Amsterdam-based architects Merkx + Girod have designed new postal stores for Dutch logistics company TNT. Employees at the new postal stores work at Corian service desks in the centre of the shop, rather than behind counters as in traditional post offices. The logistics that would normally be hidden away are now visible to customers. MORE…
House V is the latest project from Croatian architects 3LHD. This private single-family house is situated on a small hill in Zagreb, Croatia. House V was designed in order to satisfy the needs of a family: with an emphasis on communication between the common and individual rooms, the facilities and functions of the space have been connected into a single unit that creates a comfortable living area. MORE…
‘About Joost and Kiki’: Joost Van Bleiswijk and Kiki Van Eijk in Hardcover
During their ‘reCollections’ show in Milan this past April, Dutch designers Joost Van Bleiswijk and Kiki Van Eijk also presented a hardcover book about their work. ‘About Joost and Kiki’ contains pictures of their two collections, pictures of their workshop and process made by Lisa Klappe, sketches, interviews by and nine pictures of Joost and Kiki made by Paris-based Photographer Sabine Pigalle. MORE…
Inspiration and example comes in many forms, from many places. Like the work of Williamsburg-based (NY) Japanese designer Takeshi Miyakawa, which clearly stood out at Brooklyn Designs in mid-May and in an open studio during ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) in New York late May. MORE…
Seasons Through the Looking Glass is a recent installation by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects at the subway entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The installation is made from honeycombed cardboard panels and rolled up fabric. MORE…
Design Indaba is an annual conference which gathers the talent from across the creative industries. The institution, which incorporates events, media, education, training and business development, is well-established with a 12-year history.
In order to promote the design industries in South Africa and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Design Indaba, some spin-off projects have been launched. These projects will be known collectively as Design Indaba 10 x 10’s and bring together Design Indaba alumni to create a brand image for others to benefit from. MORE…
The Klein bottle appears to be a descriptive model of a surface developed by topological mathematicians. This holiday house is situated on the Mornington Peninsula 1.5 hrs from Melbourne, in the sand dunes a short distance from a wild beach. MORE…
Japanese architects 16A recently completed TOO49, a housing complex of 43 studios and 6 two-bedroom units. These courtyard flats play smartly with the ideas of closeness and openness, and help lend the building its simple yet very distinctive look. MORE…
The new Elephant House at the Copenhagen Zoo by Foster + Partners opened early June following an official ceremony attended by local royalty. This new Elephant House provides these big animals with a stimulating environment, together with easily accessible spaces for the public to enjoy them, and restores the visual relationship between the zoo and the city’s park. MORE…
The exhibition Traces at the Gallery art.si consists of illuminated transparent works on plexi-glass that bring together abstract, organic-like motives and immaterial elements as light reflections, projections and shadows. Light-works, crystalline and bio-amorphous in form, refer to nature but rather than reproducing natural landscapes, they manifest the energetic mental, immaterial but nevertheless bodily constituted organic topologies.
_KAM2008 is a new photographic exhibition by Slovenian (architectural) photographer Miran Kambič of contemporary Slovene architecture. The exhibition is being held with the Slovenian Presidency of the EU and the Week of Architecture.
The exhibition, seen at Magušarjeva Hiša in Radolvljica, runs 13.6. – 13.7.2008, and is free of charge.
Magušarjeva Hiša, Linhartova trg 4, Radolvljica
more: www.maguasarjevahisa.si; www.mirankambic.com/index.html
Maribor’s new (redevelopment-extension) stadium by the Ljubljana-based Ofis arhitekti – the result of the winning competition back in 1998 – was completed and opened this past May. It’s located in the centre of the city of Maribor, not far from the Austrian border. Back in the 1960s it was the site of a multi-functional sport field, with a small seating-gallery built along one side of the field and covered with an arched concrete roof. MORE…
Big: Why did you decide to become a designer?
Iztok Skok: I didn’t decide, actually my father did, who was among other things a good painter.
Big: What do you think is the most important thing in designing/the design profession?
Iztok Skok: Design changing the world in innovative way.
Big: How do you work – as a free-lancer or are you employed at a company?
Iztok Skok: I work as freelancer since 1986. I need to work on my time schedule.
Big: Do you discuss your work with other designers/architects?
Iztok Skok: Whenever I can, and I learned that the critics are necessary for improvement of my work, so I take it in positive way.
Big: Describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
Iztok Skok: I work on many fields as graphic designer, industrial designer and multimedia. I like to move between these different fields and mix it.
I like to surprise with ideas.
Big: Please describe the evolution of your work, from your first projects to the present day.
Iztok Skok: It is long way till now and almost everything was change, I hardly wait every change, because I like to look forward. The bad thing are maybe deadlines which are shorter every day. All technical equipment make possible that timing to end some projects are much shorter and many more people is able to design projects which result in best and quicker results of work. The good ideas are the same problem; you must find them.
