Here's the Heads Up #11

(Jim Field's apple from 50/50 Grow)

Ongoing:
50/50 Grow, a digital orchard
The boys over at Studio Aad decided to plant a digital orchard in aid of UNICEF's East Africa appeal. The idea is simple: designers, photographers and illustrators contribute an image of an apple, and you can 'water' one of them by giving a €5 donation. In return you get a high-res version of the image(s) you've chosen (the one I picked, above, is currently my desktop wallpaper).

A Council By Any Other Name...

The Crafts Council of Ireland, after having postponed voting on this issue at their last AGM, are proposing to change their name to include the word 'Design' somewhere. Though they do not intend to change or extend their remit, they feel amending the organisation's name will better reflect the part of their membership which works between craft and design. They're currently running an online survey for members of their Guilds, Associations, Networks and Societies as well as registered members of the Crafts Council to express whether they're for or against a name change and if they're for it, what the name should change to. Based on the results of the survey, this issue could be voted on by the Crafts Council's membership at the next AGM in June 2012 or at an EGM at another time.

Dublin Design Retailers

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #258

Perhaps it’s an unusual time to open up a design shop in Dublin. However, a number of people have taken the plunge and opened their own design stores in the city in the past eighteen months or so, each with a unique vision and individual range of stock. Design retail stalwarts such as Wild Child and more recent retailers like the Irish Design Shop are being joined by a new generation. I caught up with three such new kids on the block to find out their motivations for setting up and starting off on a new adventure.

First up was Vanessa MacInnes, owner of Industry (Smock Alley, Temple Bar), a shop dedicated to vintage and upcycled pieces as well as new design. Vanessa has a real passion for the industrial aesthetic, and during her years working as an interior designer had trouble finding anything of that style in Ireland. Industry now stocks an ever-changing range of vintage and one-off industrial furniture, from postal desks to metal shelving units. Paired with the harder edged furniture is a range of printed cushions, artworks and tabletop objects, illustrating how easy it can be to work something with an industrial feel into an interior.


(Image courtesy of Industry)

Alessi and Architects

The article below first featured in Architecture Ireland #257

Alessi, an Italian family company founded in 1921, has always been at the forefront of the design and manufacture of kitchen and home wares. Its first chief designer (later their chief executive) Carlo Alessi was instrumental in the formation of Alessi’s signature style: playful and never so simplistic that the product lost a sense of character. To date, one of Alessi’s bestselling products is Carlo Alessi’s Bombé tea and coffee set, originally designed in 1946. Favouring something less minimal than many of its northern European counterparts, it made sense for Alessi to begin in the 1980s to collaborate with ‘star’ designers and architects to create statement works that were both experimental and fun. Since then, Alessi has had many big names design special commissions, limited edition pieces and everyday ranges for the brand. As well as a typically Italian interest in flamboyant designs, Alessi has always been keen to explore and expand in terms of its manufacturing abilities. Originally a craftsman-led factory, Alessi has developed its manufacturing techniques in tandem with industry at large. Collaboration with outside designers has led Alessi to become a place for technical experimentation as well as a ‘workshop’ for new design ideas and typologies. In 1983 Alessi began its Tea and Coffee Piazza series, where eleven architects, including Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi and Hans Hollein - whose idea that “alles ist architecktur” (everything is architecture) is particularly resonant - were invited to design highly limited tea and coffee sets. In 2002 Alessi returned to the idea with their Tea and Coffee Towers, inviting Chipperfield, Wiel Arets, UN Studio and others to design a new generation of exclusive tea and coffee sets.
 

Alessi Lust

In a recent and exciting turn of events I was recruited as a design columnist for Architecture Ireland and my first article took a look at architects who cross over to design by working for Italian manufacturer Alessi. The inspiration came from a new range of chairs designed for the company by David Chipperfield, but this project is one of many engaged in by Alessi for decades, where an impressive range of architects and designers have designed impressive ranges of products, from highly limited objects to everyday-use items.

