fairs – Page 9 – DesignApplause

punch up your twitter with bless no41 workoutcomputer. 2014 istanbul design biennial.

Oct 30, 2014

above> no41 workoutcomputer | bless | 2010/14

There’s a new generation that has grown up on the internet. Sustaining the human body and engaging the mind may well be the next big innovation. With standup computers and emphasis on ‘sitting is the new smoking’ why not have a way to punch out your emails and get in a good workout.

N°41 Workoutcomputer inspires themes and questions. BLESS is an innovative applied design team made up of Berlin based Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag. The pair creates innovative solutions across a spectrum of genres as diverse as jewelry from computer cables to limited edition fur wigs for Martin Margiela.

above> no40 istanbul 2014 | courtesy of iksv

video paris 2010

event> [ 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial ] @tasarimbienali #tasarimmanifestosu #designbiennial
date> 1 > 14 november 2014 | tuesday > sunday 10a > 7p | free admission
venue> galata greek primary school | istanbul

[ our interview with zoë ryan ]

zoë ryan: the future is not what it used to be. 2014 istanbul design biennial.

Oct 15, 2014

zoë ryan | courtesy the art institute of chicago/ portrait by cynthia lynn

Zoë Ryan is the John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design and Chair of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve been trying to catch her for almost four months to talk about the curator appointment of the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial coming up in October 2014. We talk following her break-out session with formlessfinder at Design Miami: [ff] won this year’s commission to build the entrance to the Design Miami pavilion.

[DesignApplause] Zoë, have you had a chance to get around Design Miami?
[Zoë Ryan] I’ve only had a small window before this talk, then I’ll head back out and start walking around.

[DA] This is my fifth year coming to Design Miami. I am sort of yearning for something more experimental.
[ZR] I mean, I would say, it’s difficult in this environment, but if you go back to Galerie kreo, they have one or two pieces from Hella Jongerius and one or two pieces from Wieki Somers which came from really experimental exhibitions. They’re kind of one or two from a big collection that they had produced that was shown in Paris. They were really fantastic. I thought that especially the Wieki Somers, um, these hybrids, furniture-lighting- not even sure what they are pieces- they were very exciting for me to see.

I also really enjoyed Volume Gallery and their show with only featuring Jonathan Muecke. I thought it’s quite daring to do a solo show. But in this environment, it really works well. It’s very legible, you get to see a great breadth of work. I think they’ve taken a lot of time. Their collection is very rigorous. It shows the breadth and depth of work, and for me, that’s what I’m looking for. Of course, this is a very specific environment to see this work in but I’m also very interested in.

I want to go see the Charlotte Perriand house on the beach that’s at the Raleigh Hotel, which is going to be hopefully a fantastic piece to see. I’ve never walked through the Herzog & de Meuron parking facility and check out the ‘Art Drive-Thru’ (Colette & Alchemist) installation. I’m curious about the new piece (Phare No. 1-9) by Simon Heijdens, who, you know, we’ve worked with in the past, who seems to know no bounds of his own dexterity as a designer. So I’m excited about that.

In terms of new experimentation, and also I think that’s where- for me- Miami excels is in these types of projects. Projects like formlessfinder’s and the Perrier-Jouët sponsored Simon’s project, are brilliant, where really those are the types of designers that are going to take this opportunity and really do something terrific with it. And something that really relates to their practice and helps them move their practice further, not only something that’s really rigorous and makes a lot of sense for them, and they get as much out of it as they give to the sponsor who’s sponsoring them. And I think more of that kind of sophistication is really needed. What have you seen?

[DA] You’ve given me new glasses to look through. The Swarovski Crystal Palace collaboration with Guilherme Torres creates ‘Mangue Groove’, an insightful installation inspired by mangrove trees to remind us of aquatic conservation efforts surrounding mangrove ecosystems in Brazil. Carpenters Workshop Gallery instilled the concept of time with two creatively fun video/grandfather clocks by Maarten Baas and rAndom created ‘Study of Time’ a mezmerizing illuminated digital wall hanging. Off-site there’s the ‘Untitled’ tent, the venue ‘finally’ on the beach and in Windwood there’s great graffiti art everywhere.

You mentioned Galerie kreo. They’re debuting a Poltrona di Proust armchair, first created by Alessandro Mendini in 1978; this version is in gold Bisazza mosaics. I’m not crazy about gold glitter. kreo director Joanna Frydman said, “It fits entirely with the luxurious mood of the fair.”

Can we talk about Istanbul? – Did this commission come out of nowhere for you?

[ZR] (Laughing) Yes, this came out of nowhere. So, in about- I don’t know- May of this year, I got an email from them asking if they could speak with me about the Biennial. I thought they were calling to ask about different projects and designers to work with, so I was all geared up for that. And then the next day they call again and asked me to curate their event and I was a bit, I was absolutely flabbergasted, but of course really excited.

It took me a minute to think on my good days, am I going to be able to do this project justice? And also will my boss, the Art Institute, allow me to do this? The museum is very committed to find work from other parts of the world and becoming more international, and definitely getting into parts of the world that have been, you know, largely ignored or overlooked.

One of the reasons why I was so excited to do the project was to work in Istanbul, a place that I’ve been to many times before, but never worked there, but somewhere I’ve always been a big fan of. And also to find that there really is a very thriving community of architects and designers there, which have a lot to give to the rest of the world and are really not known to the rest of the world. So that was really fantastic.