Big: Which of your projects was the most satisfying to work on?
Iztok Skok: Not only one, maybe this shown on the pictures. The house IZA is the project which I prefer best, because it happened now and if succeed, may indicate in some new way of living for some people.
Big: Who would you especially like to design something for?
Iztok Skok: Well – now I am in phase of moving from graphic to industrial design, so many things are open.
The Baja bbq firepack is eco-friendly instant charcoal packaging, designed by the San Francisco-based Mike and Maaike design studio for design annex / Lazzari. This in response to the more than 45,000 tons of liquid fire-starting fuels used in the USA alone every year, and they also leave residues of toxic chemicals on the grilled food. But alternatives are few, often messy and difficult to use. MORE…
The new Avaz Twist Tower is going up in Marijin Dvor, Sarajevo’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) business district, which has recently seen extensive renovation, including plans for the Unitic 3 and Grand Media Center. Construction on the new tower, designed by architect Faruk Kapidžić, began in 2006 and is expected to be completed some time this year. The Avaz Twist Tower will hold the honour of being the tallest tower in the Balkans, as well as representing one of the more interesting in Europe. This contemporary curiosity is composed of a twisting glass facade rising 142 meters with a 30-meter antenna reaching a total height of 172 meters over 41 stories.
Emir Jelkić
Following Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin and Istanbul, Torino, a city that is constantly undergoing change and transformation, will be hosting the world event that every three years brings together thousands of architects and students to discuss subjects concerning architecture’s perspectives in relation to great social and cultural issues of the moment.
MORE…
Petra Čeferin & Cvetka Požar, Editors
The book AE presents six architectural productions of the 20th and 21st centuries: Mexican architecture which gained world prominence in the 1950s and 1970s; Brazil’s “irrational modernism”; the “extended rationalism” of Finnish architecture of the 1950s; the Swiss Ticino Tendenza; the Super Dutch phenomenon of the late 1980s; the architectural production of Spain’s Barcelona and Bilbao; and the emerging architecture of Slovenia today.
MORE…
Szervita Square is a state-of-the-art office and parking facility worthy of the Budapest district’s rich early 20th century architectural heritage. The concept and design comes from Zaha Hadid, recent winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, and her Hungarian partner László Váncza. MORE…
Aaron Betsky, an American who trained in the Netherlands and three-times curator of the Dutch pavilion at the Architecture Biennali, as well as winner of the Golden Lion for best national participation in the 2002 edition, is currently at work as curator of the Venice Biennale’s 11th International Architecture Exhibition.
Betsky is former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) of Rotterdam, one of the most important architecture museums and centres in the world and, since last year, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum. MORE…
The theme of the London Festival of Architecture 2008 is ‘Fresh’.
A broad series of talks, debates and installations during LFA2008 will challenge conventional thinking on architecture and design. MORE…
Carl William Kerchmar – Month of Design conference moderator
The economic presence of the experience economy is here. The Netherlands
have 300 free-time activities per year, about 5 – 6 per week, 16 euro per
activity at 77 billion euros annually and representing 25% of the household budget. The free-time market is 6x bigger than the vacation market and the quantity of festivals has grown by 800% before the turn of
the millennium and 900% in the number of visitors. The future of brands will depend on the dialogue between product and consumer; experience is a way to foster that relationship where designing space will be the platform. PORTAL TO YOUR DREAMS is a creative visualization / economic strategies company that uses the tool of Scenario Planning and the power of universal trend stories + tailorised trend applications to help businesses innovate and better understand the consumer spirit. Its approach is holistic, to say the least: It truly combines the creative and the commercial and ensures that human passions work for business – rather than the other way round. Current projects PORTAL is involved with include sponsorship, culinary design and official photography for Formula Zero who in August 2008 successfully held the world’s first ever hydrogen fuelled motor race in Europe; the Green project Tree Life, a new retail design campaign for the music and games industries and educational paths into Imagineering as a business innovation tool, amongst others. Within all of these project experience has and continues to be a driving element in today’s economy. Experience has become in-rooted in the design logic of space and is the fundamental way consumers have a dialogue with brands.
BIOGRAPHY:
Carl William Kerchmar is a NC State University educated economist. He left the US to gain a Master’s in European Urban Cultures in Holland, Finland, Belgium and UK as well as studying at the prestigious Artemis Styling Academy in Amsterdam. Before setting up PORTAL, he worked as a new media researcher at Erasmus University’s Brain Park, styled culinary events through NK Concepts, ran an art studio in Amsterdam and consulted for clients ranging from the music and fashion industries to insurance companies.
Back to Big Design Conference Programme
Month of Design Conference – register here
