events – Page 12 – DesignApplause

the all-consumed joseph grima at the 2015 chicago architecture biennial.

Oct 3, 2015

As I am photographing an installation Joseph Grima, the co-artistic director of this biennial is walking into this space with his phone held high, talking while walking and video taping. Without pausing he says hello and keeps on filming because as I later learn he has a scheduled interview coming up. I take a few photos of him recording and then I start recording him recording, reminiscent of the style Isaac Julien uses in his film Ten Thousand Waves. This goes on for 16-plus minutes. When done we both walk towards his interview.

[DesignApplause] This is the 3rd day of your event. Where are you right now?
[Joseph Grima] I’m totally immersed and consumed right now. Whether I’m at a scheduled event or in between like we are right now. What am I doing now in my free time? Video recording the entire event! I’m both buzzing and having a great time.

[DA ] This question can be off the record if you wish. The Chicago Cultural Center is such a wonderful space. Does the Beaux-Arts ornamented classical style compete with the installations? Would you have preferred to have a vacant factory building?
[JG] If this building was alongside a vacant factory building I would choose this building in a heartbeat. This space is more than a building. This is the city’s living room so to speak. The local citizens come in here all the time, this is there space, it has so much heart and soul. And this notion is more important than any special politics or anything. Having said that I think the spaces in this building are absolutely amazingly fantastic. The vast array of rooms that we’ve been able to occupy, from scale models to large installations, big galleries, small galleries, fantastic circulation. I think it’s fabulous.

[DA ] There are more young, emerging talents than big names. I’ve noticed that’s the case with a number of biennials. Is this phenomenon by design with curators of these events?
[JG] I think this is an exceptionally generous biennial in the sense that it looks much more towards the emerging generation. However, there are some names who are incredibly well-known. We tried not to think too much about who’s famous, who’s not famous. That wasn’t really a specific criteria. We were mostly interested in who’s producing new ideas, who has bold visions, who is taking risks and give them a space.

[DA ] You’ve done a number of biennials and events. How does Chicago compare?
[JG] The scale of the Chicago event is really big. Istanbul was big but Chicago is really big, the first time I’ve done something this large.

[DA ] I hope this show will keep going and thank you so much, and Sarah Herda (co-artistic director and executive director of the Graham Foundation), for putting together such an incredible body of effort and ideas.
[JG] Me too. I have every hope that it will because this city offers so much. Chicago is fantastic, an incredible opportunity for the city and the world.

The [ Chicago Architecture Biennial ] launched 3 October 2015, and will run through 3 January 3 2016. @chicagobiennial @grahamfound @ChiCulturCenter

talking to michelle boone on chicago’s first architecture biennial.

Oct 2, 2015

It’s hard to believe that 2015 is the launch date of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial. With so many major worldwide architecture & design events going on and with Chicago’s architectural heritage being one of the richest in the world, this event will serve as the epitome of ‘it’s never too late.’ We talked to the biennial’s resourceful, Michelle Boone, Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), after an exhilarant, worldwide audience filled, first press event. Many would say she’s 100% responsible for this inaugural happening.

[DesignApplause] What’s the genesis of the Chicago Architecture Biennal? How far back does it go?
[Michelle Boone] I was appointed by Mayor Emanuel in 2011, and I would say probably that second week of my tenure I got a call from the mayor wanting to work towards identifying a new platform, a major platform to convene the world and celebrate one of Chicago’s multiple assets. And very quickly through the process of working on the Chicago Cultural plan released in 2012, we landed on architecture. That while we had great organizations like the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and others that were doing their part to introduce visitors to Chicago institutions and Chicago Architecture history, the city itself had done very little to really promote architecture. We had great music festivals, engaging theatre programs and grant programs in support of individual artists, but as an agency very little for architecture, one of the city’s cultural strengths. And professions! I mean, just the sector of architecture as a creative industry is really important to the city. So we began to explore and look at biennials and exhibitions around the world.