[DA] The theme ‘Manifesto’, was it given to you?
[ZR] No, absolutely not. When they came to me I asked for a few months to work on the title and the theme, and I was given complete carte blanche. I sort of floated some concepts past them last month- November. But I also went to Istanbul with my associate curator, Meredith Carruthers, who I hired, and we set out a number of different roundtable discussions with many, many architects and designers in the city, to get to know them and for them to get to know us and to start to throw ideas around. I already had in my mind what I wanted to- I love the history of manifestos, but I really wanted to rethink: what does it mean to have a manifesto today?

below> SIBLING reinstalls its video ‘The Encounterculture’, a manifesto of sevens ways to participate. The film, made in collaboration with Nicole Rose, is re-configured with eight tear-away propaganda posters that see the manifesto travel from the gallery wall out into the streets.

And the title of the Biennial is actually ‘the Future is Not What It Used to Be.” And it’s a way for us, I think we’re in this really critical moment, where we should take stock of where we are, where we’ve come from, and where we want to go. And we were using the manifesto really as a platform where we’re inviting architects and designers to rethink and revisit the history of manifestos, but propose ‘what is a conceptual design manifesto?’ You know, manifestos, towards the end of the 20th Century, seemed really outdated. They seemed naive, at best. And they were often very violent and destructive, they didn’t care about consequences. And so how can we use that talk and perhaps turn it around and reclaim it for our time?

Because I felt we’re in a moment where we do want both big and small ideas, but designers and architects really need to show that they can help us identify issues, work through issues and, at best, overcome issues. For example, how can the manifesto be something that deals with everyday realities, talk about the negative and positive consequences, look at the present yet potentially propose ideas for the future? A key- the manifesto does not need to be a text. It could be a project, it could be a provocation, it could be a service, it could be a publication. I mean, we’re looking for all kinds of projects that will make up the Biennial.

[DA] What’s your timeline?
[ZR] We’ve just launched the call for ideas, that’s gone online. And there’s a two-part call for ideas. The first part is the short statement and it’s about what your manifesto is, a few images, and what kind of platform or medium you want it to be in. And the deadline for that is February 1. And then we will circle back after that and start working individually with studios.

[DA] What are the expectations and criteria for the role of the curator? What’s the schedule for you going to be? How are you going to communicate with everyone to pull it together?
[ZR] Well, there are no hard and fast rules. I’ve been to Istanbul three times already, and I have my associate curator. There’s a team in Istanbul, there’s a foundation team that runs the Biennial. I’m building an international advisory. We have an informal advisory now in Istanbul. And we’re going to continue the idea sessions. We’ll be meeting at least once a month.

[DA] Zoë, is there anything you want to say that we didn’t talk about?
[ZR] Designers, we need you!

[ at-a-glance ]

below> Defne Koz, Marco Susani presents ‘Justaddwater’, their vision for the future of the food experience, where smart appliances meet creative gastronomy.

courtesy koz susani design

below> Turkey has had its share of earthquakes and there are earthquake kits available. In response to this need designers Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons, who are looking at everyday surivivalism for different scenarios create a project called ‘New Survivalism: Alternative Bug-Out Bags’.

courtesy parsons & charles- worth

below> ‘Becoming Istanbul’ by Superpool and Project Projects, explores contemporary Istanbul through an interactive database of over 400 artists’ videos, photography series, documentaries, news reports, cartoons and architectural projects.

courtesy superpool & project projects

below> architect/designer Elena Manferdini serves up ‘Still Life to Living Pictures’ using digital rendering at the scale of architecture to create a space of aesthetic reflection, asking the viewer to be both critical and complicit in this transformed environment, to suspend disbelief and enter the imaginative space of the backdrop, but also to “break the fourth wall” and inspect the surface of her illusion.

updated / just in from istanbul sent by iphone | courtesy elena manferdini

[ participating designers and projects announced – updated ]

 ’The Future Is Not What It Used To Be’ hosts 53 projects that ask: “What is the future now?”  By rethinking the manifesto as a platform to frame pertinent questions, the projects question the role of design, its relationship to society, and its ability to be an active agent for change.

The exhibition at the Galata Greek Primary School, the hub of the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, will spread over all five floors of the school, an area of approximately 2,300 square meters.  The projects imagine new possibilities that can transform the present and invite new potential futures. Arranged in five departments— Personal, Norms and Standards, Resource, Civic Relations, and Broadcast — the projects question the manifesto as a platform for situating ideas and pointing to new directions.

[ personal department ] The Moonwalk Machine—Selena’s Step, Sputniko!
Consider Beauty, Studio Frith & Thirteen Ways
Still Life to Living Pictures, Atelier Manferdini: Elena Manferdini
Jardin d’hiver, Dice Kayek: Ayşe Ege and Ece Ege
In The Future, Everyone Will Be Heroic for 1.5 Minutes, Sarraf Galeyan Mekanik: Memduh Can Tanyeli, Erhun Erdoğan and Emine Seda Kayım
BIRDY 2214, Meriç Canatan and Fatosh Erhuy
Ownership of the Face, Kristina Cranfeld
Manifesting the Look of Love, Haelo Design: Helen Maria Nugent and Ron Kirkpatrick
Poly, giffin’termeer: Jess Giffin and Jim TerMeer
Mapmaker Manifesto, Stamen Design: Beth Schechter and Eric Rodenbeck
New Survivalism, Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons

