherings that bonds were sealed. ‘His circle of friends was vast and from all walks of life. You could be sitting next to Catherine Deneuve, Lauren Bacall, Tadao Ando or Jack Lang – he had a fervid interest in so many things, a big heart and a really mischievous sense of humour,’ reminisces Newson. Says Wilson, ‘The exhibition will be a vision of the epic and the intimate, and a celebration of a generous genius at the epicentre of 20th- and 21st-century design.

Much of Alaïa’s design collection was purchased from Didier and Clémence Krzentowski, founders of Galerie Kreo in Paris. We talk to Clémence about their relationship...

Wallpaper*: How did you first meet Alaïa?
Clémence Krzentowski: Didier and I did a show with Marc [Newson] in 2000, the year after our gallery opened, which is when we met Azzedine. We have a saying in French – ‘On s’est rencontrés et on est tombés amoureux’ – which means we met and fell in love. It was instant connection. Azzedine often referred to Didier as his brother, and Christoph [von Weyhe] said that, in some ways, they even looked alike.

W*: What was your friendship with him like?
CK: We shared all the important moments of our lives with Azzedine. He came to the gallery to see every show, and we often went to events and design fairs together. Most of our encounters were in his kitchen, which was like a second home to us. We talked about fashion and design, but also art, food and nature. He was fascinated by everything. I once asked one of his assistants what he’d learned from Azzedine and he very earnestly replied, ‘I learned life’.

W*: Who did Alaïa admire?
CK: Azzedine loved Marc’s work from the beginning. Marc barely speaks French, and Azzedine didn’t speak English, but they understood each other completely, and Azzedine had a lot of joy in designing the wedding dress for Marc’s wife, Charlotte [Stockdale]. He also had a deep respect and admiration for Konstantin [Grcic], as they were both radical thinkers who enjoyed discovering new things. As for Ronan and Erwan [Bouroullec], he collected their work from the beginning. And since they lived in Paris, they would sometimes come to his kitchen, too.

W*: Do you see similarities in the ways in which Alaïa designed couture and collected furniture?
CK: He was fantastically open-minded about collecting, just as he was about designing. The only criteria he cared about was the content behind each thing. If a piece was interesting, he would want to have it, whether it was a light, a table, a chair, or a work of fashion, art or photography. But he didn’t collect that many names; it would be many pieces from the same people. His relationship with them ran deep.

W*: How was his design collection displayed?
CK: He lived with his pieces, from the Jean Prouvé petrol station that was in his bedroom to pieces by Konstantin and Ronan and Erwan. He had a lot of respect for his things, but he also believed that they should be enjoyed. Since he had too many pieces to have them all at home, the rest was kept at his Paris studio and workshop on rue de la Verrerie. Sometimes we would go and look at all the big boxes containing pieces that hadn’t yet been installed. I do hope they will find their way to his foundation.

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

Related: Jony Ive remembers Azzedine Alaïa

INFORMATION

‘Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier’ is on view until 7 October. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensinton High Street
Kensington
London
W8 6AG

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Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and a giant inflatable rubber duck. The latest exhibition at London’s Design Museum, ‘Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18’ (named after the iconic Shepard Fairey poster of Barack Obama, and the viral Trump meme, respectively) is shocking, surprising, and sometimes overwhelming.

A deep dive into graphic design of the last ten years – a decade that has seen catastrophic shifts in global politics, economy and the environment – the exhibition features everything from beer mats and badges to flags, posters and placards, with plenty of new media and technology, emphasised as perhaps the most insidious way to create and disseminate political ideas.

‘One of our main aims with “Hope to Nope” was to demonstrate that graphic design makes a demonstrable difference and to foreground its role in how people are informed, educated, entertained and provoked,’ asserts Lucienne Roberts. The graphic designer and author curated the show with fellow GraphicDesign& co-founder David Shaw, as well as Rebecca Wright and the Design Museum’s Margaret Cubbage (a book by the same name has also been published by GraphicDesign&).

‘New technology has in a sense democratised graphic design,’ Roberts explains. ‘Utilised by the marginalised and powerful alike, traditional media now rubs shoulders with the hashtag and the meme, making graphic design critical in giving everyone a political voice. Arguably, new technology has empowered grassroots activists but also resulted in targeted campaigns by political interest groups, designed to set people against one another and even destabilise political systems.’

Slogans reverberate off the walls: HOPE TRUMPS HATE, I’M IN, JE SUIS CHARLIE, I AM THE 99%. Organised into three sections (Protest, Power and Personality) ‘Hope to Nope’ makes the relationship between politics, technology and design apparent, moving from local to global campaigns, worldwide initiatives and more DIY forms of subverting the status quo, there is urgency, hilarity and absurdity here: not least in a rap video produced by the Chinese government.

‘Hope to Nope’ also reminds us of the success stories – moments that these designs propelled action. One reminder is the blue bra that was painted on the streets of Cairo in solidarity with the woman who was violently beaten by the military during civil arrest in 2011. The images proliferated online, garnering global media coverage, and prompting thousands of Egyptians to march into Tahrir Square.

