Nicolae Halmaghi – DesignApplause

About Nicolae Halmaghi

nicolae halmaghi / curious about exploring new directions in design. nicolae & the creative cell

se77antasette benetti superyacht by fernando romero.

Nov 9, 2017

it seems that every touchpoint with this uber-luxury marine experience has been carefully addressed and solved in the most elegant of modern aesthetic. no idea how and whether it works, but i’m sure dolphins will jump out of the water to catch a better view and humans will drool all over it wherever it may dock -more likely in monte carlo than cleveland, ohio.

yacht > se77antasette
designer > mexican architect fernando romero
builder > benetti

lego house in billund denmark. architects bjarke ingels group (big).

Aug 26, 2017

above > drone view of nearly completed site taken august 2017 / courtesy lego / lego house opens september 2017

beautiful.

below > narrative from big website
type > competition
client > lego
size > 39, 370 sqft / 12,000 m2
location > billund denmark
status > completed 2017

“lego house is a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the lego brick. through systematic creativity children of all ages are empowered witht the toools to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play.

at its finest – that is what architecture – and lego play – is all about: enabling people to imagine new worlds that are more exciting and expressive than the status quo – and to provide them with the skills to make them reality. this is what children do every day with lego bricks = and this is what we have done today at lego house with actual bricks, taking billund a step closer towards becoming the capital of children.” bjarke ingels

the 23 m tall lego house is conceived as an urban space as much as an experience center. 21 overlapping blocks are placed like individual buildings, framing a 2,000 m2 lego square that is illuminated through cracks and gaps between volumes. above the square, a cluster of galleries overlap to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions. each gallery is color-coded in lego’s primary colors.

the first and second floors include four play zones that represent: red is creative, blue is cognitive, green is social, and yellow is emotional. some of the rooftops can be accessed via pixelated public staircases that double as informal auditoria for people watching or seating for performances.

the vault – located underneath lego square – is where children and afols (adult fans of lego) can witness the first edition of almost every lego set ever made, including the new 774-piece, 197-step kit replicating the stacked-block formation of the lego house.

above > courtesy of lego

[ lego ] [ big ] [ photography > iwan baan / kim christensen ]

marcel wanders goes alice in wanderland with enchanting mondrian doha.

Apr 1, 2017

dutch designer marcel wanders goes alice in wanderland.

mondrian doha is different. less a hotel and more a fairytale. doha is miami’s delano by philippe starck on steroids. wanders has a unique relationship with a stable of designers via their relationship with his furniture showrooms moooi. various moooi objects are sprinkled throughout the project.

above > architecture by south west architecture below > interiors by marcel wanders / interior images courtesy of marcel wanders

entering the second golden age of design.

Jul 15, 2016

few designers strive, succeed to be relevant for decades in the competitive, cut-throat commercial markets of design. even fewer elevate their craft to be accepted in permanent collections of important design museums – and then there is marcel wanders who managed to piss of his teachers and design critics yet wowed design store impresarios, developers and more recently museum curators.

after showing at the prestigious stedeljijk museum, amsterdam in 2014, his work is now at the centre pompidou, in paris.

also

looks like the borders that, oh so arrogantly, used to separate design from architecture and art are dissolving in front of our very eyes.

barbara kasten: stages. graham foundation – 2015 chicago architecture biennial.

Sep 28, 2015

Please join us on Thursday, 1 October for a reception to celebrate the Graham Foundation’s new exhibition, Barbara Kasten: Stages, with opening remarks by artist Barbara Kasten and curator Alex Klein. Spanning Kasten’s five-decade engagement with abstraction, light, and architectural form, this exhibition explores the artist’s expansive photographic practice and highlights her critical engagement with architecture and her impact on a new generation of artists. Barbara Kasten: Stages is presented in partnership with the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

In conjunction with the exhibition opening, the Graham Foundation, with Distributed Art Publishers, is pleased to launch Barbara Kasten: The Diazotypes––a special small-run artist book of Kasten’s diazotypes, a body of work she created while living in California in the 1970s using a process commonly employed to create architectural blueprints. Along with the exhibition catalogue, Barbara Kasten: The Diazotypes will be available for purchase at the Graham Foundation Bookshop. [ more on barbara kasten ]

event> barbara kasten: stages
date> thursday 2 October 2015
time> 5-8PM
opening reception> Please RSVP
comments> 5PM comments by barbara kasten & alex klein, curator, institute of contemporary art

Barbara Kasten: Stages is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania and is curated by ICA curator Alex Klein. Major support for the exhibition has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

expo chicago 2015 releases first look at /dialogues panel discussion series.

