FOCUS VII

London Open City @ Sommerset House

If I could design London I would...

+ Bike - extend cycle lanes, improve awareness and allow bikes on the train network at all times.

+ Demotorise - pedestrianise, share space

+ Plant - trees trees trees

+ Modernise - water, electrical, lighting infrastructure to reduce waste

+ Experiment & Innovate, with new schemes, cultures and design
+ Dare to do it!
A well put together exhibition, with loads of freebies, focusing on the future of London's built/unbuilt environment.
Sommerset House here
Design for London here

Brit Insurance Designs Of The Year @ Design Museum

Muon Four-Way Limited Edition Loudspeakers - A KEF concept designed by Ross Lovegrove
"The first in an annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking new work in design of all kinds. Selected from around the world, Brit Insurance Designs of the Year presents 100 projects nominated by a group of internationally respected design experts, curators, critics, practitioners and enthusiasts. These projects fall within seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The exhibition gives an overview of the most significant achievements in design and architecture in the last year, whether they are projects by a practice, a team or an individual."
An interesting collection well worth a look in especially for those who enjoy interactive exhibitions.
Design Museum here

Jean Prouve @ Design Museum/Tate Modern

Design Museum here
Tate Modern here

Haque Design + Research @ London Met

Burble London from haque d+r on Vimeo.

"Usman Haque has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and mass-participation performances. His skills include the design of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. He has been an invited researcher at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, artist-in-residence at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Japan and has also worked in USA, UK and Malaysia. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London."
Usmans' presentation covered a snapshot of his work to date. He started by explaining what drives his work,
1 - Architecture - how we are programmed to explore and experience space.
2 - Interaction not reaction - how can participation affect a response.
3 - Design + Research - how these are so closely intertwined to be almost indistinguishable.
I thought his mapping of modern phenomena, mobile telephone reception for example, and how he applied the results to his proposals fascinating.
Haque Design here
London Metropolitan University here

Potters Field Park Kiosks

DSDHA Architects here

China Design Now

Ji Ji, Hi Panda, toy figure, 2006
"China Design Now explores China’s dreams and hopes over the last two decades, from individual designers to the nation as a whole."
China Design Now here


Snowboarding @ La Plagne



La Plagne here

CITYSCAPE 2008

Biotecture Ltd green walling systems

Caxia Forum Madrid
Patrick Blanc has some great examples of his own system of green walling, what he calls 'vertical gardens'. Recent work includes a partnership with Herzog & de Meuron on the Caxia Forum Madrid, Spain. Found this project on plataformaarquitectura.cl a great resource for new architecture.

Biotecture here
Patrick Blanc here
Caxia Forum here and here
Plataforma Arquitectura here


Thames gateway model by Pipers.
Its the size of a tennis court, epic! Really had an urge to stomp across it in a Godzilla like fashion, just me oh well...
Pipers here

Wednesday Jaunt

Waterfront London, Rediscovering the rivers and canals of the capital @ NLA

An investigation into current and proposed waterfront developments in the capital. Water has the potential to enhance any landscape. In London water has several key issues to consider: economic, increase property value and the potential for a transportation network; biodiversity, encourage aquatic flora and fauna to recolinize pollutant free water; cultural, trade on the water and around it is what made London what it is today.
Download the catalogue here.


Londons' lost rivers

Henk Hofstra's blue road in Drachten (Holland) @ Wooster Collective
I personally think that a future London should embrace its waterfronts and waterways. How about resurfacing the lost rivers of london? Or create a subterranean waternetwork for boating commuters/troglodites...

River Tyburn @ sub-urban

Three Mills Wall River @ derelictlondon
This is exactly the scenario I believe is crying out for attention. Can landscape architecture help? Obviously it a dump that needs to be cleared. But can the surrounding area be regenerated and populated to stop anarchistic behaviour, should supermarkets only allowed to be constructed a certain distance away from an open watersource, can it be treated as a framework for nature to take hold?
NLA here

International Lecture Series: FAT @ The Bartlett

"Theory is futile..." - Sean Griffiths

Islington Square
Describing the consultation process with residents, of Islington Square - Social Housing, New Islington, Manchester 2006, Sean showed an image of a homemade bar in the corner of some ones livingroom and described it as,
"A spatial expression of culture."
which I thought was a great comment.
FAT seem to enjoy a subversive angle to how they confront a project. Their facades, in my opinion their most exciting element, borrow pattern from a local vernacular and distort it to create a new but also instinctively recogniseable form.
FAT here
The Bartlet here


Anthony McCall @ Serpentine Gallery

Interactive light experience. Sheets of tangible white luminecence create enclosures with etherial beauty.
Could this be used in the landscape to create corridors or ghostly apparitions that populate space at night? Just like Sony did here. All those photoshop images of proposals filled with ghosts could actually become realaised!