Whether effective in their purpose or not, Roberts argues, graphic design – especially once out in the public space – is always political. Her own studio has worked with NGOs, trade unions and public health and education organisations. ‘Graphic design is a carrier of messages, a tool of influence used to persuade. The question we have a responsibility to ask is, “Persuade to do what and to whose benefit?”,’ she says. ‘Graphic design is rarely about graphic design after all.’

INFORMATION

‘Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18’ is on view until 12 August. ‘Hope to Nope’, £15, published by GraphicDesign&. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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Speaker systems must balance visual aesthetic, connectivity and sound quality in more intricate ways. Factors of sustainability, materiality and privacy are priorities in the technology of these gadgets too, and brands have to be smarter than ever to seamlessly integrate them into our homes. From textile models and pocket-sized powerhouses to the retro reborn, here, we present the speakers pumping out audio innovation.

Pantheone I Speaker

Australian audio brand Pantheone has revealed its Pantheone I speaker, a curvaceous freestanding egg-like object that’s unlike any other smart speaker on the market. The intriguingly sculptural design has been overseen by the company’s Creative Director, Anne-Claire Bottos, who cites the Roman Pantheon as the inspiration for the speaker, especially the way its curved geometric form is inspired by illuminated architecture. Intended to be appreciated as a standalone object when it’s not providing 360-degree stereo sound, the 65cm tall Pantheone I contains 8 speakers and has a clutch of connections, wired and wireless, including Amazon Alexa integration and a dedicated app to help your shape your sound. Founded by Oren Adani, Pantheone Audio sets itself apart from other hi-tech brands with this art-driven approach. Sonic statement don’t come much louder.

Pantheone I, from £2,199, pantheoneaudio.com

Transparent

Transparent is a Swedish audio brand founded by designers Martin Willers and Per Bricksted. With a suite of simple products, it aims to create hi-fi that with a solid, lasting feel, allowing enthusiasts to assemble a timeless system that also fits perfectly into their environment. The company’s latest product is a new version of its speaker system, previously available in wood, stone, steel and glass.

The Transparent Speaker is exactly that, a see-through system that lays its innards bare. It’s now offered with a Matte Black finish to give even strong definition to the rectangular aluminium frame that surrounds the unique tempered glass speaker enclosure.

The Small Transparent Speaker has two 3” drivers while the larger model comes with an additional 6.5” woofer. Both have been given an uprated sound processing chip and better wireless connectivity, although you can of course use conventional cables if you so desire.

Small Transparent Speaker, £450, Transparent Speaker, £900, transpa.rent

Google Nest Audio

Google’s crop of smart home products continues to gear towards a seamless future with its design-led approach. The latest smart speaker, Google Nest Audio blends into the environment with its two muted tones, charcoal and chalk. It is made minimally too with 70 per cent of its materials gained from a recycled source. Sound is not compromised though as Google boasts that this devise is 75 percent louder and has 50 percent stronger bass than the original Google Home.

The soft structure has a smooth finish that sits neatly on the surface – turn up the volume, start and stop with the invisible buttons, or click the microphone off at the rear for much-needed privacy. ‘In a time when we’re all stuck at home listening to more music than ever, we’re especially excited to introduce Nest Audio, our latest smart speaker that is made for music lovers,’ says Mark Spates, product manager at Google Nest, who describes the speaker as a ‘music machine.’ ‘Our goal was to ensure that Nest Audio stayed faithful to what the artist intended when they were in the recording studio.’

Google Nest Audio, £89, store.google.com

Model One Digital, Tivoli Audio

The revamped Model One Digital, Tivoli’s throwback DAB radio, sports a retro casing and has a comfortably familiar aesthetic. Inside, we find all the contemporary mod-cons (WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated Spotify), while matching wireless ‘Art’ speakers offer additional audio heft, for those with distant neighbours.

Topically, Tivoli Audio’s mantra reads, ‘Classic design, quality sound’, and Paul DePasquale, vice president of Tivoli Audio’s design department takes a measured approach to the ‘acoustics before aesthetics’ argument. ‘Design should never be a casualty in the pursuit of high quality audio,’ he explains. ‘Initially, design often takes precedence over sound. Yet once we start working on a product, it’s inevitable that certain design particulars are altered to address any sound issues that may arise.’

For DePasquale, the new Model One offers the best of both worlds, attracting both ‘audiophiles’ and ‘design enthusiasts’. ‘Both groups will always exist,’ he says. ‘Luckily for them the quality of audio is getting better in smaller form factors.’

Model One Digital, £119, store.wallpaper.com

P2, Beoplay

If it’s smaller-form factors you're after, the P2 is a pocket-sized powerhouse. The little brother of tech titan B&O, Beoplay knows its millennial marketplace inside out. As design and concept manager Jakob Kristoffersen puts it, ‘our products appeal to people who are characterised by a youthful and energetic approach to life’.

It’s an audience that isn’t quick to compromise, and Kristoffersen rebuffs the idea that a speaker’s shelf-appeal must concede to its audio quality. ‘We design with authentic materials and best-in-category sound. There is no prioritisation – both sound and design must deliver in unity.’