[DA] And what year was this?
[MB] 2012. We went to Venice, the granddaddy of them all and met with those folks and they were very encouraging. And you know, they were shocked and surprised when we told them Chicago wasn’t doing a biennial. Every time we spoke to someone outside of the city, we heard that over and over. Through this process and along with our very encouraging and supportive local architecture community we’re here today kicking off our biennial. Looking back it was very easy in the beginning pulling the pieces together, but then we had to do the hard work of pulling everything together.

[DA] To summarize, how long has it taken to get to today?
[MB] We’ve been working on it for three years, in different iterations. The exploration, research, the ideas started back in 2012. I think Sarah (Herda, executive director of the Graham Foundation) coming on board, and really starting to massage the artistic vision for the biennial probably started in late 2013. So, yes, I think the work that she and Joseph (Grima, an architect and writer who co-curated the 2012 Istanbul design biennial) have been engaged in has been at least 18-24 months for sure.

[DA] Venice started in the 80s. The experts say you have 10 years, and with the biennial occurring every-other year, that’s 20 years. Are you going to hang in there?
[MB] Well, the Biennial will hang in there (laughing) I don’t know if it needs me to hang in there all that time. What’s very important, we started right from the beginning establishing the Chicago Architecture Biennial as an organization, an independent non-profit to ensure the sustainability of the event. It’s not dependent on me being here at the city of Chicago, or Mayor Emanuel being here, but that the organization will build the institutional intrastructure to be able to carry this on.

[DA] You’ve been able to see all the installations, can you point me to one or two?
[MB] There are a lot of cool things here and one of the coolest to me is the installation with spider webs, so the spider as architect (Tomas Saraceno, Berlin) is pretty interesting to see.

above> – click image for slide show; Tomas Saraceno, Berlin – When entering into Saraceno’s installation, a visitor’s perception is reoriented in a darkened environment dotted with glowing sculptures that are articulated in silvery spider silk. Formed of complex interwoven geometries suspended in air, each piece appears as a unique galaxy floating within an expansive, infinite landscape. The work’s titles reveal the technical basis for each sculptural element, like the genus and species of the spider collaborators and the amount of time needed to construct their webs – one four months. During the building period of a sculpture, each cube is turned onto its different sides, dislodging gravity and interweaving concepts of freedom of control within the work.

[DA] Anything else you wish to say?
[MB] It’s free! One unique thing about our biennial in comparison to some of the others around the world, is that all of the works are free and accessible.

[DA] How did the largest architecture and design festival ever to be held in North America press conference go?

The [ Chicago Architecture Biennial ] launches 3 October 2015, and will run through 3 January 3 2016. @chicagobiennial @grahamfound

2015 chicago architecture biennial opening days public schedule.

Sep 30, 2015

the first chicago architecture biennial is the largest architecture and design festival ever to be held in north america | courtesy iwan baan

Chicago is billing the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) as North America’s biggest survey of international contemporary architecture, but the event is not alone. Besides Venice, whose architecture biennial began in 1980, cities worldwide hold biennial exhibitions of art, design and architecture year-round.

The first biennial, which has secured a $2.5 million lead grant from British oil and gas giant BP, is planned for 3 October 2015, through 3 January 2016. Mayor Rahm Emanuel personally solicited the lead, $2.5 million donation for the biennial from BP. The city’s biennial will present scale models, photographs and more unconventional displays hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The event organizers have Chicago holding its architecture biennial in odd-numbered years with Venice historically presenting even-numbered years. The experts say this is a 10-year, five in Chicago, trial run. DesignApplause is optimistic.

The event will be “the Davos of architecture,” said the co-artistic director of the Chicago biennial, Sarah Herda, referring to the Swiss city that hosts global business and political leaders at its World Economic Forum. Herda is the executive director of the Chicago-based Graham Foundation, a grant-making architecture organization that has partnered with the city to host the biennial. Joseph Grima is the other co-artistic director, an architect and writer who co-curated the 2012 Istanbul design biennial.

There will be no admission charge for the Chicago biennial. The Venice event two-day ticket price is 30 euros ($41). The target audience will be architects and designers, cultural mavens, students and tourists.

