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SANAA DROOG KURT SCHWITTERS ALBERT SPEER JNR ROGER STEPHENSON ARCHITECTS NORD LILIANE LIJN DESIGN MIAMI BRINKMAN & VAN DER VLUGT FACADES SUPPLEMENT
FEBRUARY 2013 5.99
DrOOg hitS 20 KUrt SChwittErS iN BritAiN ALBErt SpEEr JUNiOr
FEBRUARY 2013 5.99
18/12/2012 13:00
B02-001-Cover-ph.indd 1
SANAA:
FOCUS
ON
LENS
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18/12/2012 11:13
PAUl RAFtERY
EDITORIAL
If culture is such a great regenerator, why is its funding

always at the top of the slash-and-burn list when the
economic going gets tough?
Lens-Louvre is the cover story this month and it is pretty
much entirely a tale of how a depressed region of northern
France is chasing the Bilbao effect (p34). The area has footed
the 121m bill to bring together the worlds most-visited
museum brand and Japanese starchitect SANAA to create
something special that will in turn attract droves of visitors.
The idea is a simple one really: attract lots of people in the
hope that they will spend money, stimulating the service
sectors of the local economy. Culture as regenerator.
Quantifying the efficacy is, it seems, all about the
numbers, the footfalls. There have been many cultural
institutions using big-name architects since Bilbao that have
found themselves struggling on this front. On the other
hand, most recently David Chipperfields brace of English
museums seem to be doing modestly well for their respective
communities in Margate and Wakefield. When Turner
Contemporary launched in Margate I said it was all about
regeneration, but the people funding and running the
institution baulked at the R word. But around its first
anniversary it released research that said the Turner had
benefited the local economy to the tune of 13.8m. When
delved into, this figure, put together by a consultancy,
included the value of press coverage as though it had been
advertising, along with the spend generated by visitors. It did
however attract half a million visitors in its first year and

Hepworth Wakefield hit the 100,000-visitor mark five weeks
after opening.
These cultural institutions are attracting people, many
from outside the area, and they will spend money. But it took
a long time for Margate to get into the state it is and it will
take a long time to recover whether the Turner Gallery is
enough is a moot point.
A couple of days after the opening of Louvre-Lens, SANAA
founder Kazuyo Sejima said that she wanted the building to
fit its environment, We didnt want anything that stuck out
too much, we wanted it to blend in with its surroundings. It
is not a separate entity. Those footing the bill must have
started to worry whether they would get an iconic building.
In the end theyve got a something that does both. It is a
low-level, topography-hugging (not the slag heaps) exercise
in minimalism its aluminium and glass reflecting facade
seems to reduce in volume on grey days (our only experience
of it), but no doubt appears crisp on clear days and turns the
building into a glowing beacon at night (above). It embraces
the landscape for SANAA and it is undoubtedly a landmark
for Lens. Sejima adds: When we create a building, the
environment and the people who use the building need to be
considered and they will all evolve together. Whether that
evolution involves a Bilbao effect, in the time-honoured
phrase, we will just have to wait and see.
Johnny Tucker, editor
BLUEPRINT FEBRUARY 2013
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34
50
CoPYRIGHT PRIvATE CoLLECTIoN / DACS 2012
34
42
LENS-LOUVRE IN FOCUS
Theres a significant new arrival
in the post-industrial landscape
of Lens, a former mining town in
northern France. A new outpost
of the Louvre, designed by
SANAA, has landed like a
shimmering spacecraft but
can the dream of arts-led
regeneration make a difference?
Rob Bevan visits SANAAs delicate
creation to see how it holds up
against the gritty reality of the
slag heaps and unemployment
of its surroundings
42
DROOG AT 20
Ever since Droog Design burst on
the design scene 20 years ago it
has been hard to overstate the
importance of its humorous and
idiosyncratic take on the
relationship between critical
design practice and domestic
living. Trailblazing a path for
innumerable Dutch designers, as
well as casting a huge influence
internationally, Droogs impact
has been tremendous. So what
now? Grant Gibson meets Renny
Ramakers to find out
50
KURT SCHWITTERS IN BRITAIN

Merz is a prefix often attached
the work of Kurt Schwitters,
taken from a found fragment of
the word commerz. The nature
of his multidisciplinary oeuvre
encompassing everything from
expressionist poetry, through
collage and painting, to
building seems very modern.
Here, Irina Schulzs essay, The
Merz Barn, marks a Tate
retrospective of Schwitters time
in Britain during and following
the Second World War
F RoBERT FISCHER
56
IAN ToNG
FEATURES
11
56
ALBERT SPEER JNR

Many of us have burdensome
family relationships, but the
connections between the family
name Speer and national socialism
has been hard for Albert Jnr to
escape. Christopher Kanal, caught
up with him last year to discuss
Qatar 2022, the early adoption
of sustainable and ecological
thinking, and to talk about how
working abroad in emerging
economies has made it easier
to pursue a career undefined
by the sins of the father
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65
STEVE BENISTY
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17
61
Copyright LuCy WiLLiams; Courtesy timothy tayLor gaLLery, London
27
BOWNESS, HEPWORTH ESTATE, IMAGE COURTESY OF HAzLITT HOLLAND-HIBBERT
REGULARS
RICHARD HARRIS COLLECTION
12
OPENING SHOT
Ezra Stollers image of Robert
Law Weeds modernist parking
shed shows that in Miami, even
garages can be gorgeous
VIEW
A Letter from Prison: Trenton
Oldfield, co-founder of Londonbased urban event coordinators
This Is Not A Gateway, was jailed
for his protest during the Oxford
Cambridge boat race. He writes
to us from HMP Wormwood
Scrubs; New furniture gallery at
the V&A; Chethams School of

Music in Manchester gets a new
building from Roger Stephenson
Architects; Death at the
Wellcome Trust; Liliane Lijn
in Middlesborough; Lisbon
Architecture Trienale sends
out calls for participation
71
SUPPLEMENT: FACADE FOCUS

The first surface of encounter
with a building, whether visual
or physical, will likely be its
facade. Our supplement rounds
up innovative examples
63
REVIEW
Exhibitions: Johnny Tucker
reviews Barbara Hepworths
Hospital Drawings series in
Wakefield; Lucy Williams
collages render high-modernist
icons with care, says Herbert
Wright; Enya Moore reflects on
the position of contemporary
jewellery at the Design Museum.
Events: Gwen Webber reports
from Design Miami. Books:
Thomas Wensing takes a look at
work of influential modernist
firm Brinkmann van der Vlugt
82
87
PRODUCTS
ARCHIVE
Marking two decades of the
singular Dutch contemporary
design collective Droog Design,
our archive feature bookends
the reflective interview with
cofounder Renny Ramakers.
The first extended feature
published in Blueprint, this
months archive article is taken
from our October 1996 issue,
when the question on everyones
lips was What is Droog?
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EzRA StollER/ESto/YoSSi Milo GAllERY
14
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OPENING SHOT
MIaMI ParkING GaraGE, 1949
The work of Ezra Stoller perhaps epitomises a theme weve recently been exploring,
of how architectural photographers control the way most of us view and understand
a building, since the majority of peoples experience of a structure will be through this
medium rather than a personal visit. Stoller (1915-2004) created many iconic images
of iconic buildings, such as Saarinens TWA Terminal, van der Rohes Seagram Building
and Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim Museum. He also documented a great deal of the
American post-war industry, from printing to Heinz.
Beyond Architecture is an exhibition opening this month at New Yorks Yossi Milo
gallery that draws on Stollers full archive of more than 50,000 photographs. Most are
in black and white though some, such as this 1949 shot of a Miami car park designed
by architect Robert Law Weed, glory in colour as well. The exhibition runs 24
January-2 March. yossimilo.com
B02-014-Opening shot-ph.indd 2
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17
VIEW
Organisers of Close, Closer,

