Design Museum 22 May

Visited the design museum to finnally see the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010, and also the David Adjaye exhibition on Urbanisation in Africa. The Insurance Design exhibition was really interesting. The winning design - the foldable plug by Min-kyu Choi, was impressive. The UK plug is something which is so unescessarily bulky and cumbersome, but also tolerated without question in day to day life, so to create such a simple and user friendly solution, I think, was very clever. Other designs which I was impressed / inspired by include, a product called 'clouds' which is an installation / starage / furniture / partition wall combo creation, by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kvadrat. Basically a series of cells constructed from felt and connected together with custom fit elastic bands. the beautiful thing about the product is that the form and size of the 'cloud' is entirely down to the individual user. I really enjoyed the creation of something beautiful which can also be unique to everyone. Also the nominees for the interactive award were interesting and often alot of fun! Bloom (by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers), which is an iphone / ipod touch application design was fun. the idea was to create music compositions by touching the screen in different places, this also created a ripple effect visual and when the application was left idle it would repeat the most recently entered composition on a loop. The BMW concept design was fascinating but with the desciption of its fantastic ergonomic form and unusual material, and also the surreal aesthetic; all you wanted to do was have a touch - and you obviously (but dissapointingly) weren't allowed. The most beautiful intallation I saw during the exhibition was without doubt 'Soma' by Ayala Serfaty. It was a light intallation constructed of light filaments which are woven together and then sprayed with polymer to create a glowing skin-like crust.

(Below: Folding plug design by Min-Kyu Choi, Cloud by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kvadrat, Soma by Ayala Serfaty)

I was surprisied to see the Highline project as a nominee for the architecture award, only because it feels like its been around longer than it actually has, I think. Where it was maybe under celebrated in the Brity Insurance Design Awards, it has now made it up by winning a D&AD 'black pencil' award in the environmental design category.

LINK to D&AD website

I then went on to see the also long awaited David Adjaye Urban Africa exhibition. The introduction to the project was really interesting. Different characteristics of each African country were shown through mapping the whole continent in different styles. Giving you as the viewer an opportunity to understand each individaul country in the context of the Afican Continent. However when I moved into the exhibition I was slightly dissapointed. Each capital city in the whole continent was represented through a series of photographs, intended to encapture the feel of the whole city and the urban context of each city. I felt a little let down, and I don't really know why - the few Cities in Africa which I have visited and were represented, were represented well by the photographs. I think I was just expecting more analysis, more of a study.

VAN DOESBURG & the international avant garde

Constructing a new world

Tate modern 6th February 2010

I went to the tate modern today to check out the new Van Doesburg exhibition, which is running until May. It was fantastic. The range of design genre he dipped into during his career was phenomonal and cutting edge for the era. he originally trained briefly as a singer/ actor until he decided to be a painter and then gradually through his career became interested in typography, design and architecture. Theo van Doesburg was born as Christian Emil Marie Küpper in 1883 in Uttrecht, and his early paintings were reminiscent in style and subject matter to the Amsterdam Impressionists. In 1913 Van Doesburg was heavily influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, after reading his book 'Rückblicke', and began to experiment with abstraction.

"Like kandinsky, he saw abstraction as directly embodying the spiritual qualities that he believed to be fundamental to all works of art. It could be means of expressing the artists inner emotions, or of representing the mystical forces underlying the visible world, reflecting the doctrine known as theosophy."

(Gladys Fabre)

During Van Doesburgs two year service to the army in 1915, he came into contact with the work of Piet Mondrian. The complete abstraction of reality portrayed in Mondrian's work appealed to van Doesburg and he contacted Mondrian. Together with other artists Bart van der Leck, Anthony Kok, Vilmos Huszar and J J P Oud, he and Mondrian founded the magazine De Stijl. De Stijl, as a magazine and a movement, was a major element in Van Doesburgs life and featured broadly in this exhibition. The paintings were predominantly large canvases of vertical and horizontal grids with blocks of solid primary colour, although Mondrian often strayed from the restricted palette of primary colours. The paintings originally were based on a physical object or form, but evolved eventually into independent compositions of geometric grid and colour. I found the paintings bizarrely enchanting.

