Category Archives: Design

Architecture & Culture: Harvard Design Magazine ‘American Paradigm’ (2021)

The latest issue of Harvard Design Magazine reveals full redesign and new editorial model as it assesses the establishment, and reconsideration, of the paradigm of “America”.

Harvard Design Magazine 48: America marks a turning point for the magazine as the first issue under new editorial director Julie Cirelli, featuring Mark Lee and Florencia Rodriguez as guest editors. This issue also debuts a full redesign by Alexis Mark, the Copenhagen-based graphic design firm. Publishing this month, the issue gathers contributions from leading figures across the fields of architecture, design, urban planning, fashion, art, and governance, including Maurice Cox, Shaun Donovan, Michèle Lamy, Sylvia Lavin, and Marc Norman. Join Lee, Rodriguez, and Norman, alongside contributors Paul Andersen, Neeraj Bhatia, and Maite Borjabad Lòpez-Pastor, for a virtual launch event next Tuesday, March 23, 7:30pm ET.

Harvard Design Magazine 48: America reflects on the theme and definition of “America” through lenses of cultural production, racial justice, and architectural and design practice. In the 20th century, a paradigm of America characterized by progress, openness, and democracy was perpetuated—but with an ominous underbelly of exclusion, racism, and inequity left unexamined. While viewpoints on America’s story and history differ, if not reject one other, what is widely shared is a sense of 2020 as a breaking point—or, “a consciousness of an imminent existential threshold,” as write Lee and Rodriguez.

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Interior Design: 10 Living Rooms With Great Shelves

This one-minute video showcases ten living rooms with statement shelving, as featured in a recent Dezeen Lookbook. The video rounds up examples of bespoke storage that are both beautiful and practical, including shelves with cubby holes for cats and a sculptural blue staircase with built-in.

The Arts: ‘Water Gilding – How It Is Done’ (V&A Video)

Water gilding is a process which makes wood look like gold. Follow the stages involved in gilding a wooden frame – from brushing on layers of gesso (glue and chalk mixture), to applying and burnishing the gold leaf.

How to make a gilded frame: Glue applied to wood: 00:27​ Gesso mixed and applied in layers: 00:34​ Gesso smoothed with dried horsetail plant: 00:46​ Details cut into the base: 00:58​ Yellow ochre pigment applied: 01:07​ Bole applied: 01:20​ Surface is smoothed with a brush: 01:29​ Water is brushed on and gold leaf is applied: 01:56​ An animal tooth is used to burnish the surface: 02:15​ Frame is coated with glue for an even finish: 02:33

Architecture: ‘M+ Museum Hong Kong’ By Herzog & De Meuron (2021-Video)

M+ has completed the construction of its museum building, which is set to open to the public at the end of 2021. designed by herzog & de meuron in partnership with TFP farrells and arup, the landmark building is seeking to become a new addition to the global arts and cultural landscape. located in hong kong’s west kowloon cultural district on the victoria harbour waterfront, it provides a permanent space for M+ — the first global museum of contemporary visual culture in asia dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and hong kong visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Read more at DesignBoom

Design: Geothermal Baths Built In Iceland By Basalt Architects (Video)

Basalt Architects has used marine-grade concrete to build Guðlaug Baths, a geothermal pool on Langisandur Beach in Iceland. The baths consist of a three-tiered structure, with a viewing deck on the top, a warm geothermal pool in the middle, and a cold-water pool at the bottom.

Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1621561​

Top Innovation & Design: ‘Sunne’ – Indoor Window Solar Lamp (Video)

Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel has developed a solar lamp that is designed to be hung in front of windows so it can generate its own energy.

Called Sunne, the light is equipped with photovoltaic cells and an integrated battery, allowing it to harvest and store enough energy throughout the day to light up a room at night. Van Aubel designed the lamp as part of an ongoing project to normalise solar technology by bringing it inside homes.

“To facilitate a shift in our perception towards solar, it also needs to be more accessible to a larger group of people,” she told Dezeen. “People need to be able to familiarise themselves with it and have it in their surroundings. Sunne is a first step to integrating solar energy into our everyday life.”

Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1619138

Future Of Sailing: The ‘Carbon Fibre Trimaran – Hanstaiger X1’ (Video)

The X1 is an exceptionally well designed trimaran, with all the hydrodynamic advantageous that brings. The sailboat version can reach speeds of 20 knots. The powerboat version can achieve speeds of 30 knots thanks to more powerful engines.

The interior of the X1 is not designed to feel you are in a boat; its designed to feel like you are in luxury home. Natural light fills all areas of boat, thanks to the glass roof structure and oversized lateral windows. There are no narrow corridors or maze like internal structures; the layout is designed to feel open and easy to move around in. The toilets are proper sized,  with all the space, functionality and finishings you would come to expect from a 5 star hotel.

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Architectural History: ‘Frank Lloyd Wright – The Imperial Hotel’ (Video)

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Works explores some of Wright’s most important demolished and unrealized structures. The project brings these lost buildings to life through immersive digital animations reconstructed from Wright’s original plans and drawings, along with archival photographs.

Two years in the making and based on a Japanese publication of original plans and historical photos, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Works – The Imperial Hotel is a comprehensive digitally-animated recreation of the exterior (Part I) and interior (Part II) of this masterpiece.

Learn more about the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust: https://flwright.org