[ norms and standards department ] N°41 Workoutcomputer, BLESS: Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag
Dyslexie Typeface, Christian Boer
Nap Gap, J. Mayer H. und Partner, Architekten: Jürgen Mayer H. with Wilko Hoffmann and Julien Sarale
smart design (. . .) smart life, Jacob de Baan, Giorgio Caione and Rianne Koens
Justaddwater, Koz Susani Design: Defne Koz, Marco Susani
LEPSIS: The Art of Growing Grasshoppers, Mansour Ourasanah
Designing for the Sixth Extinction, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
New Energy Landscapes, Sean Lally
Incomplete Manifesto for The Night, Clio Capeille
Towards a Universal Mundane Manifesto, Emmet Byrne and Alex DeArmond

[ resources department ] A Reading Room, Future Anecdotes Istanbul: Can Altay and Aslı Altay
Open Manifesto, FormaFantasma: Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi
Palamut Timeline, Didem Şenol of Lokanta Maya and Gram, with Elif Esmez, Esra Aca
Rebuild the Electronic and Digital Tools, Coralie Gourguechon
NASALO Dictionary of Smell, Sissel Tolaas
This sea of sugar knows no bounds, AVM Curiosities: Tasha Marks
Hacking the Modern Kitchen, Gastronomika
Diario, Moisés Hernández
knowledge-tools-memory, Studio mischer’traxler: Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler
Crafted in Istanbul, Seda Erdural, Barış Gümüştaş and Bilal Yilmaz
Repair Society, Gabriele Oropallo, Joanna van der Zanden, and Cynthia Hathaway
Cultures of Assembly, Studio Miessen
Imagining Our Shared Future, Atatürk Library, Alexis Şanal and Ali Taptık

[ civic relations department ] Public Drawing, Atelier Bow-Wow: Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima
Use of Shores, a Micro-Manifesto on Micro-Urbanisms, İyiofis: Elif Ensari and Can Sucuoğlu
The Moment for the Generic is Now, fala atelier: Filipe Magalhães and Ana Luisa Soares
#occupygezi architecture, Architecture for All (Herkes için Mimarlık)
The Encounterculture or, Seven Ways to Participate, SIBLING: Amelia Borg, Nicholas Braun, Jonathan Brener, Jessica Brent, Jane Caught, Qianyi Lim, Timothy Moore, and Alan Ting
Retreat, dpr-barcelona: Ethel Baraona, Studio-X; GSAPP: Marina Otero and FAST, The New Institute, Rotterdam: Malkit Shoshan
Design Activism: A Contemporary Design Manifest, Manufakturist: Mia Bogovac, Matea Bronić, Maša Milovac, and Kristina Volf; GOTWOB: Begüm Çelik and Berk Şimşek
TWTRATE, Cansu Cürgen, Eren Tekin, Yelta Köm, Barış Gümüştaş, Avşar Gürpınar, Yağız Söylev and Arzu Erdem
Who Builds Your Architecture?, WBYA?: Kadambari Baxi, Jordan Carver, Laura Diamond Dixit, Tiffany Rattray, Beth Stryker, Mabel O. Wilson
How To Do Too Kadıköy, 72 Hour Urban Action: Kerem Halbrecht and Gilly Karjevsky; with Tasarım Atölyesi Kadıköy (TAK): Onur Atay, Omer Kanıpak, Sıla Akalp
Retroactive Manifesto, Rural Urban Framework: Joshua Bolchover and John Lin
UMK: Lives and Landscapes, Dunne & Raby: Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Phoenix Declaration, Arctic Perspective Initiative (API): Matthew Biederman and Marko Peljhan
The Cultural Sauna, Åbäke
ABC Manifesto Corporation Writers and Consultants, disturbATI collective

[ broadcast department ] Kontraakt, H. Cenk Dereli, Hayrettin Günç, and Yelta Köm
Growing Manifesto, Something & Son: Andrew Merritt and Paul Smyth
Unfacebook, Vibok Works: Paula Alvarez
140journos: Data Concretization, Institute of Creative Minds: Cem Aydoğdu, Engin Önder, Hilal Koyuncu, İgal Nassima, Meriç Şeker

The biennial’s exhibition space, catalogue, and visual identity are designed by Istanbul based Superpool and Project Projects, New York.

[ the opening week program | 30 october > 2 november  ]

>press and professional preview | 30>31 october 2014
>press conference | 10am 30 october at galata greek primary school, followed by an exclusive tour of the exhibition with the curator zoë ryan, associate curator meredith carruthers and the director of the istanbul design biennial deniz ova.

The opening week will provide special opportunities to hear from a number of the participating designers as well as key experts from a variety of fields and occupations. Kicking off the biennial, Curator Zoë Ryan is joined by curators, designers and thinkers in an informal discussion on the Future of Manifestos with Aric Chen, Alison Clarke, and Fiona Raby, exploring the key themes of the biennial on Friday, 31 October between 2>4pm.

Related panels explore the Future of Exhibitions with Paola Antonelli, Jan Boelen, Vasıf Kortun, and Prem Krishnamurthy with curator Zoë Ryan on Saturday, 1 November between 4.30-6pm; and the Future of Publishing with associate curator Meredith Carruthers and Can and Aslı Altay (Future Anecdotes Istanbul) Simon Johnson (THAT Magazine), Adam Michaels (Project Projects) and TWTRATE, on Sunday, 2 November between 4.30>6pm.