Theo van Doesburg: Counter composition VI 1925

In 1919 Van Doesburg created a new type face which i recognised instantly; It is created in line with the De Stijl movement of straight lines with no curves in squares and blocks, with capitals used where necessary, to keep the uniform shape. It was fascinating to see how this was developed and to understand the reasoning behind it. Van Doesburg felt a unity between his De Stijl movement and the Dada movement in the early 20's, there was a whole room dedicated to this during the exhibition, which i found really interesting. I was introduced to the ideals of Dadaism in my foundation year in Norwich where I had a fantastic lecture on it, however I have never properly looked into it, so it was interesting to see a portion of the exhibition focused on Dada.

Theo van Doesburg/ Cornelus van Eesteren: Perspective with final colour design, shopping arcade with bar restaurant, Laan van Meerdervoort, The hague 1924.

Van Doesburg's major inputs into the design and architecture world where during the period between 1923 - 1930. He met architect Cornelis Van Eesteren in 1922 and collaberated with him in creating a series of architectural models based on the idea of planes floating in space using black and white and the primary colours. The ideas behing De Stijl architecture and design influenced, Rietveld, Oud, De Marle, Gorin and Eileen Gray. the major project displayed in the exhibition was the Aubette building in Strasbourg. This was redeveloped in partnership with Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp into a Cafe, restaurant, Ballroom and Cinema complex. the new aethetic he created with this design he termed Elementarism. Displayed along with the ork in this room was a fantastic quote from van Doesburg:

"The point is to situate man within painting, rather than in front of it . . . Man does not live in the construction but in the atmosphere generated by the surfaces."

David Adjaye

In march the design museum are hosting an exhibition based on David Adjaye's study of urbanism in Africa. I'm really excited about it, having previously traveled in Africa, and I also find his work and his design ethic interesting. 

"This detailed survey will reveal a unique snapshot of life in Africa today, documenting the nature of urban life in a developing country, a unique geo-cultural survey profiling the African city in a global context."

(http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2010/urban-africa-a-photographic-journey-by-david-adjaye)

His design for a bus shelter featured in a previous exhibition at the design museum last summer (video below)

Barcelona

18th November 2009

Today we were completely free to do what we wanted, so we decided to dedicate the day to Gaudi. We started off at La Pedrera (Casa Milla) which translates as 'the stone quarry' and is a nick name given to the building by locals after it was built in 1910. the building was originally an apartment block, but now houses a museum of Gaudi's work in the vaulted attic, has a preserved apartment as part of the museum, and you can access the rooftop. This was stunning. Panoramic views across Barcelona's grid like town plan and towards Sagrada Familia would make it a stunning place to visit, however you are standing on a roof designed by Gaudi. I found it beautiful and peculiar, you almost feel like you are one some sort of ship, surrounded by chimneys ordered in height and undulating walls all finished with a smooth sandy colour, it is quite an experience. The museum below had succinct explanations about his design ethic, and reasoning, as well as what was going on in culture and politics around Gaudi's time. One of the things in the museum which I loved was a model explaining how Gaudi designed several of his pointed roof tops. It was a board with several chains hung in a circle and then linked at the bottom, it was then turned upside down over a mirror. so when you looked into the mirror the hanging chain were reflected to look like they were standing upright, and what you saw was a skeletal form of a Gaudi building. It also had examples of organic objects from nature which influenced his work. The apartment was so stylish and glamourous, even the kitchen had special little novelty features. My favorite pieces were the so over-the-top chandeliers and the fabrics used for curtains and linen. Everything about the building was unique and interesting, it seemed to have no hard straight lines or edges.