Innovatively, the P2 has absolutely button-free, and is controlled remotely by an app. To change, skip or pause a track, simply give the hand-held speaker a shake. On first impression this might seem a little gimmicky – just another digital language to learn, struggle with and swiftly forget – but the unique control design is surprisingly intuitive. It allows the largest possible surface area to be covered by the high quality pearl blasted anodised aluminium speaker-grill, and durable polymer underbelly – something which aids both ‘sound quality and aesthetic feel’, Kristoffersen adds.

P2, £150, Beoplay, bang-olufsen.com

Bunaco by Nendo

High-quality speaker design doesn't have to be high-tech. So says design titan Nendo through its Bunaco speaker, developed to make effective use of the abundance of beech trees that grow in Aomori prefecture in Japan. By rolling thin and narrow strips of beech wood to create coil-based shapes, a paper-like, easily mouldable material can be made. Usually used for objects that need to be both delicate and water-resistant, like bowls or vases, Nendo has applied the same technique to its wireless speaker. As a result of the shape of the internal cavity, the sound absorbing qualities of the beech wood, it has been proven to produce a uniquely clear and soft tone – as well as possessing an unparalleled visual fragility. 

The Bunaco has an omni-directional speaker with a vertically standing diaphragm, aiming to maximise the acoustic quality and the sound’s spatial distribution. To accentuate the beauty of Bunaco’s woodwork, the speaker is supported with a transparent acrylic cylinder. The clear base makes it possible to see the unfinished edge that is left curling from the bottom, enabling users to intuitively understand the speaker’s structure as well as the craftsmanship invested in its production.

Bunaco Speaker, bunaco.co.jp

Podspeakers

With a tag line like ‘Shaping sound’, Podspeakers bases its design ethos on the interaction between audio and visual design. ‘The curved shape for which Podspeakers is known is both a visual and an audio asset,’ explains the brand’s Alan Gornall of these bubble-shaped ‘90s throwback speakers.

When they were first introduced in 1992, Podspeakers presented ‘a new way of listening’, says Gornall. They helped you ‘hear with your eyes as well as your ears’. Now, the cult classic has been re-released and re-configured to cope with the modern listener’s demands, with luxury materials and up-to-date connected technologies, like bluetooth and wireless connectivity.

Podspeakers, from €349, podspeakers.com

Sir David Adjaye’s African American museum scooped the biggest prize at the Beazley Design Awards, winning both the overall Design of the Year and crowned this year’s architecture category victor. It's the tenth year of the Design Museum’s Beazley Designs of the Year and the second year the awards ceremony was held in the museum's new South Kensington home. Unfortunately Adjaye was unable to attend the ceremony, but he left a humbling video of acceptable, thanking those who contributed to the project.

A multi-category prize for design that ‘promotes or delivers change, enables access, extends design practice or captures the spirit of the year’ the Beazley Design Awards has a wide remit, but this is handily distilled into six clear-cut categories: architecture, digital, fashion, graphics, product and transport. This year's esteemed panel includes David Rowan (chair of the jury and editor-at-large of Wired UK); fashion designer Ozwald Boateng; Marcus Engman (design manager of IKEA Range and Supply); typesetter and designer Margaret Calvert; AL_A principal/founder Amanda Levete; Professor Gerry McGovern (chief design officer at JLR); and Michael Tchao (VP product marketing at Apple).

As ever, this year’s recipients have touched on themes of politics, social and physical mobility, race and future-proof design processes. Take the digital category, which a host of designers and engineers from US furniture-maker Steelcase and the MIT Self-Assembly Lab (in collaboration with Swiss product designer Christophe Guberan) won for ‘Rapid Liquid Printing’. Ostensibly a new-fangled 3D printing technique, RLP uses gel suspension to create large-scale custom projects; circumventing the limitations of regular 3D-printing (those being speed and size) to create furniture-scale pieces from industrial grade materials in moments.

‘Fractured Lands’ – the winner of this year’s graphics category – is a single, 42,000-word longform piece on the fracturing of the Arab world (from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the contemporary existence of ISIS and the subsequent drift of refugees from the region), that appeared in The New York Times Magazine last August. Written by Scott Anderson and shot by Paolo Pellegrin (though the design is credited to Jake Silverstein, Gail Bichler and Matt Willey, the NYTM’s editor-in-chief, design director and art director, respectively), the piece eschews the visual histrionics increasingly common to digital longform, instead embellishing the extensive text with an austere aesthetic fitting of the subject.

Bird’s-eye view of Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture by Adjaye Associates in Washington DC, the architecture and overall winner

Less sombre is Graviky Labs’ AIR-INK: the first commercially available pigments and inks made from air pollution, and the winner of the product category. The fashion category, meanwhile, has been won by a team at Nike for its single-layer, high performance Pro Hijab – a potential game changer for Muslim sportspeople (and inspired by Sarah Attar’s appearance for Saudi Arabia at the 2012 Olympics).

A group of designers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology took the transport award for Scewo. A stairclimbing wheelchair that will allow its differently abled users to reach hitherto inaccessible locations – by way of retractable rubber tracks – it also features a set of ancillary wheels that can raise the chair up to standing eye height, for more level engagement (literally and figuratively).