May 5, 2015

Keynote Panels Include Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Legendary Hairy Who Artists; Diego Perrone, Eugenio Re Rebaudengo and Letizia Ragaglia on Contemporary Art in Italy; Matthieu Poirier in conversation with Daniel Buren and more; and Thelma Golden, Solveig Øvstebø and Franklin Sirmans in Conversation with Jacob Proctor

Expo Chicago, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art,, announces highlighted discussions for /Dialogues to take place during the fourth annual exposition, 17 > 20 September 2015, with more than ten additional panels to be announced leading up to the fair. Presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), /Dialogues offers panel discussions, conversations and provocative artistic discourse with leading artists, curators, designers and arts professionals on the current issues that engage them. Located on the east end of Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, the /Dialogues stage will feature continuous programming throughout each day of the fair, offering guests multiple chances to see and hear riveting discussions and engaging exchange between some of the most respected arts professionals working today.

“This early look at our /Dialogues program shows that in the three years since our inaugural exposition, it has quickly developed into a powerful conversation space for globally-respected artists, curators and art professionals,” said EXPO CHICAGO President and Director Tony Karman. “This year, the /Dialogues stage will host insightful panels that look at the art scene both then and now in Chicago, with Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with a selection of Chicago Imagists; as well as beyond the Midwest—from current perspectives on national museum contexts in the United States, and more. These panels will bring together the voices of some of the greatest artists and thinkers living today, and are just a snapshot of the full programming we will be releasing for EXPO CHICAGO this September.”

Highlights of the 2015 program include Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with artists Art Green, Gladys Nilsson and Karl Wirsum from the Hairy Who in advance of the fifty-year anniversary of their first exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center; Diego Perrone, Letizia Ragaglia and Eugenio Re Rebaudengo on the state of contemporary art in Italy from an international perspective; independent curator Matthieu Poirier in conversation with Daniel Buren, Nicolas Cattelain and Felice Varini discussing radical abstraction and its relationship to architecture as part of the French-American Curatorial Exchange; and Thelma Golden, Solveig Øvstebø and Franklin Sirmans in conversation with Jacob Proctor on the global impact of public collections and exhibitions that different museum models allow from an institutional standpoint.

[ /dialogues | schedule highlights ]

Friday, 18 September
2:30 pm | Contemporary Art in Italy: Today
Featuring Artist Diego Perrone, Director of MUSEION Letizia Ragaglia and Founder of ARTUNER Eugenio Re Rebaudengo

Presented in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute and ItalCultura.

4:00 pm | Museum Models: The Global Impact of Public Collections
Featuring Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Renaissance Society Solveig Øvstebø and Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art of LACMA Franklin Sirmans.
Moderated by Curator of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Jacob Proctor

Saturday, 19 September
2:30 pm | French-American Curatorial Exchange | Leaving the Canvas: Abstract Art and Architecture
Featuring Artist Daniel Buren, Collector Nicolas Cattelain and Artist Felice Varini. Moderated and organized by Independent Art Historian, Critic and Curator Matthieu Poirier

4:00 pm | Hans Ulrich Obrist: In Conversation with the Hairy Who
Featuring Artists Art Green, Gladys Nilsson and Karl Wirsum

[ expo chicago ] The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, is presented by Art Expositions, LLC. Now in its fourth year as a leading international art fair, EXPO CHICAGO (Sept. 17 – 20, 2015) is a four-day art event featuring more than 140 leading international galleries and offering diverse programming including /Dialogues, IN/SITU and EXPO VIDEO. Under the leadership of President and Director Tony Karman, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and inspiring its collector base. Vernissage, the opening night preview benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, takes place Thursday, Sept 17, 6 – 9 p.m. General Admission to the exposition is Friday, Sept. 18 – Sunday, Sept. 20 (for hours please visit expochicago.com). Tickets to the exposition are $20 for one day, $30 for three days.

salone del mobile plans to set the bar extra high on the 2015 edition.

Mar 26, 2015

Milan is preparing to host the annual pilgrimage of the design faithful. Manufacturers, buyers, sellers, famed designers, newbies, design addicts and design spies… everybody shows up to take in what the world will offer in the near future.

The evolution of the Salone has become the blueprint of the design week movement and with it, created a double-edged sword. On one side a wider awareness of design, on the other it has planted the seeds around the world for similar events. We now have over 100 cities around the world who are holding some kind of design driven festival that could eventually compete for supremacy. Although, to be perfectly honest, with the exception of LDF it’s hard to see anybody challenging the Salone.

This year is extra special since the Salone acts more like prelude to the soon to open EXPO 2015. The pressure is on.

Two more weeks… I’m already craving Mautizio’s negroni, at Bar Basso, on Thursday night. Marcel, Eero, get ready, it’s going to be a long night, baby.