Also included in the opening week’s programme will be personal dialogues by designers from all around the world. Designers in Dialogue moderated by Denise Marie Bennett will include Jessica Charlesworth & Tim Parsons – Coralie Gourguechon; Mansour Ourasanah – Marco Susani & Defne Koz; Joshua Bolchover and John Lin – Kadambari Baxi and Mabel Wilson; Natasha Marks – Katharina Mischer Thomas Traxler on Saturday, 1 November between 2-4pm; disturbATI collective – Clio Capeille; GOTWOB – Manufakturist; Arctic Perspective – Cenk Derelli & Yelta Köm; Beth Schechter – Helen Maria Nugent on Sunday, 2 November between 2>4pm.

[ 2nd istanbul design biennial events ]

In addition to the exhibition, the biennial hub at the Galata Greek Primary School will host different events for design enthusiasts daily for six weeks: the Kontraakt team’s broadcast programming will be held on Tuesdays and throughout the week, Q&A’s and panels on Wednesdays, film screenings on Thursdays, and Children and Youth program every day.

Design Walks, comprised of visits to design studios, stores, manufacturers, and noted buildings in 6 neighborhoods and 6 thematic walks on Istanbul’s Asian and European sides to examine the textures of the city and observe traditional crafts are organised throughout the biennial.

The Academy Programme featuring 72 projects including workshops, exhibitions and panels organized by over 33 universities from Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Europe and the United States to reveal different aspects of the biennial theme can be viewed at university campuses and at Antrepo no.7.

<a href="about ron kovach

events2 london design festival 2014.

Sep 18, 2014

DesignApplause asked #LDF14 @L_D_F experts to point us to items of interest.

From Libby Sellers [ gallery libby sellers ] …

event> [ serpentine pavilion 2014 ]
venue> serpentine galleries | kensington gardens W2 3XA | lancaster gate, knightsbridge or south kensington tubes | 10a > 6p
info> designed by Smiljan Radić
Chilean architect Smiljan Radić has designed the fourteenth Serpentine Pavilion. A semi-translucent, cylindrical structure that resembles a shell and rests on large quarry stones, this yearos Pavilion occupies 350 square metres of the Serpentine’s lawn and is home to and inspiration for the Park Nights series of events. Open until 19 October.

event> [ galerie kreo london ]
venue> galerie kreo | 14A hay hill W1J 8NZ | | green park tube | tues / sat 10a > 6p
info> Founded by Clémence and Didier Krzentowski, Gallerie Kreo produces shows and original creations by The Most major contemporary designers, operating like a ‘design laboratory “dedicated to research. Opened in September, the London debut is for now a low-key affair, with a small edit of lighting pieces aptly titled ‘A Light Introduction’.

event> [ urban plunge ]
venue> roca london gallery | station court, townmead road SW6 2PY | imperial wharf tube | mon / fri 9a > 5:30p Sat 11a > 5p.
info> Urban Plunge explores the growing urban swimming movement through a series of proposals for river and harbor baths in London, New York and Copenhagen that envisage imaginative new ways to enjoy urban water environments. Curated by Jane Withers for Wonderwater, showcases five architectural interventions for swimming in clean natural waters in the heart of our cities.

[ design districts ]

events1 at london design festival 2014.

Sep 16, 2014

library: private members club / see below

[ exhibitions | installations | open houses ]

event> [ ama 2014 ]
venue> v&a | cromwell road SW7 2RL | south kensington tube | 10a > 5.45p
info> Michael Anastassiades in collaborates with Flos presenting lighting installation Ama, made by mouth blown opaline spheres and brass. An appreciation of the pearl diving mermaids of Japan.

event> [ disobedient objects ]
venue> v&a | cromwell road SW7 2RL | south kensington tube | 10a > 5.45p
info> As the central hub location for the London Design Festival for the sixth year, the V&A will again house a broad range of commissioned activity which will be spread throughout the Museum and include installations, events, talks and workshops.

event> [ Double Space for BMW – Precision & Poetry in Motion ]
venue> venue> v&a | cromwell road SW7 2RL | south kensington tube | 10a > 5.45p
info> The exhibit is a kinetic sculpture created from huge reflectors measuring around 10 x 15 meters. One side is flat and the other is like a lens, reflecting the gallery in differing ways as they move in a choreographed fashion.

event> [ high street highline camden collective ]
venue> collective | 26 camden high street | 10a > 5p mon>sat
info> Collective invites artists and designers to produce temporary installations for the roof tops of Camden High Street. We explore the creative possibility of these vacant upper corridors and offer an alternative perspective, taking inspiration from New York’s regeneration project, ‘The High Line’.

event> [ library: a private member’s club ‘open house’ ]
venue> 19 greek street | 122 st-martins lane, covent garden WC2N 4BD | charing cross tube | 10a > 6p
info> Designed by Marc Peridis of 19 greek street, LIBRARY is London’s new member’s club targeting an intellectual elite of architects, interior designers, writers, playwrights and more. Opening in September, the exclusive club will open it’s doors to the public For the duration of LDF.

event> [ louis kahn: the power of architecture ]
venue> design museum | shad thames SE1 2YD | london bridge tube | 10am – 5.45pm
info> The American architect Louis Kahn is one of the great master builders of the 20th Century. In this exhibition, discover how Kahn created a modern form of expression for the eternal and essential qualities of architecture.