Serpentine Gallery here
Anthony McCall here

FOCUS VI

Out of The Ordinary: Spectacular Craft @ the V&A

Anne Wilson, 'Topologies' 2002 - ongoing

Catherine Bertola, 'Everything And Nothing'
I don't know if I have become brainwashed by landscape architecture but some of the pieces shouted 'map' at me. What exactly the pieces were mapping is open for debate but you could say the artists mind... Also interesting to look at photos of the artists studios.
Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft here

Fusion Now! @ the Rokeby

Roger Hiorns, Untitled, 2007

http://withyou.co.uk/
"At a time when we are told that our excessive use of fossil fuels threatens the environment itself, environmentalism advocates that the only solution is restraint and reduction. FUSION NOW! asks what art and society might look like if we thought positively about a world based on more energy, not less."
Rokeby here

Breaking The Rules @ the British Library

De Stijl

"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written"

Henry Miller

"Mainly through the medium of print, Breaking the Rules throws new light on Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Surrealism and other movements; on the artists who changed the face of modern culture for ever; and on the cities that experienced their work, from Brussels to Budapest, Vienna to Vitebsk."

How many 'Isms' can the avant garde produce? 129783619283198367770222222. Maybe an exaggeration but it seemed that at the turn of the last century society was rebranding itself with unabashed enthusiasm. Graphic design especially was explored, manipulated and challenged creating styles that are still in use today. Personally I liked the "two fingers to the establishment" attitude at the turn of the century and how that became a catalyst for change.

De Stijl. Edited by Theo van Doesburg. Leiden, 1917-1932. 8 volumes (90 numbers). All online here

Full film online here 'Things to Come', HG Wells here

FOCUS V

Crack @ Tate Modern, 27/10/2007

Doris Salcedo Shibboleth. Anywhere else this would cause serious concern. Architects, Surveyors, Engineers would be desperately trying to fix this massive structural fault... But it's in a gallery so people just trip and fall over it.
Tate Modern here


S333 @ NLA, 29/10/2007

Dutch architects practice with a heavy lean towards urbanism. Interesting to see there approach to analysis and how they represent it.
S333 here
NLA here


Forms Of Inquiry: The Architecture Of Critical Graphic Design @ the AA, 29/10/07

(AA facade)
How far can a story be expressed, changed and animated on a sheet of paper? Can Graphic Design aid Architects? Well, yes, however this exhibition didn't engage with me. Some of the pieces were too abstract and dare I say it felt as if I've seen it before. I guess its a delicate balance between information and design.
Forms Of Inquiry here


Vladan P. Lighting Designer, Kardorf, 29/10/2007

(reso-net)
Light as a material? A great glimpse into what Lighting Design has to offer. Interesting how stories can be told and experiences affected by lighting. Nocturnal landscapes given depth by picking out elements within the vista.

ERCO provide engineering hardware and software for architectural lighting. Check out the guides section for some 'illuminating' information...
Speirs and Major Associates are a big UK firm with some interesting projects.

(Lumiere at the serpentine pavilion)
Two big questions the industry is asking itself:
+ How are we can we be sustainable in the 21stC?
+ When is lighting design light pollution?

Professional Lighting Designers Association here
ERCO here
Kardorff here
Speirs and Major Associates here
reso - net here


In-House Trend Meeting by The Future Laboratory @ MLT Knights Park, 30/10/2007

The job of The Future Laboratory is to bring the future to you.
A great presentation by Chris Sanderson the creative director of The Future Laboratory. He covered several areas that the company had been investigating, areas that particularly interested me were, Slowtopias and the Design Notebook.

Slowtopias

(Tino Schaedler airship concept)
The idea that we are changing our attitudes to travel. We want to shrink our carbon footprint and rediscover the joy of travel. What does this mean to Landscape? Creating destinations, transition zones, remediate areas polluted by extravagant 20thC travel, new routes for as yet unrecognised forms of travel...

Design Notebook.
Speculation on trends in design for the next few years (according to The Future Laboratory). Three themes coined by the future lab -

SUPER SYNTHETIC
SUPER SURREAL
HYPER - NATURAL

these are the umbrella under which the following subdivisions exist.

+ Tranplastic: mixing synthetic & natural materials.

(Transplastic by the Campana Brothers)

+ Neo Nonsense: surrealism the return...

(Dutch Embasy in Berlin by OMA)

+ Tribal Tech: oversize, pattern.

(Facade Art Academy, Boxtel, The Netherlands by FAT)

+ Prime Eval: fresh subversive organic guts.

(Tea Pot by Wieki Somers)

+ Metallica: weight, lustre, metal!