But the main accolade – the overall Design of the Year and this year’s architecture category victor – goes to Adjaye Associates, The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Ben and SmithGroupJJR for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Located in Washington, DC, Sir David Adjaye’s 310,000-sq-ft instant-classic houses galleries, theatres, admin spaces and collection storage, as well as directly referencing African American history through its filigree cladding. Inaugurated by President Obama in September 2016, the Design Museum describes the museum as a ‘long-awaited symbol for the African American contribution to the nation’s history and identity’.

‘Not only is this a striking and already iconic structure at the heart of America’s capital, but it's the realisation of an entire century of planning, rejection, political opposition and finally collaborative execution,’ says judge David Rowan of the decision. ‘But the building… is also a powerful reminder that design enables a diverse conversation and can challenge the dominant political discourse. We felt that, in the context of today’s strident American debate on race and identity, Adjaye’s achievement represented optimism.’ It’s a more than worthy winner.

‘Some day,’ the Design Museum add, somewhat more sassily, ‘the other museums will be showing this stuff.’

Sir David Adjaye, who couldn’t be present at the award ceremony at the Design Museum, left this video message. Produced by Red Bee

Information

The shortlisted Beazley Designs of the Year are on view until 28 January 2018. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

Address

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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Up until now the quintessential Ferrari exhibition was the display assembled by Ralph Lauren from his world-beating car collection back in Paris in 2011. Lauren’s 'L'Art de L'Automobile' wasn’t even totally dedicated to Ferrari, but the Italian marque dominated. The Design Museum’s new Ferrari blockbuster doesn’t have the space to replicate the meticulous gallery-style display Lauren maintains at his private garage in Westchester County, New York, where his priceless cars are presented both as automotive art and kept primed for everyday use. Instead, 'Ferrari: Under the Skin' is a far more claustrophobic affair, with dark red walls and dominant super-graphics and a tumbling wealth of ephemera and historical material set up alongside the cars themselves. The lighting and framing is dramatic and heroic, for this is an uncritical look at the triumphant synergy of design, engineering and branding.

Ferrari undeniably has a design story to tell, for it is one of those brands that cleverly filters its image from the highest levels (invitation only limited edition supercars) right down to the mass-market, with shop-fulls of merchandise keeping the flame alive. Curated by Andrew Nahum and Gemma Curtin, 'Under the Skin' begins as a chronological display of Ferrari’s origins, charting how Enzo Ferrari parlayed his pre-war experience as a driver and manager for the likes of Alfa Romeo’s racing team into his own car company, starting with the Ferrari 125 S of 1947. Seventy years is a substantial chunk of history to revisit, and the show’s publicity material makes a point of totting up the value of the display. £140m worth of cars is even more impressive when you realise there are only 13 in the show, alongside a scattering of models of various scales, styling bucks and engines and chassis.

That valuation alone is the reason the Ferrari legend endures (is this is the most expensive collection of objects the Design Museum has ever assembled?). One consequence is that the lustre and patina of actual use is almost entirely absent - when not being used, these cars still feel showroom fresh (you can’t even photograph one of the loan cars, lest the proliferation of its image somehow diminishes its value. Perhaps the owner has been reading Walter Benjamin).

Enzo Ferrari was already a legend before he put his name on a car. ‘He did not race to sell cars - he sold cars to keep on racing,’ one panel reads. That relationship is not so straightforward today, with Ferrari’s Formula 1 future in doubt for the first time in decades. The innovation that drives the highest of the high-end models forward might have its origins on the track, but ultimately it could just as easily be driven by the wallets of the marque’s vociferous and voracious collectors. Over the years the company has kept an iron grip on its image, without losing its finger for the pulse of popular culture. The casual graphic elegance of its 60s and 70s yearbooks is a particular highlight, and the archive imagery of car designs and sketches is compelling.

But Ferrari today is not about nostalgia. ‘We don’t like to repeat ourselves,’ insists Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari’s Senior Vice President of Design, ‘I am on a constant quest for innovation.’ Sure, there are the occasional visual quotes and references from new to old, but the company has no pattern book of forms that it relies on to give its cars a consistent image over the decade. This show elevates car and designer to heroic status but never quite gets under the skin of the brand’s raw appeal to the emotions, whether it's from rock stars or celebrity chefs right down to those who simply want an association – at any scale – with the famous prancing horse.

INFORMATION

‘Ferrari: Under the Skin’ is on view until 15 April 2018. For more information, visit the Design Museum London website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

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Architectural practice Carmody Groarke has designed the exhibition environment for Beazley Designs of the Year.

London’s Design Museum has announced the shortlist for the Beazley Designs of the Year, its annual celebration of the most notable design ideas from the past 12 months. On view at the museum from 18 October in an exhibition designed by London architects Carmody Groarke, the annual award is now in its tenth year, and has previously honoured designs such as David Bowie’s Black Star album by Jonathan Barnbrook and Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic Cauldron. Find out who won in each category and who the overall winner was here.

The 62 nominations span a wide spectrum of disciplines, including architecture, graphics, product design, fashion, transport and digital. The museum tapped an international panel of creative luminaries to select the nominees, with the final shortlist offering a broad view of contemporary design today.