Above and Below: Casa Milla, Gaudi's apartment block

Below: The spectacular roof of Casa Milla and views over the city

We then walked towards La Sagrada Familia, stopping on the way for lunch. The Sagrada Familia is a fascinating building, hugely impressive on first sight, it towers and looms over the city, only the yellow cranes used in the ongoing construction of the building rival it in height. We approached La Sagrada Familia from the South West, the side of the Fachada de la Pasion. A Facade designed to represent the death, resurrection and passion of the Christ. The detail of the work is incredible. The building of the church was started in 1882 from a project by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar at the end of 1883 Gaudi was commissioned to take over, he carried on working on La Sagrada Familia until he died in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea. The church is a expiatory church, which means that since it was first built it has been funded purely from donations. The building of La Sagrada Familia is still going on today, which is one of the things which made the visit so interesting. There are stone masons, sculptors, builders and architects at work inside the cathedral, so you can watch the construction as it is happening. The absolute precision and detail required is painstaking, there must be a lot of talent required for any of those jobs! After staring at the Passion Facade, we headed inside. I was absolutely blown away by the interior of La Sagrada Familia, the sheer scale is astounding, and the design is staggeringly beautiful. The pillar system is a forest of abstract trees, whose canopies interlock creating star shaped holes, which currently are open to the sky above. The pillars, or trunks of the trees are completely square at the base and evolve by the time they reach the ceiling into a perfect cylindrical form. Gaudi was Heavily influenced by nature and natural forms, using skeletal structures as a base to build from, the tree like pillars in La Sagrada Familiar are a perfect example, nature did not only influence his design, but also his engineering. Other things which he was influenced by include, his families history of working with their hands (as boilermakers) which gave him an understanding of craftmanship, and also the area in which he grew up the region of Tarragona. Gaudi used a lot of symbology within much of his work, wether it was naturalistic, medieval or religious. Some interesting quotes from gaudi regarding his own work: “I am a geometrician, that is to say, I synthesise”; “I calculate everything”; “in the execution of surfaces, geometry does not complicate but simplifies the construction”; and “for an architectural work to be beautiful, all its elements must be appropriate in situation, dimension, form and colour”.

He also said of Sagrada Familiar's status as an expiatory church: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people."

We then went up the towers of the opposite end to which we entered, which offered a brilliant view of the city and over the building work of the church. The Facade on this side of the church is the Nativity facade, and is dripping with detail, to the extent it is almost grotesque. You don't know what to look at first. I prefer the Nativity facade to the Passion; it seems more naive somehow, I think the Passion Facade feels more deliberate and straight forward.

Above: the exterior of the towers of La Sagrada Familia with the cranes. Below: The interior of La Sagrada Familia.

After our visit to la Sagrada Familia we headed over to the Arc de Triumf and Parc de la Ciutadella, where there were fantastic fountains pretty ponds and a huge fake mammoth that we climbed on. 

Barcelona 

Tuesday 17th November 2009

The aim for the morning was to meet in Parc Diagonal Mar at 11am, however me and a few others had a couple of navigational problems and ended up at the building site of  Zahar Hadid's Edifici Campus, it looks like a very interesting project, typically Hadid, with a spiraling tower to give off the best view at every window in the building.

 (Link to information on the Edifici Campus) 

We eventually made it to Parc Diagonal Mar, which was designed by EMBT a design team of Benedetta Tagliabue and Enrique Miralles. The park is very surreal at first glance; there are high undulating metal strips reminiscent of a roller-coaster with huge mosaic planters floating at impossible heights and a huge lake with including several different levels and fountains spraying onto and around the metal in the air. The park is divided into six main areas: the fountains, a “magic mountain” for children, a sports area, an amphitheater, a playground and a dog run. All the areas are grouped around the large lake. The park is a central feature of the new Diagonal mar district (the diagonal seafront district, as it lies between the end of Avinguda Diagonal and the sea) which features residential areas, hotels, a modern shopping complex, and the new Centre Internacional de Convencions (International Convention Centre). Unfortunately the park has faced heavy criticism for the lack of use of the park by local people. However I feel that whatever your personal opinion of the design of the park, it is without doubt a spectacle. My personal a opinion of the park is that, as I have said, it is a fantastically surreal and unusual design, however i am not a fan of the mosaic planters, and I think that the overhead metalwork seems a bit manic, it could have worked better over a resticted area maybe, or maybe there should be less of it. I can't quite decide what or why I don't like the metal, and am well aware that the manic feel to the structure is probably exactly what other people might find attractive about it, but it just didn't seem to work. The play areas within the park however were incredible; far more fun than most. They were so imaginative and played on the senses too, eg. you jump on  something and it makes a noise. The equipment was just higher bigger better than we seem to have in England, which made me question wether it was health and safety which is preventing anything like that being built here. We all had an awesome time playing like proper kids and then moved on to a more mellow area of the park. Here there were beautifully ergonomically designed benches, for us all to wind down on. The area seemed to be more popular and better used, there were a few people relaxing on benches with books/ computers etc. the form of the benches was a undulating concrete cast, so you could sit or lie. These were placed around a wide path with planting one side and lawn the other. A very relaxing area within the park.