event> [ off | cut ]
venue> | fritz Hansen showroom | 13 margaret street W1W 8RN | oxford circus tube | 10a > 6.30p / wed 10a > 9p
info> an experimental, deployable structure that investigates the inventive re-use of Fritz Hansen’s material waste. Designed by Chung Tyson Architects.

event> [ open studio ]
date> 20 september | 11a > 6p
venue> sebastian bergne studio | 2 ingate place SW8 3NS | queenstown Road station |
info> Sebastian Bergne will be opening his studio to visitors. Displayed in the context of his working environment will be new and old projects for the arrangement of flowers.

event> [ space and light ]
venue> sir john soane’s museum | 13 lincoln’s inn fields WC2A 3BP | holborn tube |
10a > 5p tue/sat
info> A pop-up exhibition inspired by Sir John Soane’s use of space and light. Leading contemporary designers and artists, including Ab Rogers, Paul Schutze, Sebastian Bergne and Tiipoi install their work in the Museum’s historic interior.

[ party! ]

event> [ heal’s tottenham court road party ]
date> 17 september | 6 > 9p
venue> the heal’s building | 196 tottenham court road SW2 4DR | the goodge street tube |

studio job pussy cats. carpenters workshop gallery london design festival 2014..

Sep 15, 2014

cat fight | 2014 | polished patinated bronze, hand blown glass, hand painting, led light fittings, limited edition of 8 + 3 ap | h65 / l80 x w40 (cm)
h25.59 x l31.5 / W 15.75 (inches)

Dutch artists, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job have created a new universe made of their own cats. Product design becomes a fulcrum for sculpture in these limited edition art pieces which serve as artistic form and literal function.

the ‘pussy cat’ collection of lamps are available in four positions: ‘cat fight’, ‘cat attack’, ‘cat hiss’ and ‘cat swipe’

Taking joy in creating a myth out of the everyday, these cats remind one of the Greek statues fighting over ancient battles, but here that back story is not needed or wanted. Studio Job commands a studio of artisans that work with traditional craft at the highest level, utilizing materials such a bronze to achieve a level that goes beyond and above Koons. By blowing up to high-art status the everyday ordinary world, the objects alone express the intensity. The day is coming when a single original carrot will give birth to a revolution. Cezanne*. Or a cat…

cat swipe | 2014 | limited edition of 8 + 3 ap | h35 x l70 x w30 (cm) h13.78 x l27.56 x w11.81 (inches)

cat hiss | 2014 | limited edition of 8 + 3 ap | h35 x l80 x w25 (cm) h13.78 x l31.5 x w9.84 (inches)

cat attack | 2014 | limited edition of 8 + 3 ap | h65 / l40 x w30 (cm) h25.59 x l15.75 x w11.81 (inches)

Nynke and I love our cats Paula & Jambe Blanche. Paula is an orphan from a a village call Echt in the southern part of Limburg. Jambe Blanche is a ‘bell dame’, 17 years old. She was born in the cellar of our first studio… Jambe Blanche has four white legs, both spotted with black like little Dutch cows. In fact, we only allow black & white spotted cats in our house in the forest.
Last but not least: They are female, in Dutch slang this can be pronounced as ‘poesje’. Which is equivalent for ‘vagina’.
Cats can be quite ruthless. I believe cats are, as we say, autistic to a certain extent as in they can’t really connect tint others’ emotions.
Let’s be hones: Cats kill birds, butterflies, mice and sometimes a mole. Yet at the same time they sleep in our bed. Some say cats are more closely related to humans than we assume.
They have a point? Bien-sur que non!” Job Smeets, Summer 2014

[ designapplause interview with job smeets ]

dates: 5 sept > 3 october 2014
venue: carpenters workshop gallery london | 3 Aalbermarle street W1S4HE  | +44 (0)20 3051 5939 
opening hours: monday > friday from 10a > 6p / saturday by appointment only

(*)‘What I know or have seen of his life’, in Cezanne – a Memoir with Conversations (1897 > 1906) by Joachim Gasquet, Thames and Hudson, London 1991 p. 68

peter marigold. gallery libby sellers london design festival 2014.

Sep 14, 2014

For the period encompassing the London Design Festival and Frieze Art Fair, Gallery Libby Sellers is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Peter Marigold’s Wooden Tables series.

Born in London in 1974, Marigold first studied sculpture at Central St Martins before enrolling in Design Products under Ron Arad at the Royal College of Art in 2004. Marigold’s fine art training, combined with a series of jobs in scenographic design and production – props, models, costumes and sets for theatre and exhibitions – has led to a pluralistic and resourceful approach to furniture design. Designing and making beautiful objects simply and sincerely – often through improvisation and the logic of geometry – is a major impetus for Marigold. Springing from a desire to elucidate and amplify the rationality found in the natural world, much of his work has been an exploration of the phenomena of nature’s form.

grey elipse 1 | 2014 | jesmonite, steel | 80.5 W x 60.5 D x 57 H cms

The tables relate to a much larger story that Marigold began in 2011 with the Wooden Forms. Through these he made a series of vessels using a single small piece of wood as a mould. The process sees one piece of wood pasted with hot wax in order to create an impression of the wood. This action is repeated so as to intuitively build up a form from the numerable wax impressions, creating an object that is both moulded, yet unique. The wax form is then cast into a final sturdier material through one singular movement. As Marigold has said, “The end result is an amalgam of moments. The forms are ‘wooden’ in that they have been created using wood rather than being made of wood. They therefore reference wood as an active verb rather than a monumental noun; the resulting textures are highly animated and not ‘wooden’ at all.”