(Link Table by Tom Dixon)

The Future Laboratory here
Tino Schaedler here
Campana Brothers here
OMA here
FAT here
Wieki Somers here
Tom Dixon here


The Serpentine Pavilion 2007: Olafur Eliasson & Kjetil Thorsen, 31/10/2007


The 'spinning top'. For me this structure did have the immediate wow impact when first seen. This is rectified when you climb the first section of the ramp and enter the internal area/cafe. Light, theatre, tectonics and views all mix to form a great experience. Continue up the ramp and look down from the 'Romeo, Romeo' balcony and observe movement bellow of people and above through the sky light. Well worth a look.
Olafur Eliasson here
Kjetil Thorsen @ Snøhetta here


Mathew Barney: Drawing Restraint @ The Serpentine Gallery, 31/10/2007

?I mean what the f**k?
Drawing Restraint here
Serpentine Gallery here


The Stirling Prize @ RIBA, 31/10/2007

Don't go the exhibition is not worth it, just look on the web.
The Stirling Prize 2007 here


Richard Kelly: Selected Works @ RIBA, 31/10/2007

Pioneer in architectural lighting. I particularly liked the sketches on display. Always interesting to see initial thoughts.
ERCO here


Shell Wildlife Photographer Of The Year @ Natural History Museum, 31/10/2007

(Ice Creation by Robert Knight)
I find amazing photographs of our natural world truly inspirational. I left this event wanting more than ever to leave the UK and go on an adventure.
Shell Wildlife Photographer Of The Year here
Natural History Museum here


The Wildlife Garden @ Natural History Museum, 31/10/2007

Looking a bit tired, it is October and 12 years old. A great resource for inner city education. Also provides scientific data on pollution levels since it was constructed in 1995.
Natural History Museum here


The Turner Prize: A Retrospective @ Tate Britain, 31/10/2007

(Anish Kapoor, Untitled 1990)
Cool. I wouldn't have thought beforehand that some of the best pieces there were moving image.
Tate Britain here

FOCUS III

British Library

Charles Booth's 'Descriptive Map of London Poverty'. Detail showing city of London and the East End.
Plans, sections, elevations, panoramas, paintings of London through the ages. Interesting to see the evolution of information and representation in maps and how the information has shaped the urban fabric of London today.
British Library here.

Design Museum

Go along to test ride some of the most influential modern chair designs. My personal favorite 'Crate Chair', 1934 by Thomas Gerrit Rietveld. Comfortable and made from a packing crate. Anyone could make this chair. Wonder what the Pallet chair would look like? Might make one...
Design Museum here.

Alvar Alto through the eyes of Shigeru Ban. Modernist Architecture and Design.

Material, minimalism and man. Alto creates sublime spaces through the use of form and materials. He also played with the interpretation of pine forests into his designs. Drawing nature in from the exterior. Alto's product designs are in my humble opinion where his designs really come to life. The Paimio lounge chair 41 shows his intimate knowledge of material and ergonomics, when a rigid frame of plywood can become a flexible comfortable chair.
Alvar Alto Foundation here.
Barbican here.

The Curve

Jeppe Hein, Distance.
Don't follow the ball...
Barbican here.

Barbican Estate

Vertical village, floating walkways, hanging gardens... in east London? Good to see a high density residential development that not only looks great but is a pleasant environment to be in, well worth a look in.
Barbican Estate here.

Accidental Collections



Photos of Stuart Haygarth collection - Aladdin 2006.
An exhibition of seven artists/designers collections. Interesting because it highlights the fact that an object can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways. Stuart Haygarth is a lighting designer. His collection of crystal, when viewed from above, looks similar to a micoscopic environment.
Aram gallery here
Stuart Haygarth here.

Innovations for the Built Environment

Technology, material, techniques and suits. Held in Earls Court Innovations for the Built Environment was an informative trip. Artscape and MakingArtWork are bringing art to the masses. Deeproot the urban ecosystem project and Land Restoration Trust realise the importance of green space and are bringing to your city. Woodhouseprojects providers of bespoke urban furniture. UK Green Building Council is on a mission. Finally, sshhhhh the quietrevoltion is here...
Cityscape here.
Earls Court here.

NLA

Public City People for Places. A guide to built and proposed public space in and around London. Get the book its free!
Or you can download it here.
New London Architecture here.

RIBA

Horizons, Madrid Social Housing 1981 - 2006.
Models of housing commissions by the EMVS, Empresa Municipal de la Vivenda y el Suelo de Madrid.
EVMS here.

Emerging Architecture, Architectural Review Awards 2006.
Miro Rivera Architects, Pedestrian Bridge, Lake Austin, Texas, USA. Particular favorite more here.
AR Awards for Emerging Architecture here.
Royal Institute of British Architects here.

FORM.




Modern and Contemporary Art and Design at the Olympia.
MATERIALS, MATERIALS, MATERIALS.
Form here.
Olympia here.