The projects paint a clear picture of the current state of the world, with several entries concerned with refugees and with the political turmoil of the past year. Case in point, Wolfgang Tillmans’ pro-EU, anti-Brexit poster campaign, or the Olympic refugee flag by Yara Said, representing the very first refugee team taking part to an Olympic competition.

A strong focus on socially-driven designs is also evident in nominations such as the Calais Builds Project or Francis Kerè’s project for a secondary school in Burkina Faso, as well, the Pussyhat, which has become an iconic symbol of protest spurred by US President Donald Trump’s controversially sexist remarks.

Of course, more recreational initiatives are included, such as last year’s augmented reality Pokémon Go game, or a new interface for the Premier League’s TV branding experience, by DixonBaxi. New technologies are also featured in the list, as is an innovative use of materials, such as Max Lamb and Really’s recycled textile benches, or Chilean studio gt2P’s lava furniture. As in previous years, the selection bolsters the museum’s position as a global observatory for creative disciplines, and demonstrates the all-encompassing power of design. The winners will be announced in January next year – watch this space.

'Nimuno Loops' tape project by Anine Kirsten, Max Basler and Jaco Kruger on view at the Design Museum.

The set is made up of sculptural cave-like forms.

The angled and curved spaces are covered entirely in the recycled newspaper material, to create display areas for the works.

The sculptures are made from a sprayed paper pulp called Soundcel.

Installation view of the shortlist at the Design Museum.

Architecture nominee: Port House, Antwerp, Belgium, by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Architecture nominee: Il Fondaco Tedeschi, Venice, Italy, by OMA.

Architecture nominee: Sala Beckett Theatre and International Drama Centre, Barcelona, Spain, by Flores Prats.

Architecture nominee: The environmental enhancement of the Five Dragons Temple, Ruicheng, China, by Urbanus.

INFORMATION

The shortlisted Beazley Designs of the Year will is on view until 28 January 2018. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

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Opened this week at London’s Design Museum, Hella Jongerius’s joyful 'Breathing Colour' exhibition guides visitors through a day in vivid colour. Separated into three sections – Morning, Noon and Evening – the show explores how colour and form behave in different light conditions and how it can affect our perception of them.

‘There is a phenomenon in colorimetry called metamerism,’ says the Berlin-based Dutch designer who drew upon her studio’s 15 years of research into the topic when creating the show. ‘This was the starting point in my colour research.’

Metamerism refers to the way in which colours can look completely different depending on lighting conditions. ‘I think everyone has once bought a piece of furniture or clothing in a certain colour, and experienced a shock when unpacking it back at home,’ says Jongerius. Throughout the show, Jongerius makes a plea that we embrace the phenomenon of metamerism, stating that while most manufacturers see the effect as problematic and try to produce products with flat, unchanging hues, she encourages the use of ‘layered pigments that provide intense colours that are allowed to breathe with changing light.’

While the 'Morning' section of the showcase explores the differences between lightness and brightness with hanging resin beads and tapestries, the 'Noon' section examines the intensity of the overhead midday sun.

In the centre of the ‘Noon’ space, a crisp display of paper sculptures take centre stage, displayed across a series of coloured plinths. These are Jongerius’s ‘Colour Catchers’, versions of which can also be found throughout the 'Morning' and 'Evening' sections of the exhibition. Created by folding and gluing complex patterns of cardboard, the convex surfaces and facets in the 'Colour Catchers’ absorb and reflect the colours of the panels they rest on. The gradations of reflected colours mix with the colour of the sculpture, producing a three-dimensional colour chart. 'They are the ultimate shape to research colour, shadows and reflections. They are my canvases,’ says Jongerius.

In the darkened 'Evening' element of the exhibition, Jongerius explores shadows through an arrangement of black, customised versions of famous furniture designs by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Jean Prouve and Verner Panton. On the walls, large scale textile experiments in wool, linen and cotton threads demonstrate Jongerius’s quest to create black tones without the use of black materials. ‘The print industry commonly uses carbon to produce the colour black, this is effective but it lacks intensity and depth,’ says Jongerius. ‘It stops the colour from breathing and kills it. Replacing carbon black with another black pigment would be revolutionary.’

‘With this exhibition, I hope to build an archive and create a tool for understanding colour,’ says Jongerius of her solo show. ‘I want to demonstrate how powerful colour can be.’

INFORMATION

’Breathing Colour’ is on view until 24 September at the Design Museum. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

The Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6AG

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What do Apple, Google, and Facebook have in common with the Californian hippie movement of the 1960s? A new exhibition at London’s Design Museum explains the relationship between Silicon Valley’s eco-system and California’s freewheeling past.

‘California: Designing Freedom’ is organised around five themes, considering how individuals can control how they see, make, speak, travel, and share, using technology. Presented partly in a series of Geodesic domes — the lattice-shelled architectural structures favoured by Californian communes in the 1960s and 1970s — the curators Justin McGuirk and Brendan McGetrick demonstrate how the 1960s counterculture movements in the Golden State have inspired the ethos of its major corporations up to today, with the belief that technology can equip the individual with the tools for a better, easier, and self-sufficient life.