Below is a schedule of public events. Some events will require an RSVP. [ chicago architecture biennial ] [ graham foundation ]

[ wednesday 30 september ]

4:30–6 PM Panel: Death and Afterlife of the Post-Industrial City
Location> The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC Ballroom, 112 South Michigan Avenue

Presented by the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the SAIC in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA, New York and the Elkones Institute (Basel), with additional support from the Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration and the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects.
Free and open to the public

5:30 PM UIC School of Architecture, Fall 2015 Lecture Series: Tatiana Bilbao Principal, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico
Location> 1100 Architecture + Design Studios, 845 West Harrison Street
Free and open to the public

6:30 PM Chicago Architectural Club: Burnham Prize & Currencies of Architecture Exhibition Opening
Location> Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 South Michigan Avenue
Free and open to the public

[ thursday 1 october ]

2-5 PM House Housing + We, Next Door exhibit
Location> 1322 West Taylor Street

Presented by the National Public Housing Museum and Columbia University
Free and open to the public

2:30 PM Screening of Infinite Happiness
Location> AMC River East 21, 322 East Illinois Street

4–6PM Outside Design Exhibit Artist Talk and Reception with, David Benjamin, Eric Ellingsen David Hays, Joyce Hwang, and Emmanuel Pratt
Location> The Art Institute of Chicago, 112 South Michigan Avenue
Hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Free and open to the public

5-7:30 PM James Wines: SITE Specific - Architectural Drawings 1979 to 2012 | Opening Reception
Location> Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 118 North Peoria Street
Free and open to the public

5:30-8 PM International Perspectives | Chicago and the Future of Urban Change
Location> The Art Institute of Chicago’s Rubloff Auditorium, 111 S Michigan Avenue

Presented by Van Alen Institute and the Architecture & Design Society of the Art Institute of Chicago
Free and open to the public

5–8 PM Barbara Kasten: Stages Opening Reception
5PM Opening Remarks by Barbara Kasten and ICA curator Alex Klein
Location> The Graham Foundation, 4 West Burton Place
Free and open to the public

[ friday 2 october ]

1-2:15 PM Biennial Participant Roundtable Moderated by Beatrice Galilee and José Esparza
Location> Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 East Randolph Street
Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

2:30-4 PM Biennial Participant Roundtable Moderated by Emiliano Gandolfi and Awarding of the Curry Stone Design Prize
Location> Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph Street
Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

4:30 PM Theatre: Performance by Santiago Borja
Location> Carr Chapel, IIT, 65 East 32nd Street
Free and open to the public

4:30 PM Superpowers of Ten: Performance by Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
Location> The Tank, Chicago Athletic Association, 12 South Michigan Avenue
Free and open to public. Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

6 & 6:15PM We Know How to Order: Performance by Bryony Roberts and South Shore Drill Team
Location> Federal Plaza, Chicago
Free and open to the public. Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

6:30 – 10PM New Horizon_architecture from Ireland at the Chicago Design Museum
Location> Chicago Design Museum, Block Thirty Seven, 108 North State Street, 3rd Floor
Irish Design 2015 in partnership with the Chicago Design Museum
RSVP to rsvp@chidm.com

8 PM Superpowers of Ten: Performance by Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
Location> The Tank, Chicago Athletic Association, 12 South Michigan Avenue
Free and open to public. Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

8 PM Theatre: Performance by Santiago Borja
Location> Carr Chapel, IIT, 65 East 32nd Street
Free and open to public

lekker architects’ proposal was a finalist in the [ lakefront kiosk competition ] | courtesy lekker architects

[ saturday 3 october ]

12:30 PM We Know How to Order: Performance by Bryony Roberts and South Shore Drill Team
Location> Federal Plaza, 219 South Dearborn Street
Free and open to the public

1 PM We Know How to Order: Performance by Bryony Roberts and South Shore Drill Team
Location> Federal Plaza, 219 South Dearborn Street
Free and open to the public

12:30-2 PM Metropolis Preserving Postmodernism Panel: postmodernist architecture: preservation’s new frontier
Location> Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph Street
Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

4:30 PM Superpowers of Ten: Performance by Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
Location> The Tank, Chicago Athletic Association, 12 South Michigan Avenue
Free and open to the public. Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

5-8 PM Night of Illumination: Opening Celebration at Stony Island Arts Bank
Location> 6760 South Stony Island Avenue
Online RSVP via https://night-of-illumination.eventbrite.com

[ sunday 4 October ]

7 AM Amanda Williams’ Color(ed) Theory House Painting: Flamin’ Red Hots
Location> 5703 South Lafayette
The event is free but requires RSVP. Inquire at www.awgallery.com

2–3:30PM Thinking into the Future: A Conversation with John Ronan
Location> Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 East Randolph Street
Presented in Collaboration with the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
Online RSVP via Chicago Architecture Biennial Website

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.

john ronan on transcending pragmatism: searching for a new chicago. chicago architecture biennial.