the 2013 Lisbon Triennale,
reveal some of the festivals
plans and intentions to
Shumi Bose, and start
casting their net wide
for contributions, both
esoteric and pragmatic
Right: Artwork for
the Lisbon Triennale
is being created by
the London-based
Zak Group
Lisbons Triennale team has launched

its programme for public participation,
looking to mobilise participants across
the Portuguese capital and beyond
to question the viability and future
of the European city in general.
Specifically it will be looking at
the desperate position that many
metropolitan citizens, Lisboetas in
particular, finds themselves in.
De rigeur for any self-respecting
cool city, biennales and fairs
commonly use urban fabrics around
the world as showcase and spectacle
for art, architecture and design. The
budding Lisbon Architecture Triennale,
however, under the directorship of
Beatrice Galilee and a youthful team

of curators Mariana Pestana, Liam
Young and Jose Esparza has more
rasp than polish in its voice.
The Lisbon Architecture Triennale
is in its infancy with 2013s Close,
Closer being its second iteration.
Partly due to this, and the current
financial climate, there is limited gloss
and fanfare surrounding the event.
In its place though are a number of
thoughtful initiatives for participation,
including the Crisis Buster small-grants
programme, open to all
multidisciplinary practices. Modest
sums will be awarded to produce real
projects devised for the fabric of
Lisbon, tackling existing spatial

problems or situations in the absence
of centrally funded improvements.
Reflecting concern for the
generation emerging into an
environment of economic collapse,
other opportunities at Close, Closer
include the Dbut Award for young
architects and the Triennale
Millennium BCP Universities Award,
which invites students to create a real
intervention at the Triennale HQ itself.
Mariana Pestanas curatorial
contribution, The Real and Other
Fictions, will occupy a partially
ruined historic palace, providing
an otherworldly, yet tangibly decayed,
setting for investigations of a less

pragmatic nature. Architect and
educator Liam Youngs maverick
approach is looking for mad
scientists, gamers and visionaries to
create an immersive and imaginative
world in his Future Perfect exhibit,
while Jose Esparzas inquiries will be
based firmly in the present,
questioning contemporary civic
ambition.
The list of confirmed participants
is still growing, but current crowdpulling names include Bruce Sterling,
Damon Rich (CUP), Metahaven, Andres
Jacques and Peter Greenaway.
close-closer.com
Two Hong Kong-born architects have

been selected to build the first project
in the West Kowloon cultural district of
the city that will eventually be home to
17 cultural venues. The architects, Bing
Thom, now based in Vancouver, and
Ronald Lu, from Hong Kong, have
formed a joint venture for the 13,800
sq m project to create a home for
Chinese opera the Xiqu Centre, which
is due to complete in 2016. Also on the
same site will be the M+ museum of
Hong Kong history, for which a shortlist
of major names was announced at the
same time: Herzog & de Meuron with
TFP Farrells, Kazuyo Sejima with Ryue
Nishizawa/SANAA, Renzo Piano Building
Workshop, Snhetta, Shigeru Ban
Architects with Thomas Chow Architects
and Toyo Ito & Associates with Benoy.
Next months Blueprint features A letter
from Hong Kong. JT
B02-017-View1-Smalls-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:21
18
TOMEK SIEREK
Imagine yourself in a theatre, not a

gallery, says Liliane Lijn, activating
two extraordinary feminine forms with
wings of synthetic material and heads
made of prisms from Centurian tanks.
These steel statues confront each other
as The Conjugation of Opposites, with
a performance of sound, smoke,
movement and lasers.
First shown in Venice in 1986 and
now upgraded from analogue to
digital, they are the centrepiece of her
solo show, Cosmic Dramas, at mima
(Middlesbrough Institute of Modern
Art) until 28 February.
How different from her last major
work, Solar Beacons, sited at the
Golden Gate Bridge in 2012. There,
Lijn worked with astrophysicist John
Vallerga to use heliostats (mirrors
tracking the Sun) to create an
astonishing spectacle of spectrally
coloured stars seemingly shining from
the bridge towers.
Lijn has come a long way since her
Poem Machines of 50 years ago. With
Letraset words on motorised metal
drums (later, cones), they established
her as a pioneer in kinetic art and
concrete poetry. She has long explored
science and materials she crafted
sculpture from the frozen smoke of
aerogel at NASA in 2005. But Cosmic
Dramas is about two other themes that
fascinate her myth and gender.

Born in New York, Lijn moved to
Italy at age 14, then in 1958, when
she was 19, went to study in Paris. I
didnt know what I wanted to be an
artist or a writer, she recalls. One of
the reasons I became an artist is that I
had changed my language... It creates
problems for you if you want to be a
writer. This was a time when she hung
out at the legendary Beat Hotel in
Paris with William Burroughs and
fellow beat poets Brion Gysin, Sinclair
Beiles and Gregory Corso. She started
making Sky Scrolls, surrealistic
strip-works on paper, but she tired
of the medium.
Back in New York in 1961, Lijn was
experimenting with plastics when her
supplier on West Canal Street offered
her space to work in the factory floor
upstairs. It was just full of all kinds of
plastic junk... I said, terrific! He said
you can use all the machinery and any
material you like. So I had the run of
the factory. It was like an industrial
residency. When she settled in London
in 1966, she regularly attended
meetings of APG (Artist Placement
Group) that pioneered industrial artist
residencies (Blueprint January 2012).
This was when her trademark cones
emerged. She calls these sculptures
koans, which are riddles that help
COURTESY THE ARTIST
The latest work of extraordinary artist

Liliane Lijn is on show at mima in
Middlesbrough. From her first offerings
of 50 years ago, via her trademark
koans, Lijn never fails to surprise,
reports Herbert Wright
Above: Liliane Lijns

Conjugation of
Opposites. These
feminine forms with
heads of prisms
from tanks, is the
central piece in the
mima exhibition
Below left:
Artist Liliane Lijn,
with some of her
trademark koans
in the background
Buddhist monks meditate. They have

come in many guises initially with
words or equations, later with ellipses
of coloured light arcing around them,
or variations exploring materiality,
form and even dimensionality.
Her first significant public
sculpture, the rotating 6.1m-high
White Koan (1971) was bought by
Warwick University. Without
maintenance, its mechanics started
to groan and it was just outside
the concert hall. It had a voice!
she recalls. It was saved from the
scrapheap when students mobilised
a Save the Cone campaign, and now
it rotates smoothly and proudly.
Youngsters love her 5m-high
Starslide (2005), defined by a colourful
conical form in the Michael Hopkinsdesigned Evelina Childrens Hospital,
London. During Cosmic Dramas, the
2.5m-high Lost Koan (2007) stands
on mimas terrace, with a soundtrack
of local voices.
The works for mima stem from her
fascination with Greek mythology, and
a move to what she calls multiple
materials such as feathers and fabric.
Ever since her plastic days, she says
changing the medium changed the
direction... Instead of telling the
media what to do, the media tells me
what I want to do. Moreover, in the
early Eighties, she also sought a new
direction after her earlier geometrically
shaped pieces. I consciously decided
to look for new feminine images,