wooden vase a, 2011 | cast bronze | 33 H x 23 D cms | edition of 3

purple 1, 2014 | cast jesmonite, metal legs | 94 W x 56 D x 52 H cms

All works will be available to purchase exclusively through the gallery.

exhibition> peter marigold
venue> gallery libby sellers | 41-42 berners street | london WlT 3NB
date> 11 september > 31 october 2014
contact> +44 (0)20 3384 8785 | gallery@libbysellers.com

This exhibition is part of the London Design Festival and Icon Design Trail for 2014.

london design festival 2014.

Sep 2, 2014

The 2014 edition of the London Design Festival takes place 13 > 21 September. [ events ] [ design destinations ] #LDF14 @L_D_F

Be Original: knock-out knock-offs: design integrity in internet age. New york now 2014.

Aug 13, 2014

Join Be Original Americas for an exploration of ethical questions surrounding original design, plagiarism, intellectual property and the creative process of design. The panelist include Paolo Cravedi of Alessi; Bonnie Mackay of BMackay Consulting; Sandy Chilewich of Chilewich; Chad Phillips of Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and IP Attorney Emily Danchuk, founder of Copyright Collaborative. The moderator is Dan Rubinstein, former Editor of Surface Magazine and writer for Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal and T Magazine.

date: 18 august 2014 | 8 > 9am
venue: jacob javits center | room 1E04 | 655 west 34th st | nyc
NOTE: as a DesignApplause reader you can get a FREE TICKET by emailing Be Original

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[ new york now ] 16 > 20 august 2014 | jacob javits center nyc @nynowmarket

talking to coalesse new design director john hamilton. milan 2014.

Jun 7, 2014

above> john hamilton design director coalesse

<5_MY Chair | michael young | aka carbon fiber chair || click > enlarge

We met with new Coalesse Design Director John Hamilton in Milan. We talked about the impact of recent management changes at Coalesse and their relationship with parent, Steelcase. We also were introduced to a new and amazing carbon fiber chair created by Michael Young.

[DESIGNAPPLAUSE] John, what’s different at Coalesse after the new restructuring?
[JOHN HAMILTON] I think a lot has changed and not much has changed. What’s changed would not be apparent to most people unless you knew us from the inside. Management has changed but our strategy and philosophy has not. Our problem solving has not changed. When you think what we’re trying to focus on, maybe the ways we’re going to tell the story or ways that we market you would say feels a little different. But if you go back, if you knew the original intent of what we’re trying to do, it’s still the same. We still think there’s a huge opportunity for the direction that was previously set and in that mindset, not that much has changed.

[DA] What is the strategy?
[JH] The world of work is changed in the way we’re all working. For a while we were trying to talk about that change, but now it’s so commonplace that if we mention it, people just nod their head and say ‘I do that’. That also means because of new technologies we all have, we’re now able to choose where we want to work and how we want to work. And now we have a greater variety of where to choose to work than in the past. Because of all multiple devices to choose from we have even more freedom to decide whether to work at the office or somewhere else. Today we’re seeing people choosing not to go to the workplace. And we are probing the reasons for that decision, why are they choosing alternative places. If we can understand why and leverage those insights we might bring people back to the workplace.

What maybe different is our partnership with Steelcase. We’re (Coalesse) part of a very large eco system or organization that’s looking at work, and workers and the workplace and things that are affecting you the whole day, and not just at one location. And we complement them really well and we’re going to find ways to demonstrate that differently or better than we did in the past.

I’ve talked to some people and they say, ‘you’re about home office or about retail, right?’ But we’re are really about the office and trying to bring a different sensibility to that space. And there’s a desire to get people back into the office to restore group synergy, that synergy that fosters greater creativity and collaboration. The office will be more comfortable, healthier, all the wellness things that we as individuals are concerned with.

[DA] John, you mention Steelcase. How do you interface with them?
[[JH] I’m a part of James Ludwig’s Global Design Group. We’re directly connected with them on a daily basis. In short, we’re partners with them. And because of Steelcase, our facilities in Michigan is amazing. I’m in San Francisco now and I’m a little sorry I left Michigan because after I left they implemented an entirely new space. It’s world class. We know it’s world class because we’re global. I’m a good example, I’ve spent time in Asia and that experience is felt in our design.

One of the things we talk about is ‘unfair advantage’ at Steelcase. Which means we at Coalesse leverage Steelcase’s resources. I have a researcher in San Francisco and get to partner with other researchers across the globe. My issues in San Francisco are slightly different because of nuances that we’re working on, but they’re the same issues globally because it’s about people. We’re always globally comparing traditional workspaces against alternative workspaces that we’re working on. If you talk to my direct competitors and ask them if they would like to have 30 researchers situated around the world working for you everyday that you get to leverage and 150 engineers and a model shop and a test lab, anyone would say, absolutely.

[DA] What is the Global Design Group?
[JH] We have several disciplines (design and engineering) at Steelcase which we think about as global. We have a design studio headquartered in Grand Rapids Michigan. There’s one in Salzburg France and Rosenheim Germany, in Hong Kong and San Francisco. And we work together to get an international perspective. It’s not surprising the challenges that I have in San Francisco are slightly different than those in Hong Kong. And when you study all our network locations you begin to see a pattern, where people might be struggling. We have the advantage of using our global perspective to respond. Our reach and scale gives us an unfair advantage.