Through objects, archival publications, documents, and even LSD blotting paper, the benevolence of that ideology is unwavering. Stewart Brand’s 1968 Whole Earth Catalogue, a precursor to Wikipedia, for example, was an early attempt to democratise access to information; a home kit for genetic engineering is another invention that shares the intent of giving the public the tools to create change for themselves—albeit more problematic when put in to practical use.

Although this exhibition is a buoyant celebration of California as the heartland of pioneering design and technology, it’s not all gimmicks, gizmos and gadgets. In 1995, two academics at the nearby University of Westminster published an essay that also probed at the politics of the Silicon Valley, now visualised in this exhibition.

Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameroon’s The Californian Ideology pointed out the contradictions in the idealistic impulse in ‘Dotcom neoliberalism’ in Silicon Valley. The media theorists argued that the paradoxical mix of New Left and New Right beliefs in California has in fact lead to what Adam Curtis later referred to as the feeling ‘that we are helpless components in a global system’. The more pernicious consequences of technological advances in our advance capitalist system—from social immobility, to hacking and terrorism—can’t be ignored.

With some of the very recent new technologies now at our disposition, on display here: Snapchat Spectacles, Amazon Echo, FitBit and, Waymo (Google’s self-driving car, seen for the first time in the UK) the question is left hanging over the techno-utopia. From functional to fantastical, you’re left wondering whether technology has really liberated us, or made us slaves to the machine.

INFORMATION
‘California: Designing Freedom’ is on view until 15 October. For more information, visit the Design Museum London website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6SG

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Lord Foster is in a buoyant mood. Having designed and curated a new show at the Design Museum in London, ‘Cartier in Motion’, he is still reveling in the delights of aviation and horological history on display. The exhibition charts the evolution of the French company’s fine watchmaking alongside other key innovations of the early-20th century, all pivoting around the character of Louis Cartier, a major point of connection in the evolution of the modern world.

It’s unsurprising that Foster has an interest in the mythos and romance of early aviation, an age when aviators were inventors, craftsmen, test pilots and engineers all rolled into one. Fabled for his love of all things mechanical, Foster’s own image as an architect is burnished by his helicopter-flying, classic-car-restoring persona, not to mention the cutting-edge edifices his studio delivers with machinelike precision. He admits that ‘my association with Cartier began with this project. Deyan Sudjic [director of the Design Museum] asked if I was interested. I’ve always been fascinated by the links between art, architecture, aviation and design.’

The story of Louis Cartier is inseparably intertwined with the dawn of modernism. ‘I was drawn into Cartier’s circle, people like the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont,’ says Foster. The legend goes that, although he didn’t invent the idea of a wristwatch, Cartier was asked by Santos-Dumont to solve the problem of his pocket watch. ‘The wrist strap was designed to stop him fumbling in his waistcoat pocket while he was trying to control an aircraft.’

Cartier’s pioneering design became the Santos de Cartier, a watch that remains in production today. The pilot himself is one of the exhibition’s focal points, with one of his surviving Desmoiselle monoplanes at the heart of the display. Foster is in his element talking about this incredible machine, first flown in 1907. ‘I didn’t expect to find such a truly beautiful object,’ he says of his first encounter with the newly restored aircraft, tucked away in the vintage section at Paris’ Le Bourget Museum. ‘Look at the detail,’ he enthuses. ‘Look at that vertical strut!’ It’s no great stretch to draw parallels between the Desmoiselles’ successful hybrid of art and engineering and some of the great early works of high-tech architecture.

These parallels shape Foster’s curatorial approach to the exhibition. ‘There are connections between the city, the purity of line, the architecture, the engineering, all leading up through the romance and the glamour, culminating in the craftsmanship,’ he says. The progression is laid bare in a massive timeline, a mighty research work that joins the aesthetic dots between art, architecture, fashion, engineering, auto and aviation design, and practically every other facet of early-20th century culture.

In among it all is the figure of Louis Cartier, a man for whom the machine held an irresistible lure. ‘Cartier in Motion’ captures these obsessions and the products he created, all set against the backdrop of an age of technological wonder. In addition to the Santos watch, there was the Tank model, another classic, which drew inspiration from the brutish mechanicals and simple form of those early war machines.

Foster and his team are responsible, too, for the staging of the show. The cabinets, which draw on the exquisitely detailed jewellery cases used for display in Cartier’s many stores, are modular and can be adapted should the show travel. Manufactured by Italian museum specialist Goppion, they include curved glass edges and a system that allows freestanding or interlocking displays to create the sense of a grand store, a treasure trove of objects. Spectacular centrepieces act as anchors – the Desmoiselle plane, a model of the Eiffel Tower, and reproductions of the precarious high-rise seating designed by Santos-Dumont to give his dinner guests ‘an aviator’s view’.

Foster suggests that the specially commissioned models in the show have a life beyond the exhibition, becoming limited-edition objects that can travel in their vitrines to Cartier’s global stores. There’s a notable precedent. Back in the 1930s, the Cartier atelier made spectacularly elegant models, such as The Question Mark, a sterling silver scale replica of Point d’Interrogation, the first aircraft to fly from Paris to New York in 1930. This meticulous model was gifted to the Rockefeller Center by France.