she says. The results include the
Conjugation of Opposites statues
in steel and aluminium, Woman of War
(1986) and the Max Ernst-like Lady
of the Wild Things (1983).
As strange and stirring but very
different, is The Electric Bride (1990).
Inside a black mesh cage, a figure of
micanite extrusions with a flashing
crystal head is bound by strings
glowing with heat. A sad female voice
speaks Japanese, evoking
unfathomable depths. The text is
about confronting death, says Lijn,
who wrote it. Here, the influences are
the myth of Persephone descending
into the Underworld, and Japanese
culture, such as kabuki and ghost
stories. She saw Kenji Mizoguchis film
Ugetsu in 1960. Influences take years
to surface, she notes.
The feminine archetype has been
repressed for 5,000 years, contends
Lijn. Well, where does it go? She
reports that Jung thought it goes into
hiding and gets stronger. Her feeling
is that the female archetype has gone
into industry. Shes pursuing that
proposition in Caution Matter, a
collaboration with Canadian film-maker
Jamie Allen, and they have already
filmed in three factories. It sounds like
an APG project she may have once
discussed, but it interrogates very
different ideas. Just as Cosmic Dramas
does, just as Lijn always has.
B02-018-View2-Lijn ph.indd 1
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DANIEL HOPKINSON
20
Above: A culverted
river on the site was
a factor in deciding
to make the ground
level smaller that
the mass above
Right: Exposed
brickwork is used for
the staircase areas
If you were going to choose to build

a prestigious new music school, with
practise, recording and performance
spaces, you probably wouldnt choose
to build it here not next to a
railway, tram and bus station.
Chethams (pronounced Cheetams)
is a richly historical music school with
a vibrant modern reputation, which
regularly sees its pupils picking up
major awards. In the past 10 years
alone they have garnered at least
two of the five BBC Young Musician
of the Year awards.
Situated in the heart of
Manchester, across from the G-MEX
Centre and Victoria Station, the site
contains the citys oldest in-use
building, a 15th-century manor house
thats also home to the worlds oldest
English language library, where Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels used to
meet. Now, right next to this is one

of the citys newest buildings.
Designed by Roger Stephenson
Architects, the new structures
programme includes rehearsal rooms,
recording rooms, academic teaching
rooms, an outreach centre and two
main performing spaces, one of which
will hold a full orchestra and an
audience of around 450 people, taking
up the floor space in equal measure.
Previously these functions were
spread around the site in a variety of
buildings.
Incidentally, Roger Stephenson is
also responsible for the G-Mex Centre
(Stephenson-Bell, 2008), plus a host
of other projects in the city, including
finally making the Haienda club
viable, by converting it into
apartments. You could dub him Mr
Manchester, as apart from the 400
buildings hes been involved with
here, he was also chair of the
planning consultative body the
Manchester Historic Building and
Conservation Panel.
This latter fact and the historical
nature of the site could lead you to
expect some kind of faux structure,
but that couldnt be further from the
truth. In fact, despite general support
from English Heritage, he did have to
battle with it to get a large existing
building on the site demolished. It
surprised me they are railway

buildings with historical interest, but
no architectural value at all, explains
Stephenson, going on to expand with
relish on his successful scuffle with
EH. Nothing will be replacing the
demolished building instead it will
open the site up, allow for
landscaping, and a medieval wall will
act as the new/old boundary.
As well as the historical elements
of the site, the topology was also
JONATHAN KEENAN
Roger Stephenson
Architects has created a
major new building for music
school Chethams. Johnny
Tucker went to Manchester
to find out the score
slightly challenging in that theres

a large, artificial incline from top to
bottom of the site due to railway
viaducts lifting up the road level. Its
also at the confluence of two rivers,
the open Irwell, and the Irk, flowing
through a 6m-wide Victorian culvert.
But both of these contraints were
used positively. The level meant that
public access on one side can come
straight off the street, while a glass
and Cor-Ten bridge brings pupils in
from the other on to the same floor.
Stephenson was also able to use this
quasi-underground nature to hide
some of the bulk of the massive main
performance hall. From the exterior
the hall is evident and expressed in
the form, but the sheer size of the
volume is not.
And then theres the Irk: To avoid
the river culvert, the building is set
in at the bottom and then comes
out at the top, and I actually believe
that gives it a much more successful
relationship with the medieval
building than if wed gone straight
down to the ground, reflects
Stephenson.
The brick exterior says Manchester
to me, the citys Victorian red-brick
buildings are one of its defining
characteristics, but Stephenson
reveals: We did flirt with stone, but
the handmade brick gave us the
B02-020-View 3-ph.indd 1
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21
Academic school
Music school
Atrium
Concert hall
Recital hall
Outreach centre
opportunity to be very sculptural in

an economic way theres something
like 85 different types of special-order
brick here. And its a good thing that
economics won out, as stone would
surely had greatly altered the
essentially modernist feel of the
building. Stephenson adds: From a
language point of view, weve got a
very robust environment here, both
medieval and Victorian.
And he sees his new building as
robust, but it has a great deal of
finesse its singular mass may be
borderline brutal, but it is a powerful
and imposing feel rather than being
monumental and overbearing. The
elegant nose, with its 6m-cantilever,
might put you in mind of the Villa
Savoye (slightly) in the meter and
relationship of the pilotis.
The exterior form expresses the
DANIEL HOPKINSON
Music tech
THERE HAVE BEEN

MANY ADDITIONS
SINCE THE MEDIEVAL
BUILDING, NONE OF
WHICH WOULD BE
MISSED... BUT THIS
BUILDING IS A KEEPER
interior function in both a literal and
poetic way. The rehearsal rooms
acoustically require the use of small
windows and in turn on the exterior
the fenestration for these levels looks
like notes on staves (there are five
rows). Higher up the building the
programme changes and much larger
windows denote the classroom areas.
The 31m budget on this building
is targeted. Theres actually no main
performance hall yet an extra 4m

is being sought for that. But the
outer box is in place. The hall will be
an inner box, on springs, acoustically
separated from the main walls by a
void, and this is the way for much of
the structures key music-based rooms
as well. The budget here is about the
same as an academy, at about 2,000
per sq m, but its technically much
more complicated than an academy,
says Stephenson, adding that Arup
Acoustics was an early partner.
Its clear that the money has
been spent where it was required.
There are no signature furniture, and
the interior is pretty austere, with
white walls occasionally softened by
non-bookmatched, matt-lacquered,
wood-veneered panels on doors. Wood
is also used to delineate the two
performance spaces, while exposed
brick returns for the stairs. Classrooms

at the top are functional rather than
friendly. One surprise that really
doesnt seem to fit in, but that hints
at the nature of its users, are the
particles of glitter in the flooring in
non-public circulation areas.
This must also be the quietest
school in the country. Not only does
it cater for a mere 300 youngsters (all
there on musical merit and mostly on
scholarships), but the amount of
acoustic isolation and dampening
going on makes it feel almost
post-apocalyptic on the ears.
The site has seen many additions
since medieval times, none of which
is particularly nice and wouldnt be
missed should a stray wrecking ball
come their way, but this new building
is a keeper a bridge to the future
from the past.
Above left: The

exploded
axonometric shows
the scale of the
volumes contained
within
Above: The dramatic
main atrium space
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23
Pariss new Cinema Etoile

by Hardel + LeBihan is
ready to show its stuff,
reports Herbert Wright
The first cinema to be built in Paris in
a decade has opened. Cinma
toile Lilas, by local practice Hardel +
LeBihan, sets out to be a cinema city
in two connected volumes, with seven
screens and seats for 1,499 film-goers.
There is an element of stack
architecture in the vertical volumes
external form, within which three
auditoria are literally stacked on each
other, their size increasing with
height. Public circulation areas
cantilever from the onyx-black
painted concrete, crossed by diagonals
of glass-enclosed escalators. A 700 sq
m terrace covers shops in the smaller
volume, where stairs again
characterise a facade diagonally.
The cinemas external kinetics
faintly echo the Centre Pompidous,
but the new building has a different
agenda to bridge the disconnect
between classical Paris proper and its
surrounding modern banlieues. The
toile Lilas is actually built over the
boulevard priphrique which divides
them, and each side is scaled to relate
to the adjacent urban contexts.
CoURTEsY HARdEL + LEBiHAn
Right: The new