[DA] Are your products tailored to different parts of the world?
[JH] I think sometimes products get applied differently. Or scaled regionally. We’re starting to find there’s a more international consistency than inconsistency. The opportunity to do something that can be globally executed, we’re seeing greater and greater possibilities of doing that. The nuances are more regional. In Hong Kong, space is a greater concern. So things are tighter, closer together there. But globally we are seeing that people are responding to pillows and lounging chairs where there are more options to sit, stretch, and they are more comfortable and also more productive. And that’s what Coalesse is about, looking at alternative aspects of the workplace, adding new settings, new postures and possibilities.

[DA] I talked to Toan Nguyen and Jean-Marie Massaud last year at Neocon and would like to know how their solutions are being received.
[JH] I was going to ask you the same thing. We are just shipping them and we have a lot of orders to fulfill at this time.

[DA] The designers and experts that I’ve talked to, everyone loves the concepts, the design and execution. The solutions are both unique.
[JH] That’s another example of who we are, we’re striving to be unique. We have a new chair that is very unique, our carbon fibre chair. We partnered with designer Michael Young.

[DA] The chair is beautiful.
[JH] You have to touch it, move it, lift it.

[DA] It’s light as a feather.
[JH] Michael’s office is in Hong Kong. We were talking to him about carbon fiber and our interest in exploring the material and how you could push it and come up with a product that when you looked at it you knew it could only be done in that material. We wanted to do it in a way that really optimized the reason why you would use that material which is about lightness and strength. And it’s expensive for what it is. You want to only use as much as you need. So the Steelcase seating engineers worked with our carbon fiber manufacturer and Michael and FEA modeling to optimize exactly how much you need as you go through the visualization and the testing. We wanted it to stack four-high and weigh less than five pounds. The chair is 4.8 pounds /2.2 kilos. A box of four is under 25 pounds so shipping is inexpensive but this chair, it’s not the most expensive chair in the marketplace.

What’s interesting and the way I look at it, this is about a new product. We’ve always talked about craft and materiality as being very important to Coalesse. When you think about the time when they were exploring wood for example, they were pushing wood technology. They were steam-bending it. They were taking paper and twisting it into a rope, taking materials at that moment and seeing what they could do with it in new ways that literally push the boundaries of manufacturing at that time. Look at Eames, working with plywood and fibreglass. I believe if the Eames’s were around today they’d be playing with carbon fiber.

And there’s a real craft to shape it, join parts together, polish, paint it and then finish coat. Our manufacturing partner is an expert at finishing. If you ask Michael what he thought when he saw the possibilities, he was all eyes and ears. (DesignApplause will be talking to Michael at NeoCon 2014.) Look at the finishing, look at the transition of color, from a 2% to 8% grey. There’s a metallic one over there. We sent them a copper wire and the manufacturer matched it exactly. Another unique by-product on this chair, we’re going to enable the designer to specify what areas they want and which way. Just send a PMS chip or a sample. We can duplicate it. You get to participate. The only limitation with the process is seemingly ‘real-time’.

[DA] Is this powder coated process?
[JH] No, it’s a handpainted process. It’s a craft. Everyone is going to be slightly different, unique. And yet there is the consistency that you expect. And don’t they make carbon fiber bikes and boats and those things are outdoors all day long. This chair is both indoor and outdoor. And they’re so light I can stack four of these and carry them out with one arm.

[DA] John, please hold one in the air. With one hand.

Note: The carbon fiber chair has a new name:<5_MY Chair And keep a look out for our Michael Young’s take on his new chair following NeoCon 14. [ michael young ][ coalesse ] [steelcase ]

wallpaper* handmade. milan 2014.

Apr 30, 2014

above> boxing set | soho house, horween leather and cleto reyes

Wallpaper* Handmade returned to the Leclettico gallery for its fifth celebration of craft and creativity at Salone del Mobile. The gallery is located in Gregorio Docet, the newest go-to design district in Milan and we spent the entire morning looking around the neighborhood after having a long visit at Homemade. What’s captivating about Milan Design Week is the sheer volume and diversity of high-level offerings. From iconic showrooms, Rho’s fairground and pop-ups everywhere. Homemade inspires and entertains us with one-off items of furniture, fittings, fashions, food and more, many exhibitors having only two-three months to conceive and execute. There were over 70 exhibitors. Each has a wonderfully interesting story behind them. Here’s just a few.

‘room divider’ | gabrielle shelton (pictured) and chris rucker

[DesignApplause] Gabrielle, tell us about yourself and what are you up at Handmade?
[Gabrielle Shelton] I’m from Los Angeles but have been living & working in Brooklyn for 19 years which is longer than I lived in LA so I am a Brooklynite. I collaborated with another artist, Chris Rucker, and we were interested in New York City’s history of metalwork and textiles and collaborating on something a little different than we normally do. We’re both builders and this vanity screen or room divider expresses a typology of a different scale. The screens represents certain areas of a room or divisions between construction or streets. Chris uses old moving blankets, and these blankets have been used to move things from shops to job sites. They’ve been in the back of a truck, they’ve gotten mouldy and stained. And he’s taken them apart, taken all the padding out of them and re-quilted them for this piece. My work is the all handmade brass frame. Everything has been machined, the screws, the turns, the hinges. And it’s all mechanical, no welds, no solders, no brazings.
[DA] You’re a sculpter, a metalsmith, a welder?
[GS] I don’t wear heels in the shop. One of my uncles is a welder and I learned how to weld when I was 12 years old. Now I have a metal shop.