Sep 21, 2015

Architect John Ronan speaks at the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s opening weekend
Chicago architect John Ronan FAIA discusses his views on the direction of Chicago architecture and practicing within its building culture. Ronan holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In addition to being recognized by Chicago’s Graham Foundation, the Architectural League of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and being the subject of a Princeton Architectural Press monograph, Ronan is best known for his Poetry Foundation building in Chicago (2007), which garnered one of his firm’s two prestigious AIA Institute National Honor Awards. Ronan is Professor of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture. [ @chicagobiennial ]

john ronan / john ronan architects

event> transcending pragmatism: searching for a new chicago.
date: sunday, october 4, 2015
time: 2 pm
location: preston bradley hall, chicago cultural center, 78 east washington street, chicago
admission: free. reservations required

the london design festival pack 15 via camron.

Sep 19, 2015

from our friends at camron [ view the london design festival pack 15 ] @CamronPR @L_D_F #ldf15

day 1 peek at expo chicago 2015.

Sep 18, 2015

Things started off creatively. Upon picking up press credentials last night we were given this very cleverly designed wristband. Looking like a yellow tongue depressor when handed to us, when bent a bit it snapped around the wrist. TY MCA.

Expo Chicago 2015 is our fourth consecutive visit. Our first impression, the event is maturing, getting better. But to-the-point. In 2013, our second year, the concept of asking the galleries if they’ere showing work from artists who studied architecture and/or design.

To solidify this bent, the night before at the Making place: The Architecture of David Adjaye at an Art Institute special conversation with David, we learn he discovered architecture while attending an art school. In his acceptance speech of the 2016 McDermott Award, “in my career I have sought to cross creative platforms and to focus on the creative discourse surrounding the act of making things.”

above> washington skeleton chair, 2012 | david adjaye for knoll | salon 94 – the very chair that david and zoë ryan were sitting on at Making Place the night before.

What does DesignApplause look for? You have to consider our introduction to the co-existence of fine art and design, found at Art Basel and DesignMiami. The last three years we’ve asked Tony Karman if the design gallery would pop-up. Here’s what he said in our 2013 interview, “we want quality over quantity, meaning a smaller show, about 100 exhibitors. ‘When the marketplace can sustain it and quality of dealers are beating down the door, we’ll consider it. But only if the exhibitors want it, not me. It’s their space.’

We didn’t have to ask in 2015. When sent the 2015 exhibitor list, near the bottom:

To complement the intersections between art and design, the 2015 edition will present some of the leading international exhibitors specializing in this field interspersed throughout the main fair. Galleries include: HOSTLER BURROWS | New York; casati gallery | Chicago; R & Company | New York; and Volume Gallery | Chicago.

above> beddy white, 20015 | the haas brothers | r & company – when we approach zesty meyers, founder of r & company, and one of the 15 founding galleries Design Miami ten years ago, we ask who’s a trained architect or designer, he says, “pick anyone you like.”

An aside, the past three years about 50% of the galleries are showing trained architects, designers or artists inspired by architecture & design. Tonight we have three hours and our ‘see first’ list are those galleries we posted in the past. We’ve put an (*) next to their name in the exhibitors list below. There are 26 on this list, a testament to returning galleries, and regretfully three hours is not enough to see all tonight.

Rhona Hoffman Gallery wowed us by saying none of their artists were formally trained but the gallery provided a special room for those artists (5) inspired by a&d.

above> circus, 1978 | gordon matta-clark | rhona hoffman gallery – matta-clark creates installation art from buildings about to be demolished. below> untitled (15-05), 2015 | richard rezac | rhona hoffman gallery – created works are comprised of discarded architectural hardware.