Parisian cinema is a
layer cake, featuring
three auditoria
stacked on top of
each other
Opera HOuse nears crescendO

the Royal opera Houses creative and
educational programmes. stanton
Williams and Witherford Watson Mann
beat off strong competition from
among others, Amanda Levete
Architects, Jamie Fobert Architects,
Heatherwick studios, Caruso st John
and diller scofidio + Renfro.
Both stanton Williams and
Witherford Watson Mann are deeply
embedded in the concerns of the
capital. Talking with Blueprint, Liz
diller emphasised the importance and
benefits of working in or for the city
where one belongs. More from her in
next months Blueprint.
CoURTEsY PAsEL.kUEnZEL
Two London-based practices stanton

Williams and Witherford Watson Mann
have been selected as the finalists
for the Royal opera Houses open Up
competition.
The august institution launched an
invited competition in mid 2011, in an
almost literal bid to open itself, and
the art of opera, up to the public the
brief was to make the public spaces,
entrances and surrounding areas of the
Royal opera House more accessible.
The competition winner will also
be required to develop existing spaces
within the Covent Garden site in order
to increases visibility and awareness of
cOme and meet us at mipim
HOusing witH a ligHt dutcH tOucH
Are you coming to MiPiM in March? if

so, have a drink and chat with us.
Blueprint, along with our sister
magazine FX, is hosting a drinks
networking event on the beach for
architects, designers, clients and
developers. The event, sponsored by
lighting specialist Futuredesigns
(futuredesigns.co.uk) is on Tuesday 12
in the Zeeus housing project, Rotterdam-based pasel.knzel architect

brings a contemporary twist to the dutch vernacular and reanimate the
half-abandoned streetscape of the former port area in the town of Goes.
The 34 terraced houses of dark clay brick conform to the local housing
typology, with flat facades, pitched roofs and tall, recessed windows. in
addition, the high-density development references the crochet patterning
of traditional hats worn by Zeeland women, with laser-cut perforations
in the anodised aluminium spandrels below windows an embellishment
that gives the back-to-basics units a delicate touch.
March, 4pm6pm. its free to come

along, but for security reasons we need
to know who is attending. so if youd
like to meet Blueprint editor, Johnny
Tucker and FX editor, Theresa dowling,
as well as colleagues and potential
clients, please send Theresa an email
to tdowling@fxmagazine.co.uk, with
Party as the subject. see you there.
B02-023-View4-Smalls-ph.indd 1
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V&A IMAGES
24
Above: Touchscreens
accompany every
display to deliver
up digital labelling
Right: NORDs design
respects the spaces
original architecture
yet provides a
contemporary stage
for the displays
The frequent sounding of security

alarms doesnt normally raise a smile
at the V&A but not much is normal
about its new furniture gallery.
Co-curator Nick Humphrey remarks
wryly on how all the alarms going
off can only be accounted for by the
visitors desire to touch the furniture.
The collaborative efforts of
Humphrey and fellow curator Leela
Meinertas, aided by the new gallerys
design by NORD architects, have
achieved a space that fittingly
describes the material and tactile
qualities of furniture.
Officially the Dr Susan Weber
Gallery, the new space doesnt display
furniture in the typical chronological
fashion but in sections dedicated
to methods of construction and
decoration. Words such as gilding,
silvering and upholstery are
emblazoned on the walls where
previously time frames would have
marked out the works on display.
This marks a fresh approach by
the V&A that highlights not only the
importance of making but also serves

to create new comparisons between
furniture. A bookcase produced by
Ikea in 1994 stands next to a Marcel
Breuer armchair designed nearly 60
years earlier. The two together are
validated by the title Cutting Sheet,
providing a foundation for renewed,
process-based discourse.
Not only do these curatorial
decisions give way to new
understanding, the space created
by NORD succeeds in providing a
sympathetic platform for the variety
of objects on display. Creating an
elegant room that feels airy and filled
with light, even as it catalogues
decorative furniture across a 600-year
timescale, is a feat in itself. As part
of the V&As Futureplan scheme, which
sees various galleries being given a
face-lift, NORDs design has respected
the original architecture of the space,
while providing a contemporary layer
on which to display the pieces.
Each display is pocketed along the
corridor-like space in white recesses;
the gallery walls have been clad with
ebonised oak, with a simple linear
detail throughout. An upper band
of the cladding runs the whole length
of the gallery, crisply delineating the
space from the original moulded
plasterwork on the ceiling and
creating a simple, monochromatic
palette. Seven portals, each dedicated
to the career of an individual designer,
punctuate the technically grouped
displays, avoiding visitor fatigue. The
overall affect is a smart, defined and
clutter-free space.
As a practice that describes itself
as taking inspiration from Britains
furniture pieces
arent displayed
chronologically
but in sections
dedicated to
construction and
decoration methods
legacy of making things, NORDs
empathy with the furniture is
apparent, as is its understanding
of materials. Having won the double
RIBA award in previous years for the
Dungeness Shingle House and the
Olympic Park Primary Substation,
NORD goes from strength to strength.
This project, spearheaded by the
director of its London office, Graeme
Williamson, serves as further proof.
The furniture gallery also marks
the grand introduction of digital
labelling to the V&A, and grand
it is. For a generation dependent
on products, digital labelling is
controlled by a stroke on a
touchscreen. Freestanding
touchscreens accompany each display,
allowing visitors to select objects of
interest and learn more.
Fittingly, space-age interactive
tables in the centre of the room are a
particular highlight. Commissioned by
NORD, with digital interfaces designed
by All of Us, the two interactive units
are at workbench height, with samples
strewn along the top, another
deliberate reference to the making of
the furniture. By holding one of the
samples of ebony, brass or bone, one
gets a feel for the material and with
that, a greater understanding. The

thrilling bit comes when handling the
sample triggers a digital display that
allows the visitor to drill deeper into
further information on the tabletop.
The beauty in this intuitive method
of digital display is in its total lack
of gimmickry; all has been so well
considered that it just makes sense.
The work by curators, architects
and interactive design consultants has
resulted in a room that should be held
aloft as an example of what other
museums should be aiming for. Not
only does it provide ample interest for
the design geek and layperson alike,
it is also a great educational resource
that will undoubtedly be exploited
by academics, makers and students.
NORDs philosophy of responding
to 21st-century needs and celebrating
the British tradition of craftsmanship
and love of materials looks to be
rightly shared by more of the public.
V&A IMAGES
Furniture has its own

dedicated space at the V&A,
with the dr susan Weber
gallery opening. Designed
by nord, the space also
brings the museum bang
up to date with thrilling
interactivity, says Enya Moore
blueprint FEBRUARY 2013
B02-024-View5-Nord-ph.indd 1
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+44 20 7749 7399

contracts@scp.co.uk
scpcontracts.co.uk
SCP Contracts
135139 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3BX
Version shown:
4800w x 1500d x 720h mm
With cable management
12:28
Peggy
Table System by PearsonLloyd
18/12/12
Circular Square Rectangular Elliptical Long