[DA] The extensive amount from scratch of art and craftsmanship is sinking in. How much time from concept to finished piece?
[GS] A little less than two months. Chris and I are very busy and we did this all at night and on weekends. There was some texting and some long studio nights with beers.

[DA] What’s your body of work like?
[GS] I specialize in staircases, walls, hardware, furniture. I most recently did the staircase at the David Zwirner Gallery.

above/below> ‘Cork jacket’ | Todd Bracher and Amorim

above/below> ‘Monsieur Poiré’ | Ian Wright and Caran d’Ache

hyunwoo bang and yunsil heo | everyware

above/below> ‘T.Able’ | Everyware and Friends & Founders
[DesignApplause] Yunsil, tell us about Everyware and T.Able.
[Yunsil Heo] Everyware is an interactive media group in Seoul and consists of me and my husband, Hyunwoo Bang. ’T.Able’ is an interactive project in development for two years and is a system where light interacts with objects, in this case cups on a table. You’re looking at a series of programmed graphics guided by infared information that detects both motion and objects.

[DA] What do you see as a practical application?
[YH ] There are opportunities for hotels or restaurants, for example, to incorporate creative art or lighting that enhance interior experiences. There are applications that are only limited by your creativity. If someone asks us to create a specific application for their needs we can accommodate them.

[DA] What’s your background(s)?
[YH ] I studied graphic design and later computer graphics programming (M.F.A. UCLA design/media arts, B.A. and Ph.D. Seoul Nat’l Univ) and my husband studied mechanical engineering (B.S. and Ph.D. mechanical and aerospace engineering Seoul Nat’l Univ and Postdoctoral Fellow biomedical engineering UCLA).

above>below> ‘Clerkenwell’ coat | Wallace Sewell, Gieves & Hawkes and Designtex

‘revaluation’ obsidian mirrors | studio drift | ralph nauta and lonneke gordijn | studio drift

[DesignApplause] Ralph and Lonneke, I have a feeling this going to be quite technical.
[Lonneke Gordijn] Yes, get ready. Our concept addresses the excessive chemical waste problem the world is presented with today. We are using obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth. Our source of obsidian comes from a chemical engineer who’s been working with this material for the past 30 years, extracting 100% chemical wastes in the process. For us we use the ashes from the process and shape, glaze and polish. We can polish to a mirror-like finish. In a way, you have a reflection of yourself in your own waste.
[DA] When you’re wasted.
[LG] (laughing) Exactly! Our engineer currently has a small factory but has the ambition to create a larger commercial factory that extracts waste in great quantity. Our handmade piece for the show is a symbol of this process and his effort and we wanted to make an object that doesn’t relate to or look like waste. Our goal has grown to promote this technology to factories all over the world.

[DA] How did you meet this engineer?
[LG] We met him through mutual friends. Our friend said he makes gold and silver from chemical wastes and we said we must meet this guy!

[DA] How did you approach this challenge?
[Ralph Nauta] We know glass so that was our logical starting point but obsidian has a different melting temperature and cools at a different rate. Once we could liquify the material and understand it we were able to use molds made of sand to take us to the next step. Obsidian also behaves differently than glass as it holds warmth and cools much more slowly. We thought maybe a cool-down of five days but it was still 50 degrees. The trick is too cool it down slowly to reduce all the molecular tension. This piece from liquid to cool enough to touch takes about a week.
[LG] It’s also super heavy. It’s very weird, it sounds like metal when tapped but it works like glass. We’re still in the middle of the process and just have this one piece. And we’re still learning. We will cool down our next piece more slowly. It also feels a bit weird that it’s like baking a cake made with ingredients that make up our planet, that we stand on the ingredients of this cake everyday.

above> The floor inside ‘Passage of wood’ consists of humongous planks of douglas fir and it’s not unusual to see cracks deep in the center of the planks. The fix are ‘butterfly’ stitches.

[ wallpaper* handmade ] [ leclettico gallery ]

1> ‘Animal Party’ glow-in-the-dark wallpaper | Haas Brothers and Flavor Paper
2> ‘Tou tou’ pet transporter | Mathieu Gustafsson, sponsored by Jaguar, inspired by Jaguar Design
3> ‘SKID’ side table and bench | Sebastian Herkner and Caesarstone
4> ‘Passage of wood’ folly / In Praise of Shadows, Dinesen, Oliver Beer and Werkraum Bregenzerwald
5> ‘Clothes horse’ | Aaron Dunkerton and Kebony
6’>’Chaise longue’ | Monica Förster and Vispring
7> ‘The Structure of Chocolate’ | Pierre Marcolini, Patte
8> ‘Croquet set’ | Edition by Moyard and Adrien Rovero
9> ‘F-TYPE Coupé | sponsored by Jaguar
10. ‘Diptych: Landscape II’ | Fredrikson Stallard, sponsored by Jaguar, inspired by Jaguar Design
11> ‘La Jeune Rue’s concept store & new neighborhood |
12> ‘Dichroicarus’ kite | SO-IL and 3M