The show reiterates Paris’ status as the cradle of modernity, not just in the traditional sense of avantgarde art, architecture and design, but also in terms of manufacturing, engineering and innovation. The 1889 exhibition hailed by Eiffel’s Tower gave visitors a new viewpoint on urbanism. For the first time, they could look down on a city that was not medieval and organic, but organised along rational lines by Haussmann’s grand boulevards. The visual synchronicity with Cartier’s geometric watch forms is hard to resist.

The show also includes three films, covering ‘the purity of line’, Cartier’s connections and what Foster calls the ‘nobility of making’. There will be more than 160 timepieces, as well as posters, marketing material and technical drawings from the Cartier archives. It is a rich evocation of an era hovering on the cusp of something new. ‘The pure geometry of what Cartier was doing in watchmaking anticipated the pure forms of the Bauhaus – however subliminally,’ says Foster, who hopes to ‘open visitors’ eyes to the birth of many of the things we now take for granted’. Can the show attract an audience beyond those who only know Cartier for watches and jewellery? Time will tell.

As originally featured in the Precious Index, our new watches and jewellery supplement (see W*218)

INFORMATION

‘Cartier in Motion’ is on view until 28 July. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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A new exhibition dedicated to unrealised Soviet architecture has opened at London’s Design Museum to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Called 'Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution', the show explores the Soviet architects’ idealistic vision of Moscow through six unbuilt architectural landmarks designed in the 1920s and 30s following the Revolution.

‘This was a time when architecture, politics and society were explicitly linked,’ says curator Eszter Steierhoffer. ‘In the period that followed the revolution, architects were trying to come up with a blueprint for a new society in order to better the world. In the later Socialist realism period when Stalin had consolidated his power it somehow shifted. It became about propaganda.’

The shift is reflected in the exhibition’s design. Conceived by Berlin studio Kuehn Malvezzi and London-based Kellenberger-White, the show’s layout takes the form of a descending spiral – a highly symbolic architectural form of the time. Large-scale elements evoke the heavy, geometric forms of the era, while imagery displayed on huge light boards encourages viewers to look up to observe the imposing buildings, just the way in which the architects had intended their designs to be seen. 

Opening with Lissitzky’s Cloud Iron – a series of eight lightweight horizontal skyscrapers that were designed to address the problem of overcrowding and the inadequacy of public transport in the city – each of the exhibition’s featured projects address the different building blocks of socialist society including communal living, work, education and communication while also touching upon current issues such as globalisation and gender politics.

‘There is an extreme freshness to the architectural language,’ says Steierhoffer, referencing in particular the work of Yakov Chernikhov, whose visionary architectural drawings inspired the likes of Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenmann. ‘But also in the ideas that they imply and the themes that they question. The work is so contemporary. The show is about architecture but really it's mostly about life and how a new life was imagined.’

Drawings and models of each of the six buildings are displayed alongside a selection of artworks and propaganda materials from the time. These reveal the increasingly controlling and dark ambitions behind the architecture. Radical thinker Nikolay Kuzmin’s 'Scientific Organization of Life' – a minute-by-minute timetable that maps out an 'ideal' daily routine for coal miners – is displayed next to the plans and drawings for Ladovsky’s Communal House. This spiral-shaped building for communal living purported to be emancipating the female from the toils of the traditional family unit, but had the ultimate goal of making women more effective members of the workforce.

The exhibition’s ascending spiral route ends with Boris Iofan’s Palace of the Soviets, which is described as ‘propaganda in built form’. Intended for one of Moscow’s most prominent sites, this ultimate monument to the State’s new centralised power would have been the tallest building in the world.

Reflecting on the lessons that can be learned from this revolutionary period, Steierhoffer reflects: ‘Today we are living in a globalised, capitalist society and one thing I fear is lost is the explicit relationship to politics and social issues when we talk about architecture. It’s interesting to be confronted by these early ideas that are so resonant.’

INFORMATION

’Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution’ is on view until 4 June. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
24–238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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The winners of the Beazley Designs of the Year have been announced at an exclusive dinner hosted inside the Design Museum’s new Kensington home tonight. Now in its ninth edition, the awards sees nominees battle it out in six categories – Architecture, Graphics, Fashion, Transport, Product and Digital – with the shortlisted designs on display at the museum since last November.

The loftiest accolade, Design of the Year, was awarded to Better Shelter, a collaborative project by Johan Karlsson, Dennis Kanter, Christian Gustafsson, John van Leer, Tim de Haas, Nicolò Barlera, the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR. These cleverly devised, flat-packed refugee shelters can be rapidly made and contain a solar powered wall.

‘Innovative, humanitarian and implemented, Better Shelter has everything that a Beazley Design of the Year should have,’ says judge Dr Jana Scholze from Kingston University. Better Shelter topped the hotly contested Architecture category, pipping Herzog & de Meuron’s Tate Modern extension and OMA’s Fondazione Prada to the post.