Meet Work Dine
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A LETTER FROM
27
PRISON
Urban activist Trenton Oldfield served six weeks of a six-month sentence

for his public nuisance interference with the Oxford-Cambridge boat race.
Writing from Wormwood Scrubs, he described it as a forgotten space
Right: Trenton
Oldfield leaves
Wormword Scrubs on
4 December, with
the books, writing
materials and
underwear
hed packed in
anticipation of
receiving a jail
sentence
To date, nobody at HMP Wormwood

Scrubs has been able to explain to me
what the point of prison is. Is prison
for punishment, retribution, public
safety, rehabilitation? While some
of the material conditions are better
than when Wormwood Scrubs was first
built toilets rather than buckets,
for example the ideas propping up
its walls seem as old as the building
itself. And despite the scale of prisons
and increasing prison population,
these seem to be void spaces
forgotten spaces in our cities.
Ive been in Wormwood Scrubs
since 19 October 2012. I was given
a six-month custodial sentence for
swimming into the course of a
university rowing race. I did this
to protest against the shocking rise
in inequalities in Britain today and
the underlying logic of elitism that
pushes policy and culture to promote
intolerable ideas of strong/weak,
deserving/undeserving... For me,
the Oxbridge boat race is a symbol
of this unequal and elitist culture,
and Oxbridge is where many (more
than 70 per cent) in the current
government learned such ideas.
In the three days preceding
my protest action the Coalition
Government introduced the
Communications Data Bill to spy
on and store peoples digital data;
the Queen gave the Royal Assent
to the fire sale of the NHS; MP
Hugh Robertson encouraged people
to report on neighbours they
suspected might protest at the
2012 Olympic Games.
On the day of my sentence I
packed a bag with books, underwear
and writing materials. Knowing well
the vindictive nature and insecurity
of those who wish to Rule Britannia,
I anticipated a prison sentence for
my direct-action protest. One only
needs read some peoples history of
this nation to know this is the way
that the Crown likes to roll.
Almost simultaneously with the
judges sentence, I was led from the

secured glass box, handcuffed, and
taken on my first of many walks down
long, windowless corridors. I ended up
underground in a blank concrete cell
beneath the court house. I waited for
several hours. So began my experience
in the great white void that is the
21st-century prison in Britain.
Around 4pm that day, as every
day, hundreds of white vans (sweat
boxes) set off from courts on their
way to a few giant prisons.
Unexpectedly my mind started
to flood with clichd urban myths,
images from TV and film of life inside
prison, even though I knew these
stories and images are not the actual
panopticon the real discipline being
the fear of prison itself.
Despite the time-travel
disorientation of sitting in a
I ANTICIPATED A
PRISON SENTENCE...
ONE ONLY NEEDS READ
SOME HISTORIES OF
THE NATION TO KNOW
THIS IS THE WAY THE
CROWN LIKES TO ROLL
19th-century vault, I was quickly put
at ease when a number of soon-to-be
fellow prisoners greeted me some
coming over to shake my hand,
suggesting their favourite swimming
spots and sharing comments along
the lines of fuck the system. Its been
like this ever since, whichever wing
Ive been moved to; brilliant banter
and gestures of solidarity.
Movement, believe it or not, is
one of the main factors of life in
prison. The Peoples Movement Office
perhaps the ultimate gatekeepers
can make a substantial difference
in the quality of everyday life in here.
Its where visits are agreed,
notifications posted, religious services
and lectures requested, and gym

schedules set up. Its also the office
that arranges the transfer of prisoners
between wings and to different
prisons. The conditions of different
wings, even in the same prison, can
be significant. If you find yourself
on D Wing, as I did, your dignity is
stripped right back something that
makes no sense to me. Maltreating
people who likely had very little
comfort outside seems to create
a self-fulfilling prophecy certainly
in making rehabilitation difficult,
probably unlikely. Who, where and
how one is moved makes an enormous
difference to life in and out of prison.
Movement sets the rhythm to
each day. There are four rush hours
officially called free flow when
prisoners are being released, going
to court or to classes or jobs within
the prison. They are not usually
announced but one becomes aware
as a volcano of noise erupts and then
gets louder and louder as prisoners
queue to make it through the gate.
Many hundreds make their way down
a central hallway connecting all wings
to the main facilities. On each
occasion there is banter and laughter.
In between these rush hours the
wing more or less falls silent, the
noise dropping decibel by decibel with
the thud of cell doors closing. This is
the time I read and write, the time I
look forward to the most. My cell
mate sleeps; most prisoners are now
somewhere else either on education
courses or working to make fellow
prisoners lives better (in the kitchen
or laundry, in the yard, inducting new
prisoners at reception). The vast
majority of prisoners want to work
and some jobs are very sought after.
Movement also seems to be an
important method in injecting a sense
of vulnerability and instability. As
soon as you feel settled, find a
routine or develop an understanding
with a cell mate, you can be moved to
another cell, wing or prison. Screws
(the guards) are regularly rotated

between landings, wings and prisons
to prevent them from forming
relationships with inmates; alienation
seems at the very core of the prison
logic. Moves usually result in spending
long periods in holding pens and
its these I struggle with. Mostly,
however, it doesnt take long for
some true characters to start cracking
jokes; there is a camaraderie in here
between inmates that is every bit
the opposite to the brutal culture
portrayed on screen.
This is my experience of one
prison. Others might have very
different experiences. What I do know
is that prisons are great white voids
in our contemporary cities, a result
of outdated ideas and judicial systems
that continue purely on their own
momentum. Is it not here that reform
needs to happen? As a codicil:
Wormwood Scrubs was constructed
entirely by convict labour. It took
17 years to build and was opened in
1891. Ironically, the facade features
oval plaster reliefs of well-known
prison reformers, Elizabeth Fry and
John Howard.
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Monolink.
One solution
for linking
and stacking.
Design: Martin Ballendat
Monolink is a chair which can make itself comfortable in

both the smallest canteen and the largest of conference rooms.
Handy, comfortable and sturdy. A one-piece construction
with a built-in system for linking and stacking. This makes
the Monolink a unique chair; one that makes organising a
room extremely easy. It can be fully recycled and is available
in a variety of colour combinations. It is available with either
a plastic or upholstered seat. Seat numbering and a clever
mode of transport are also optional. Monolink has what it
takes to give a stellar performance.
www.casala.com/monolink
29
historically the visual arts
have always addressed
death, but Gian Luca Amadei
asks how has design,
architecture and planning
dealt with this grim reality?
(it runs until 24 February) some