Another surprise, furniture by Chicago-bred Virgil Abloh. We know him as the outspoken creative director of Kanye West, a popular D.J., a fashion designer, with a Chicago clothing store, RSVP gallery. We didn’t know he’s an architect and engineer and left a Chicago office to do what he’s doing now.

above> grid system, 2015 | virgil abloh – his furniture appears to embody a little of abloh’s energy too.

above> portraits with mona, 2015 | gregory scott | catherine edelman gallery – former graphic designer mr. scott is admiring his own work.

We look at our watches, it’s 9p. We’re hungry. btw, before we left we took an aisle by aisle walk with an at-glance eye at everything. this is a great event.

above> – we walk out a side door to the outside – we’re hungry AND tired. TY Expo Chicago

above> click on image > navigate lightbox

The 2015 exhibitor list was chosen by the international Selection Committee comprised of Marianne Boesky, Marianne Boesky Gallery * | New York; Isabella Bortolozzi, Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie | Berlin; John Corbett, Corbett vs. Dempsey | Chicago; Chris D’Amelio, David Zwirner | London, New York; Rhona Hoffman, Rhona Hoffman Gallery * | Chicago; David Nolan, David Nolan Gallery | New York; Jessica Silverman, Jessica Silverman Gallery | San Francisco; and Susanne Vielmetter, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects | Los Angeles.

EXPOSURE, the section of the fair dedicated to galleries that have been in business seven years or less, allows the opportunity for younger galleries to participate in a major international exposition. A special exhibition of one or two artists by each of the participating galleries provides critical exposure for their programs, offering an important opportunity for curators, collectors and art enthusiasts to survey the best in innovative and emerging work. The EXPOSURE Selection Committee was led by returning gallerist Candice Madey, On Stellar Rays | New York and Kate Werble, Kate Werble Gallery | New York.

The list of 2015 EXPOSURE exhibiting galleries includes:

[ 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, 17 September 6 – 9 p.m. General Admission to the exposition is Friday, 18 September – Sunday, 20 September. Tickets to the exposition are $20 for one day, $30 for three days.

friedman benda exhibits ettore sottsass: 1955 >1969.

Sep 9, 2015

Friedman Benda opened its eighth season with Ettore Sottsass 1955-1969. The fourth in a series devoted to the expansive oeuvre of the groundbreaking Italian architect – designer Ettore Sottsass (1917‐2007), the exhibition ten years in the making will explore the breadth of Sottsass’ remarkable creativity in the early stages of his career. With a display of unique ceramics, rare furniture and lighting, and vintage photographs never before seen in the United States, the exhibition will also be the first in a newly configured exhibition space for Friedman Benda in Chelsea.

The showing serves as a gateway to understanding an extremely diverse and fertile 15-year period in Italian design and art, which precedes the years of Radical Design. These are the formative years for the designer who used ceramics as a laboratory for developing a new language of design. Rare ceramics on view will include work from every important series of this period and several are derived from Sottsass’s memories and reflections of his travels to India, to the U.S., and from personal life experiences.

Among them will be examples of Lava (1957), Tondi (1959), and Tenebre (1963), the designer’s “Darkness” series in somber tones with mandala – like imagery, conceived during a protracted illness. Others will be from Shiva (1964), a series celebrating his return to good health with homage to the Indian deity, the great conqueror of death, and from the Tantra (1968), and Fumo (1969), series. All of these works have been extensively published and collected by museums worldwide.

Furniture and lighting will also include major one‐of‐a‐kind pieces: the first showing in the United States of a bookshelf made for a director of Olivetti; front slatted rosewood cabinets, one in white and one in red; and examples of mirrors and lighting designed for Arredoluce. Sottsass, who worked in a variety of media, produced many of these works for his patrons, while others were created as artistic expressions in his studio practice.

above> click on image to engage slideshow – 17 slides

[ ettore sottsass ] (1917 – 2007) was an Italian architect and designer. His body of designs included furniture, jewelry, glass, lighting and office machine designs.