Musing About MUDE

(Image via Pribeiro on Flickr)

I recently spent a mega sunny week in Lisbon, and while people here in Dublin celebrated the city's position on the shortlist to be next World Design Capital, I visited MUDE - Museu do Design e da Moda - Lisbon's beautiful design museum. Located on Rua Augusta, one of the main shopping streets close to the riverside, MUDE has taken its home in a former bank building after years of dereliction and dilapidation. Rather than cover over that part of the building's history however, the museum maintains both its stylish staircases and its grotty walls and ceilings, laying the building's whole story bare. Within the space the ground floor is home to a permanent exhibition of the museum's permanent collection of design and fashion. It serves the purpose not only of showing some of the vast amount of artefacts amassed by Portuguese collector Francisco Capelo but also to provide an introduction to the major developments in design and fashion over the last 100 years.

le cool Walking Tours

(le cool issue 057 cover by Will St. Leger)

Not long ago a new initiative from the boys behind le cool Dublin was launched via Fund:it. They've devised a series of walking tours that will take visitors and locals alike into the cultural heart of the city and provide a snapshot of what's happening around Dublin at any given point. Rather than give a tour solely about Dublin's history, Michael and Ciaran aim to show you what's happening in in the city right now, taking groups to exhibitions, pop-up spaces, one-time only performances or rehearsals and more. Every tour will be slightly different, with no reused routes or scripts.

Seaside House

Often when I take a walk along Termonfeckin beach in Co. Louth I've spotted this house, but until recently never knew anything about it. Then I stumbled upon it while taking a look at the shortlist for the Public Choice Award as part of this year's Irish Architecture Awards, and it turns out it's by Dublin-based A2 Architects. At first glance, it's pretty different to everything else along the seaside (mainly mobile homes and dormer bungalows), but when you take a little time with it, you begin to see that its long rectangular shape and horizontal panelling borrows a little bit from the caravans on either side, while still maintaining quite a unique character and slick feel. And by the looks of the images below, the views of the interior are as nice as the views it has across the sea. Well worth consideration for a vote in the awards...

Get More Than You Give

The beautiful photo above, taken in St. Patrick's Park in Dublin, was devised by abgc and seanandyvette to raise awareness about the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and World Donor Day, which is tomorrow (Tuesday 13 June). I gave blood today. It might seem a little scary, but if you can at all I completely recommend you donate. Blood is needed in huge quantities all over the country every week and your donation could save someone's life, so any squeamishness you might experience will be completely overshadowed by the warm fuzzy feeling you'll have after your visit to the clinic. Like the IBTS say, you get more than you give.

The Fourth Wall

This weekend I gorged myself a small bit on architectural screenings. Currently running in the IFI is The Fourth Wall, a season of architectural films curated by Nathalie Weadick of the IAF and Samantha Martin-McAuliffe of UCD Architecture. The season explores architecture as a protagonist, or sometimes as a physical manifestation or extension of a character. It looks to show architectures margins, and to tell its story from alternative viewpoints.

A Redraft of Dublin

(One of 30 Pivot Dublin covers, designed by Conor Swanton)

I've just spent a chunk of this afternoon watching the videos on the Pivot Dublin website. Made to accompany Dublin city's bid to be designated 2014 World Design Capital, they communicate some of the ideas that have both led to and developed from Dublin City Council's decision to put the city in the running for WDC. Dublin's entry into this international competition (for want of a better word for it) not only causes you to question what it is or what it could be that makes a city a design capital (does a city have to have a longstanding tradition in design to be a design capital?) but reminds you of the first principles of design (working out of necessity, problem-solving, encouraging change) and elucidates how and why design might be applied across all scales for the good of a city and its inhabitants. From any conversations I've heard or been part of since Pivot Dublin began to develop, and indeed from many of the conversations that have been happening for the past two years in Ireland, it's become clear that Ireland and its capital city are at a pivotal point: the ways of being before now don't work anymore and many facets of our economy and society need to be rethought (or redesigned). Pivot Dublin embodies this need and offers the opportunity (and the 'permission' - an interesting word that got used in all of the filmed conversations that accompany the bid) to redraft Dublin and redesign our daily lives. Perhaps being a design capital doesn't mean producing a lot of design professionals, maybe it means applying design to make the city work better and feel happier.