300 artefacts, including paintings and
photographs from a larger collection
on the theme of death assembled
by american Richard harris, a former
dealer in antique prints.
curator of temporary exhibitions
at the Wellcome collection, Kate
Forde, has arranged the exhibition in
five themed rooms. each drawing,
painting, memento mori and sculpture
shows, in a provocative way, how art
can help us to negotiate death. The
exhibition includes works by albrecht
drer, adrian van Utrecht, andy
Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe,
together with etchings by otto dix.
each one of these artists works
on display refers to events that show
death being actively questioned and
challenged. as a consequence this
also highlights how death is largely
neglected in the context of modern
design, architecture and planning.
The contemporary urban space is not
designed to accommodate anything
to do with burial and mourning as
a social and public event, as it has
always been in the past.
But why is that? For Forde, death
has been taken away from the public
space; it is no longer visible in the
city space, as funerals and mourning
have become more private. death is
not understood to be part of the life
cycle, but now almost considered as a
disease to eradicate.
Many socio-cultural factors have
contributed to shifting death from the
public to the private sphere; scholarly
research has attempted to identify
some and find the reasons for them.
The late French philosopher Philippe
aris studied and theorised on the

perception of death in modernity. in
his book, The hour of our death, he
stated that the beginning of the 20th
century marked the completion of the
psychological mechanism that
removed death from society,
eliminating its character of public
ceremony and making it a private act.
at first the act of dying was reserved
for intimates, but eventually even
the family was excluded as the
hospitalisation of the terminally ill
became widespread, he wrote.
Theories around the
hospitalisation of death in modernity
also interested British sociologist
anthony Giddens who, in his book
Modernity and self-identity,
elaborated on the idea of
sequestration of death. Gidden wrote
that the process of sequestration of
sickness and death from the everyday
was initiated by the advent of the
enlightenment in the late 18th-
death moved into

the hands of the
medical profession,
resulting in its
removal from being
an individual
experience...
architects and planners, doctors
were advocating that new, out-oftown cemeteries should be built.
The spatial and visual
displacement of death contributed
to its physiological and emotional
perception in the modern day and
contextualised aris and Giddens
theories on the absence of mourning
from the citys public space.
Mourning is not extinct
as a practice it has even been
adapted to the virtual space in the
form of online memorials, allowing
individuals freedom of expression in
relation to death and mourning,
something that has been otherwise
entangled in the social and cultural
hierarchy and public displays of
emotions. This still, however, leaves
open questions as to whether
architects, designers and planners
should try to acknowledge death and
mourning in the civic space, just as
the arts have done all through history.
edWaRd ThoRP GalleRy and The aRTisT
The RichaRd haRRis collecTion
over the last year, death has been a

favourite topic of londons cultural
diary. it started in January when
the thought-provoking Festival of
death opened at the southbank
centre. its artistic director, Jude Kelly,
was inspired by the reticence of
people in general, and the British in
particular, when it comes to death.
in the autumn, a series of sitespecific events titled death and the
contemporary (part of the inside out
Festival at somerset house) that
questioned death in the context
of contemporary arts, was organised
by dr Georgina colby and artist and
photographer anthony luvera. For
november, Jessica Barker and ann
adams at The courtauld institute
of art organised a research forum
to explore the relationship between
art and death, which included an
ongoing programme of workshops. The
printed press too joined the debate
on death in october, when new
scientist dedicated a special issue to
the topic, questioning whether it is
time for humanity to rethink death.
To complete the immersive
discussion on death in contemporary
arts and culture, in november the
Wellcome collection opened the
exhibition death: a self-Portrait
The RichaRd haRRis collecTion
Death comes to the

Wellcome Collection.
Among the 300
exhibits in the
exhibition Death: a
Self-Portait are,
right: a metamorphic
postcard from the
early 1900s. Below:
Die Apokalytischen
Reiter, an 15thcentury etching by
Albrecht Drer.
Below right:
Gentleman on Green
Table, by June Leaf
(1999-2000)
century, coinciding with advances

in science and medicine.
death gradually moved into
the hands of the medical profession
and, said Giddens, resulted in its
removal from being an individual
experience connected to the
biological human lifecycle.
links between medicine, death
and the city space particularly in
the case of london began to
manifest themselves from the early
19th century, when surgeons
denounced the poor condition of
londons graveyards and their affect
on the public health. Well before
B02-029-View7-Death-ph.indd 1
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ter e
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31
ACHTUNG!
ERIK SPIEKERMANN
Erik Spiekermann
set up MetaDesign
and FontShop, and
worked in London
from 1973 to 1981.
A teacher, author
and designer, he
is a partner at
EdenSpiekermann,
which has offices
in Berlin and
Amsterdam
Perhaps noise pollution is a First

World problem. While it is certainly
not as high on the agenda of
environmentalists as other hazards,
it should be.
I always presumed that architects
and interior designers knew how to
deal with excessive sound, aka noise.
Apparently, however, it is still often
equated with liveliness and energy.
How often have you sat in a
restaurant with tiled floors, metal
tables and stone walls? Cool to look
and appropriate for short-order
cooking, but impossible to hold a
phone conversation in, unless you
blare into your mobile, as tends to be
the case, even if there are other
people at the same table.
I never know whether the
designers of these places arent aware
that a piece of felt underneath the
tables will break some of the sound
waves or whether the restaurant
owners want people to leave as soon
as theyve finished eating.
In the USA certainly in my
experience a quiet restaurant is
impossible to find; what a European
MELVIN GALAPON
As we strive to find a bit of

quiet in our noisy world, it
wont be long before banned
noise makers will huddling
together like smokers do...
like me finds to be hectic and noisy

is deemed to be lively and happening.
Mind you, this is the same place
where no one wants to be found doing
only one thing at a time. In order to
be seen to be active and with the
times, you have to be on the phone
with coffee in your hand while driving
or walking.
Walkie-talkie coffee-drinking
pedestrians are a major hazard already
in our cities on both sides of the
Atlantic. Can you imagine what that
will be like when electric cars quietly
approach? As a cyclist, I am already
used to having one hand on the brake
at all times because one of those
smartphone zombies is bound to walk

in front of me at any moment.
The ubiquitous headphones and
earplugs are not only signs of a
multi-tasking populace, but also a
tacit reaction to the very cacophony
all these one-sided conversations
cause. A pictogram depicting a
crossed-out mobile phone has been
around for a few years and serves as a
reminder in trains and waiting rooms
that noise can actually be just as
unwanted as secondhand smoke.
I witnessed a posse of enraged
passengers on a train recently
protesting the clacking of someones
fingers on a keyboard. The
conversation revolved around the

question of just how quiet is quiet?
There wasnt a no-mobile-phoneshere pictogram on the walls, but
simply a notice: Quiet Carriage. Did
that mean the absence of any sound
beyond normal signs of life, like
breathing? Or did it mean to disallow
sounds emitted by man-made objects
only? Would you have to move to the
corridor to cough or sneeze? What if
you rustled a paper bag?
It turned out that all the
passengers frequenting that carriage
went there to avoid noise, and after
the (well-mannered) discussion we all
agreed that one mans keystrokes
could be another mans steamhammer.
While typing on a touchscreen may
not be as convenient as doing so on
a proper keyboard, it may be quiet
enough to satisfy this ever-growing
demand for a quiet space, one where
you can hear yourself think.
Dont get me started on modern
inventions like the bleeps made by
reversing lorries and now vans! Why
do they always have to announce
their change of direction at 6am?
Mind you, with electric cars not
having exhausts to inform the world
around them of their amazing amount
of horsepower, we may soon need
bleeps and other signals for cars
simply moving forward. Whole
neighbourhoods will have to erect
Quiet signs, and noise-makers will
get their designated spaces, having to
huddle underneath glass shelters like
smokers already do.
The courtyard of a baroque residence