Above: The 'roller-coaster' metal work over the park

Above: Unusual benches, the undulating concrete form as described above.

Above: some of the play equipment in the park

We then headed away from the park through the Diagonal Mar to the Parc del Auditoris, part of the forum used for the Second World Urban Forum 2004. The forum also included the Forum Building and Photovoltaic sculpture. The Forum Building  or Edifici Forum, was built from 2000-04, designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects, and is a huge blue wedge in the landscape with mirror sections all along and underneath it, it is a fascinating building, but seems to be marooned in an empty disused space. the feeling of the whole area is slightly rundown and very underused, our group were the lone users of the space on the day we visited and it just felt completely deserted. Clearly designed with large events in mind you can't help but wonder wether the designers considered that there will be times when there is no event held in the space. The area was staggering in its scale and had beautiful directional paving towards a fantastic looking sail like structure which over looked the bay and port. However the over all feeling was that I wanted to move on, I didn't want to linger in what felt like an eerily big disused space in a severe state of disrepair. At a distance it was beautiful and it seems such a waste to let it go.

Above: At the venue for the International Forums of cultures 2004

After some lunch we met up again at Placa d' Espanya and walked up the hill towards the Museu nacional Art de Catalunya which is an extremely grand looking building. In front of the building is Font magica, a huge water fountain which wasn't working the day we visited, however on this same level is the Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe. A stunning pavilion made from marble and glass with clean simple lines and open space the fluidity and movement from exterior to interior is barely distinguishable. The pavilion was originally built in 1929 as the German pavilion for the World's fair, after which it was dismantled and moved only to be rescued and reconstructed in 1985. The structure is built around two shallow pools one of which features a statue by Georg Kolbe, the German sculptor known for his female nudes, an elegant contrast to the simplicity of the lines of the pavilion. I was taken by the quality of materials and the way they are displayed to perfection by the simple large and undisturbed areas of the walls. In particular the purple and orange slab of marble inside the pavilion is lovely. Inside is the original Barcelona Chair designed by van der Rohe and seen (mainly in reproduction form) throughout the city in reception areas.

Above: View from Placa d'Espanya of the Museu nacional Art deCatalunya.

Above and Below: Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe, the Kolbe sculpture and purple and orange marble wall

We then walked up the hill for miles and miles looking for a garden, but got entirely lost and eventually made our way to Castell de Montjuic, which had fantastic veiws over the city (if it hadn't been so hazy) From the other side of the castle looking over the docks the views were awesome- There was a layer of low cloud over the sea which cleared over the docks which were all lit up, the view from above all this was fairly spectacular.

Above: the view from Castello de Montjiuc over the docks to the sea.

Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design

V + A

" The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it once was the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. the first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales."

Walter Benjamin

I went to see this exhibition after the Teach-in in the V + A. It was a selection of furniture and product design based on fantasy and fairy tale. I found it a fascinating exhibition; disturbing and bizarre, but enthralling. Topics ranged from classic fairy tales referring to childhood and good vs evil to more sinister and adult fears and fantasies. The exhibition was split into three sections; The Forest Glade, The Enchanted Castle and Heaven and Hell. Some designs which really caught my attention were 'princess Chair', 'Witch chair', 'Petit Jardin chair' and 'Fig Leaf wardrobe' all the work of Tord Boontje; I felt his work really captured the inspiring and magical essence of the fairy tale, which I personally find inspirational and have used as a concept in a Landcsape project for a childrens playground (Hampton Hill Junior School, Adult Learning Facility 2008). I especially liked the complete contrast between the child like innocence and fairy tale- princess- magic  evoked in 'Princess chair' and  the cynisism and evil refelected in 'Witch chair'. I found it interesting that you, viewing the object, can form such a strong  emotional response to an inanimate object based purely on preconceptions conceived at childhood. All of the objects and furniture in the exhibition seemed to be created to make people question their perception of everyday objects. 

LINK to my own work; Landscape Architecture project based on a Fairy tale concept.