Here's the Heads Up #10

Running from 5 until 16 May:
The Fourth Wall, IFI, Eustace Street, Dublin 2
Presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation and the IFI, The Fourth Wall is a film programme that explores architecture in cinema in terms of architecture as more than a built background, but as a protagonist in film. In particular I'm looking forward to the screening of Koolhaas HouseLife on 7 May (which is like a filmic tour of one of his houses given by the cleaner of the house), but the programme also includes a symposium on architecture and cinema and a week-long workshop in Exchange Dublin. More info on all of it here and you can buy tickets here.

Brick Book Bag

People have been all a-twitter about Conor & David's Brick Book Bag, which has just been revealed as a reward for backing the OHD book on Fund:it. I think it's a pretty clever and cool graphic, and I'm now even happier that I clicked "fund:it"!

Not Simply Simple

Hopefully you'll have seen Less but Better, the small in quantity but high in quality exhibition of the work of German industrial designer Dieter Rams in Exchange, Temple Bar before it closes tomorrow. Although exhibitions of Rams' work often take up much larger museum spaces, there's something quite apt about showing his work in a space the size of a small living room. The designs by Rams and his team for Braun (as well as for furniture manufacturer Vitsoe) did an impressive job of making industrial objects attractive and homely, and as a result, much of Rams' output has played an important role in daily life, as beautiful tools for living.

Here's the Heads Up #9

Here's the latest head's up, with dates and times for some of the talks series' I mentioned in Discussing Dublin, along with some other events going on (and approaching deadlines..ahem..)


(Image of the Long Room Hub via TCD)

20 April and 4 May, 1pm:
The Dublin Seminar, Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
Next in the Dublin Seminar series is Linking the architecture of the City of Dublin and Trinity College, a lunchtime talk by Niall McCullough and Valerie Mulvin, the architects who designed very venue for the talk. And a beautiful venue it is - it's reason enough to go to the talk. Following that on the 4 May is The Future of the Past: Recent Developments in the National Library of Ireland, a lecture by Fiona Ross, Director of the National Library of Ireland.

Discussing Dublin

I've been to a number of events in recent weeks and months that have put the spotlight on our fair oul' city of Dublin. It seems a number of people, for related or perhaps completely unrelated reasons, have begun to see the need for a rethink of Ireland's capital city, and Ireland being a nation of talkers, discussion seems to be step one of that rethink.

: Fund: It

Fund:it is a new initiative from the people at Business to Arts, and is the first Irish-centred crowd funding platform. Fund:it works in a similar way to sites such as Kickstarter and Pledge Music, whereby many people donate a little money in order to help a creative idea they're into become a reality. Be it an album, a book, a series of artworks or even a feature-length documentary (such as Urbanized by Gary Hustwit, which I pledged a little towards, what with it being awesome and all), you can get behind a project you'd like to see materialise, and by pledging a little (or a lot for some rewards) you can potentially bring about some creative awesomeness.

Here's the Heads Up #8

(of de Blacam and Meagher, image by Enda Doran)

There are a couple different design and architecture exhibitions on around Dublin at the moment, so if you can tear yourself away from the sunshine for a few hours I recommend you check some of them out.

Open now until 22 March:
The Look of the Irish, Designist, 58 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2
Designist is one of the newest additions to Dublin's retail spaces, committed to simple and affordable design. At the moment they're putting the emphasis on Irish work ('tis the season, I suppose) until Tuesday, so get in while you can!

The List Book

Lately I've been working on Dublin Dance Festival (box office open today btw....ahem....) and one of the perks of the job has to be the present that each of us got from our designers, Aad. "The List Book" is an organiser designed to keep track of everything from shopping lists to long term goals, split into four categories: To Remember, To Do: Now, To Do: Soon and To Do: Someday. It's a really clever notebook, but it'll be a little while before I put it into use - it's too pretty for me to feel comfortable scrawling all over it just yet...

Pop-Up Shop

Recently kicked off and running until mid-July, the RHA is now home not only to galleries, art books and coffee, but also to a series of pop-up design shops. Currently residing there is the Irish Design Shop's pop-up shop, and among other products, they're debuting work by Irish furniture designer Adrian Coen and prints by Yellowhammer. Adrian's "Hedgehooks" are a series of bespoke coat hooks made from various native Irish hardwoods sourced in Co. Galway, with a variety of finishes (or unfinishes) applied to them. Yellowhammer (or Alan Nagle, as he's known to his parents) has done a series of brightly coloured, crisp digital prints of Irish birds. They're fab, just look.