in Germanys Ruhr conurbation is the
site of the Folkwang Library, by
Berlin-based architect Max Dudler. It
houses 190,000 musicological items
around a reading room, all set in a
wood-clad concrete frame in a
rectangular volume. The unusual glazed
exterior is a collaboration with
photographer Stefan Mller. Each pane
is imprinted with one of 12 images of
quarryface stone, suggesting a marble
skin. The facades translucency casts
soft light inside, and when darkness
falls, from outside the library generates
a warm, textured glow. HW
STEFAN MLLER
GLAZED EXPRESSION
B02-031-View8-Achtung-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 12:55
32 DIARY
HANGAR BICCOCA (MILAN)
ON SPACE TIME FOAM
Until 3 February
Artist-architect Toms Saraceno has
created an aerial structure accessible
to the public. The piece is made up of
three levels of clear film that visitors
can view from the ground or the brave
can climb on to. Saraceno is famed for
his inventive installations, which
transform perceptions of architectural
spaces. hangarbicocca.org
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (LONDON)

MAN RAY PORTRAITS
Until 27 May
In the first-ever museum retrospective
of Man Rays photographic portraits,
visitors can look forward to subjects
such as Pablo Picasso and Catherine
Devenue. Emphasising Ray as one of
the leading artists of the surrealist
and Dada movements, the collection
includes more than 150 original
images. npg.org.uk
COURTESY THE ARTIST
THE
YEAR
AHEAD
JANUARY
HAYWARD GALLERY, LONDON
LIGhT ShOW
30 January 28 April
southbankcentre.co.uk
FEBRUARY
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON
BLUE FIRTh: SAME OLD, SAME OLD
2 February 26 May
royalacademy.org.uk
TATE LIVERPOOL
GLAM! ThE PERFORMANCE OF STYLE
8 February 12 May
tate.org
COURTESY THE LACMA
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (NEW YORK)

TOKYO 19551970:
A NEW AVANT-GARDE
Until 25 February
Documenting a transformative period
in Tokyo, in which it reinvented itself
from war-torn capital into an global
hub of arts and culture through
painting, photography and graphic
design. In conjunction, MoMA
introduces a retrospective of the
Japanese Art Theatre Guild. moma.org
WHITE CUBE (LONDON)

MODEL
Until 10 February
The titular piece, made in direct
response to the space of the White
Cube, is constructed from 100 tonnes
of sheet steel. Visitors can enter and
inhabit this work that explores our
understanding of architecture. New
sculptures of abstract body forms are
also exhibited along the central
corridor of the gallery. whitecube.com
LACMA (LOS ANGELES)

STANLEY KUBRICK
Until 30 June
The first retrospective of the
legendary filmmaker in the context
of an art museum covers the entire
Kubrick opus. The show explores his
films through early photographs,
selected scripts, set models and props.
It also looks at Napoleon and The
Aryan Papers, two projects that
Kubrick never finished. lacma.org
CENTRAAL MUSEUM (UTRECHT)

BLUE JEANS
Until 10 March
From their 17th-century workwear
origins to present-day couture,
variations of the iconic blue jeans
will be on display. Including new
work by renowned artists, the
exhibition includes original Levis
for miners, and even some Droog
(see p42) Levis for good measure.
centraalmuseum.nl
SAN FRANCISCO MOMA

LEBBEUS WOODS
16 February 20 June
sfmoma.org
V&A MUSEUM
DAVID BOWIE IS
23 March 28 July
vam.ac.uk
AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER, TExAS

SxSW (SOUTh BY SOUTh WEST)
18 March 17 March
sxsw.com
CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS

EILEEN GRAY
20 February 20 May
centrepompidou.fr
RIBA, LONDON
ThE BANALITY OF GOOD: SIx
DECADES OF NEW TOWNS,
ARChITECTS, MONEY AND POLITICS
25 March 11 May
architecture.com
APRIL
RIBA, LONDON
VENICE TAKEAWAY: IDEAS TO
ChANGE BRITISh ARChITECTURE
26 February 27 April
architecture.com
MARCH
PALAIS DES FESTIVALS, CANNES
MIPIM
12 March 15 March
mipim.com
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

LOUIS KAhN: ThE POWER
OF ARChITECTURE
23 March 11 August
design-museum.de
ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN MUSEUM,

LOS ANGELES
NEVER BUILT: LOS ANGELES
March 2 May 17
aplusd.org
MILAN FAIRGROUND & VENUES

AROUND THE CITY
SALONI INTERNATIONALE
DEL MOBILE
9 April 14 April
cosmit.it
WALKER ART CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS
ThE MUSEUM OF NONPARTICIPATION: ThE NEW DEAL
18 April July 14
walkerart.org
B02-032-View9-Diary-ph.indd 2
18/12/2012 11:30
33
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM (NEW YORK)
THE HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2012:
DANH VO
Until May
Vietnam-born, Berlin-based artist
Danh Vo is the ninth to receive this
prize, which recognises achievements
in contemporary art. An exhibition of
work by this exciting young conceptual
artist juxtaposes the historical and
the personal, using arrangements of
mainly found objects. guggenheim.org
COURTESY THE ARTIST
MUSEUM OF APPLIED ART (COLOGNE)

SPACE-MACHINE THEATRE SETS
AND ARCHITECTURE
Until 21 April
From Walter Gropius Total Theatre to
stage sets of the Weimar Republic era,
this exhibition presents various
approaches to set design. Within
these examples, it examines the
architectural beginnings of the
creation of sets and stages for
theatre. museenkoeln.de
COURTESY MOAA
MAY
JULY
WALKER ART CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

FRITZ HAEG: AT HOME IN THE CITY
11 May 17 November
walkerart.org
BURLINGTON GALLERIES, LONDON

RICHARD ROGERS RA:
IDEAS IN PROGRESS
18 July 13 October
royalacademy.org.uk
JUNE
VARIOUS VENUES
LONDON ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL
22 June 7 July
lfa2013.org (coming soon)
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
LE CORBUSIER: AN ATLAS OF
MODERN LANDSCAPES
9 June 23 September
moma.org
WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
2013: THE SPIRIT OF UTOPIA
4 July 5 September
whitechapelgallery.org
SEPTEMBER
VARIOUS VENUES, LONDON
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL
14 22 September
londondesignfestival.com
COURTESY CENTRO PECCI
FLOW (LONDON)
FORMING WORDS
Until 17 May
An exhibition based on how form and
structure can be inspired by text.
Selected artists have been invited
to create new works based on pieces
of writing of their choice. The work
on display will traverse disciplines;
jewellery will be exhibited alongside
silver teacups, ceramic vessels and
enamelled plates. flowgallery.co.uk
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(MUMBAI)
4TH INTERNATIONAL HOLCIM
FORUM: ECONOMY OF SUSTAINABLE
CONSTRUCTION
April 11-13
Academics and professionals from
all over the world will gather for a
three-day conference on reimagining
construction, focusing on ongoing
economic challenges and sustainable
development. holcimfoundation.org
CENTRO PECCI (PRATO)

TRIGGERING REALITY.
NEW CONDITIONS FOR ART AND
ARCHITECTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS
Until 10 March
After a triumphant era for Dutch
creativity, this show examines new
possibilities for production in the face
of economic decline. Work from artists
and architects address the change
in conditions perceived by both
disciplines. centropecci.it
VARIOUS VENUES, LISBON