Other winners include David Bowie’s Blackstar album cover, crowned Graphic Design of the Year. Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, the elegantly understated album design was open-sourced after the singer’s untimely death last year allowing fans (including us) to reimagine the artwork. 'The Blackstar design is an iconic piece of graphic design that defined an important moment in musical history,' says judge John Morgan, founder of John Morgan design studio, 'it has the ability to connect with an audience and demonstrates the power that music and design has to unite people.'

'I was think the first time I met David Bowie and I was nervous as I am tonight,' Barnbrook says in his award speech at the dinner. 'Aside from being someone who represented what was the best about British culture, [Bowie] was cool, he was himself, and he made it possible for other people to be who they wanted to be. He was quietly confident about his viewpoint of the world, and I think that is how British design should be.'

Tech-minded victors were seen across the board and not just limited to the Digital gong, which went to OpenSurgery, a DIY robotic surgeon created as a graduate project at the Royal College of Art. The Transport award winner was ‘Lumos’, a smart bicycle helmet with integrated lights, brake and turn signals, by Eu-wen Ding and Jeff Haoran Chen.

Topping the Product shortlist – which included a Muji kitchen appliance by Naoto Fukasawa along with sculptural furniture by Fredrikson Stallard – was the Space Cup, a coffee cup that brings an ‘an Earth-like drinking experience’ to the low gravity environment of space. Perhaps the youngest winners yet, a group of eight-year-olds from the CEIP La Rioja School in Madrid nabbed top honours in the Fashion category for their video exploring advertising.

INFORMATION

‘Beazley Designs of the Year’ is on view until 19 February. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224-238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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The world is ageing ungracefully. Our population is the oldest it's ever been, with over 500,000 in the UK aged 90 or older. Half of people over the age of 75 live alone.

A new exhibition at London’s Design Museum demonstrates design’s potential to help us lead healthier, more rewarding lives as we age. Commissions from leading designers (among them Yves Béhar, Konstantin Grcic and PriestmanGoode), offer solutions within the framework of ageing, identity, home, community, working and mobility. This format draws from the 1980s exhibition 'New Design for Old' at the Boilerhouse Project at the V&A, curated by Lady Helen Hamlyn.

In part thanks to this pioneering survey, today's landscape of age-related design is colourful and varied. It's precisely for this reason, Hamlyn believes, that it's time for another exhibition. Writing in the foreword of the 'New Old' catalogue, she says: 'It is important to understand how much has changed in demographic and technological terms in recent decades, and how much will change over the next 30 years.' She invites us to approach the exhibition with an open mind.

This isn't difficult to do, thanks to a thoughtful exhibition identity, typography and layout, created by local design firms LucienneRoberts+ and Plaid London. Roberts ensures all graphic aspects of the exhibition engage with it's content. 'We were briefed to develop a system that was highly accessible, challenged prejudices associated with the show's subject matter and showed the truly positive aspects of later life,' she explains.

The brief shines through the finished result. Delineating wood-framed screens network their way though the space. They're covered with a large, clear typeface, developed specifically for the exhibition. One such wall is plastered with the question, 'When does old age begin?', where visitors are invited to pick a postcard, tick a box and hang their answer on the wall. This low-tech, inclusive interactivity targets people of any age, without patronising or alienating.

This inviting, friendly tone is carried over into the show's optimistic commissions. Refreshingly, they treat the dreams and social lives of older people with just as much importance as their health and mobility. Konstantin Grcic's outdoor 'Head in the Sky' project, for example, provides a mesh structure for 'outdoor working and thinking', that doubles as a safe space to think and enjoy nature for people of an older age. Accessed by a long wheelchair ramp, Grcic explains how the structure 'formally makes a clear reference to an outdated image of old people,' while the open roof 'symbolises departure and a new beginning'.

In his typically visionary style, Grcic's project veers towards the conceptual. Others, like Yves Béhar and Fuseproject's 'ElliQ' design commission, are eagerly practical, and make use of cutting edge technological vernacular. Not dissimilar to an Amazon Echo (recently shortlisted for a Wallpaper* Design Award) or the Google Assistant, 'ElliQ' is an emotionally intelligent robotic companion, that uses speech and light to subtly convey emotion. Thanks to its sensitive, sculptural design, it's not as terrifying as it sounds. It looks more akin to a beautiful table-top object than an AI mastermind. Of its many functions, it acts as a look out for intruders and coaches older people into fulfilling daily goals, as well as performing home AI standards like playing music and accessing the internet hands-free.

Designs like 'ElliQ' and 'Head in the Clouds' serve to emphasise the fact that designing for the elderly doesn't have to be about plaid curtains and comfy chairs (although there's nothing wrong with the latter). Aided by Lucienne Roberts' punchy graphics, the exhibition takes the taboo out of talking about old age, and feels youthful, without being exclusive. It also hasn't come a moment too soon. With over half our children predicted to live to 103, we're living in the century of the centenarian. We must envisage a future that puts the 'grand' back into 'old age', as we all hurtle towards it.

INFORMATION

’New Old’ is on view until 19 February. For more information, visit the Design Museum website

ADDRESS

Design Museum
224–238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG

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