The shops will continue to pop-up every couple of weeks until mid-July. Take a look at the RHA website to see who's in the line-up.

My Favourite Upstart

Slightly belated (as things often are here), but here it is: my favourite poster from the Upstart campaign:

Here's the Heads Up #7

There's lots to see, make and do in Dublin at the moment, here's a selection (with an unintentional emphasis on talks and textiles):

Open now until 29 January:
A Space for Learning, NCAD Gallery, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8
If you've not made it to this exhibition yet, check it out before the end of the month, when it closes in NCAD to move on to the next venue in its national tour. More details on the tour here soon, to read more about the exhibition by the Irish Architecture Foundation, check out a post from the past.


(Image of cabinet and chair by Eileen Gray via IMMA)

Upstart

Upstart is an opportunity for creativity to be seen, discussed and (hopefully) valued within the Irish state. Creatives in any discipline are invited to submit work which can be printed and distributed around Dublin city in the format of an election poster during the Irish General Election 2011 (while filmmakers, musicians and others can submit work for display on the Upstart website). A positive change in Irish society requires creative thinking and ingenuity. The arts provide inspiration, direction, and commentary; the arts are our solace in times of need. Projects such as Upstart and the wonderful National Campaign for the Arts exist not only to remind the public of this, but to ensure there is adequate support for the arts to ensure their survival in difficult times. The deadline for submissions from artists, designers, writers, filmmakers, musicians, performers and any other creative types who want to get behind this initiative is 4 February, and you can find submission details here:

Labour and Wait

Shoreditch in London seems to be the home of all things trendy, so how could I not visit?! There were a couple of highlights, including brunch at The Breakfast Club (technically in Hoxton, but it's as close as makes no difference) and browsing through Labour and Wait, purveyors of old-school homewares you'd imagine the servants in Upstairs Downstairs using on a daily basis. Two items I'd particularly like to own are the enamel coffee pot and milk pan, below (images via the Labour and Wait online shop). Be sure to check it out if you're in the area.

Young Designers Kit

(Image via Breakmould. on Flickr)

When on a recent trip to London, I visited the Design Museum, and (as is par for the course) I spent almost equal time in the shop as I did viewing the exhibitions. I'm a big fan of the Design Museum shop. It has a great range of books, and the shop's own range of merchandise, though a little pricey, is pretty slick. I was particularly charmed by the Young Designers Kit, equipping budding creatives with crayons, notebooks, rulers and more. Further feeding my stationary fetish, I came out with a pencil and pairer (pictured below). Delish.

(Images via Design Museum Shop)

Drawing Fashion

Images via Forever Making Lists and Private

Also showing in the Design Museum right now is Drawing Fashion, an exhibition charting the development of fashion illustration over the last century or so. It's a well-designed show with a great selection of beautiful illustrations from 1920s Vogue covers by LePape (above left), 60s and 70s illustrations by Antonio (above right is for Karl Lagerfeld) through to contemporary representations of fashion by Mats Gustafson (below), Francois Berthoud (bottom) and others. You can't help but notice how fashion illustration is a medium that can express a mood or atmosphere as adeptly as fashion photography. In fact, in the way that photography can realistically represent colour, fabric, form and so on, illustration is liberated; and judging by what's on display in the Design Museum, can elevate itself to an art form of its own, almost independent of the fashion it attempts to describe.

Plain Space

(Image via www.lipsticktracez.com)

British architect John Pawson is renowned as 'the father of modern architectural minimalism', and a display of his work is currently on show in London's Design Museum. A number of projects by Pawson are expressed by photographs, videos and models, while at the centre of all of this is a 1:1 site-specific installation by the architect (pictured above). Pawson's style is epitomised by the stripping back of any and all superfluous details to create calm, almost meditative spaces, and the work exhibited, and the central installation in particular really communicates this. Another effective part of the exhibition is the section dedicated to Pawson's choice of materials in certain projects (pictured below). It is in itself a paired-back presentation of stone, brass, and wood that has featured in some of Pawson's projects, placed on specially-made douglas fir pallets, matching all the bespoke furniture in the exhibition.