In 1956, Ettore Sottsass began working as a design consultant for Olivetti, designing office equipment, typewriters, and furniture where made his name as a designer who, through color, form and styling, managed to bring office equipment into the realm of popular culture. In office equipment his iconic Valentine typewriter (1969) became a fashion statement.

His work from the late 60s to the 70s was defined by experimental collaborations with younger designers such as Superstudio and Archizoom Associati, and association with the Radical movement, culminating in the foundation of Memphis.

In 1980 Sottsass Associati was established, primarily an architectural practice, although also designed elaborate stores and showrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan and furniture of all kinds.attracted attention world wide for its energy and flamboyance.

exhibit > ettore sottsass: 1955 -1969
venue > friedman benda | 515 west 26th street | new york | 212 239 8700
dates> 10 september > 17 october 2015

[ #FriedmanBenda ] [ instagram ] [ facebook ]

maison & objet 2015 reinvents itself with lifestyle.

Sep 2, 2015

A richer visit that is more fluid than ever—that is the goal of Maison & Objet 2015. After several years of study and on the basis of evolving consumption patterns, the show has shifted towards grouping by lifestyle rather than by sector.

There are three categories to seek out.
MAISON and its overarching decorative offer fills Halls 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5B with 4 sectors: ECLECTIC, COSY, ELEGANT and ACTUEL.

OBJET, occupies Halls 5A and 6. It is MAISON&OBJET’s “concept store,” a distribution with its 8 sectors: CRAFT, MÉTIERS D’ART, FRAGRANCES, COOK+DESIGN, FRESH, COMPLEMENTS, KIDS, FASHION and BELOVED.

LUXE, DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE D’INTÉRIEUR in Halls 7 and 8 bring together new themes known as NOW! Design à vivre, scènes d’intérieur gallery and MAISON&OBJET |projets|

ALSO

DesignAapplause offers a glimpse of the following exhibitors:

ALSO

The fifth annual PARIS DESIGN WEEK, scheduled to overlap with MAISON&OBJET PARIS, will take place from Saturday 5 to Saturday 12 September 2015.

the poetry foundation – the book launch. john ronan architects.

Sep 2, 2015

[ book launch event ]
date> thursday 29 october 2015 | 6>8p
venue> poetry foundation | 61 west superior street chicago

published by the center for american architecture and design at the school of architecture at the university of texas austin

edited by kevin alater and wilfried wang

essays:
a modern legacy ~kevin alter
the building of the poetry foundation—how the building became to be ~john barr
no strings attached ~john ronan
the poetry foundation, chicago, the right angle ~wilfried wang
elucidation and the city ~raymund ryan

Without having read this book but knowing a little about the client (Poetry Foundation), the architect (John Ronan Architects) and the building, it wouldn’t be a big leap to predict this new book can be described as poetic justice* meets architecture.

(*) : an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate.

[ poetry foundation | notes of interest ]
The Poetry Foundation is comprised of a building in dialogue with a garden created through erosion of an implied volume as described by the L-shaped property boundary. The garden interlocks with the building and is conceived as another “room,” part of the building’s slowly-unfolding spatial sequence revealed space by space, not unlike a poem is revealed line by line.

Visitors enter through the garden, an urban sanctuary that mediates between the street and enclosed building. Entering the garden, visitors first encounter the library space, announcing that they are entering into a literary environment. Inside, an exhibition gallery connects the library to the performance space, where visitors listen to poets read their work against the backdrop of the garden.

Public functions (performance space, gallery and library) are located on the ground floor, while office spaces are located on the second level, organized into three areas (Foundation Administration, Poetry magazine/website, and Programs). The building is configured to allow for views from all spaces out onto the garden.

Tectonically, the building is conceived of as a series of layers that visitors move through and between. Layers, of zinc, glass, and wood, peel apart to define the various spaces of the building. The building’s outer layer of oxidized zinc becomes perforated where it borders the garden, allowing visual access to the garden from the street to encourage public investigation.

Additional Credit
Acoustical: Threshold Acoustics
Development: U.S. Equities Realty; Norcon
Engineer: Arup; dbHMS; Terra Engineering
Landscape Architect: Reed Hilderbrand Associates
Lighting: Charter Sills

click on photo > lightbox mode

[ designapplause interview with john ronan ]