LISBON ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE
12 September 15 December
trienaldelisboa.com
NOVEMBER
OCTOBER
TATE BRITAIN, LONDON
ART UNDER ATTACk: HISTORIES
OF ICONOCLASM IN BRITAIN
2 October 5 January 2014
tate.org
TATE LIVERPOOL
ART TURNS LEFT
1 November 16 February 2014
tate.org
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
ISA GENZkEN
Nov 17 November 10 March 2014
moma.org
VARIOUS VENUES, EINDHOVEN

DUTCH DESIGN WEEk
18 25 October (TBC)
ddw.nl
B02-032-View9-Diary-ph.indd 3
18/12/2012 11:31
34
Sanaa:
focuS
on
lenS
ThE loUvRE hAs chosEn ThE

FoRmER mining Town oF lEns,
nEAR ThE BoRdER wiTh BElgiUm,
FoR iTs FiRsT oUTposT BEYond
pARis. mUch hopE is BEing
pinnEd on LoUvRE-LENs,
dEsignEd BY saNaa FoR
ThE REgion, ThE Town And
iTs 36,000 popUlATion.
robert bevan TAkEs A look
PHotoGraPHY bY PaUL raFterY
B02-034-Lens Louvre-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:34
35
Louvre-Lens is conceived
as a modern interpretation
of the Paris Louvre, with
a central entrance flanked
by rectilinear wings
18/12/2012 11:34
36
Along with football and brass bands, they
like their chips in working-class Lens and
Chez Cathy, a friterie in the towns western
suburbs, apparently serves some of the best.
Cathys cafe now has a new neighbour;
like an alien visitor from Planet Chic, the
Louvre-Lens the first satellite branch of
the worlds most visited museum has
landed in a depressed Flanders mining town
near the border with Belgium.
Lenss population of 36,000 is twice
as likely to be unemployed as the rest of
France. Youth unemployment is as high as
the areas surrounding slag heaps some of
the tallest in Europe as there hasnt been
an operating mine here since the Eighties.
More than 100,000 jobs vanished from the
area at the turn of the millennium.
When Grard Depardieu filmed
Germinal, the 1993 adaptation of Zolas
classic novel of a harsh mining community,
in Lens he found contemporary conditions
to be still so desperate that he founded the
Germinal lassociation to help alleviate
hardship in the region. Unsurprisingly then,
Lens hopes that winning the bid to host the
new museum will transform its fortunes.
Daniel Percheron, president of the
Nord-Pas de Calais region and who led the
18/12/2012 11:34
37
Left: The sheen of the

main gallerys polished
aluminium exterior reflects
and blurs the clouds
KAZUYO SEJIMA AND RYUE

NISHIZAWA HAVE DELIVERED FIVE
MINIMALIST GLASS, STEEL AND
ALUMINIUM PAVILIONS THAT
CONTINUE THEIR EXPLORATION OF
A REVERSE ALCHEMY
RENDERING THE SOLID ETHEREAL
a central entrance flanked by rectilinear

wings containing a semi-permanent
collection and two spaces for temporary
exhibitions. Long and low, the 28,000 sq
m structure is emphatically not a vertical
mark on the landscape like the former
pithead or church spires visible from the
20 ha site, a waste tip elevated some 4m
above the surrounding miners terraces.
An additional pavilion to one end holds an
auditorium and then there are two separate
pavilions, one a circular restaurant out front
and a staff block on the other flank.
When Blueprint visited, there were still
mechanical diggers churning mud around
the landscaping by Catherine Mosbach.
Concrete paths run around giant grassy
croissants that actually conceal anti-ramraid measures. It is a peculiar affair that
looks like the Tellytubbies have battled
their homeland into a Somme.
SANAA hopes that the museum will
start to engage the culture-starved locals,
and that the entrance hall will be used as
a short cut across this corner of the town
there are doors on each side for ease of
passage, and admission to the main gallery
is free. The multipurpose auditorium will,
likewise, host everything from conferences
COURTESY SANAA
Below: SANNAAs
Louvre-Lens has a reverse
alchemy, rendering the
solid ethereal
bid to build the museum in Lens against a

clutch of other French towns, both celebrated
the radical history of Lens Le Rouge at
the museum opening and put his faith in
tourism being the industry of the future.
His region funded the bulk of the
museums 121m capital cost and will
support the 12m yearly running costs.
The EUS regional development fund
contributed 30m. Percheron says the
new museum is a victory for the former
mining community, and the Louvre and
the locals are unambiguously pursuing the
Guggenheim effect. But can regeneration
through art and architecture really offer
Lens salvation?
SANAA won the competition in 2006;
though times have changed in the past
six years, the practices Kazuyo Sejima
and Ryue Nishizawa have delivered five
minimalist glass, steel and aluminium
pavilions joined at the corners, that
continue their exploration of a reverse
alchemy rendering the solid ethereal. On a
grizzled day, the sheen of the main gallerys
polished aluminium exterior reflects and
blurs into the sodden clouds.
Louvre-Lens is conceived as a modern
interpretation of the Paris Louvre with
18/12/2012 11:35
38
to costumed balls, in a bid to integrate
into the needs of the town. In Sejimas
own words, We wanted to make a new
kind of public space, a beautiful object that
emphasises the diffuse light of the area.
Museum security will not, hopefully,
put paid to a free-flow in and out of the
glazed entrance hall, which stands in for
IM Peis glass pyramid in Paris. The space
is articulated by curved, frameless glass
pods, like cells in a petri dish. Each cell has
a purpose: ticket office, bookshop; each sits
beneath a metal mesh soffit that oversails
the entire pavilion. Some cells have a
further pod, like an off-centre nucleus.
So far, we are in familiar territory of
transparency and apparent immaterial
lightness, experiential effects SANAA has
been exploring since the 21st Century
Museum of Contemporary Art at Kanazawa,
Japan. Beyond the entrance hall is the pice
de rsistance the 120m-long Galerie du
Temps, a partition-free big box space for
art containing a 500-year creative timeline,
illustrated by 205 works mined from the
Louvre mother lode in Paris. It begins
with sculptures from ancient Syria and
concludes with Delacroixs Liberty Leading
the People, one of Frances most cherished
Below: Beyond the main

entrance is the Galerie
du Temps, filled with items
from the Louvre collection
and potent artworks, a celebration of both

the Republics and the artists own freedom
from noble patronage.
Artefacts from all departments hold
clever conversations which each other; a
delicate Meissen figure of a man courting
a society lady by kissing her hand is, for
instance, teamed with a Boucher painting
depicting a shy shepherd delighting his love
with a nest of baby birds. The louche and
the nave, town and country, are effectively
contrasted in a way that the old Louvre
would find difficult, with its traditional
taxonomy of art by period, style and country.
Both the museums director and the
accomplished exhibition designer Adrien
Gardre reject any suggestions that items
have been chosen for decorative effect,
though the white marble, gilded frames
and the jades, blues and terracottas of the
artworks create a unified aesthetic whole.
These items will remain here for five
years, with 20 per cent rotated to alter the
narrative each year, before the display is set
out again from scratch. Exhibitions in the
temporary galleries will change a few times
a year.
The decision to leave everything within
the Galerie du Temps as freestanding,
SUBTLE FLEXING HELPS TO TURN

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN A SHED
INTO A MESMERISING SPACE,
TOP LIT AT INTERVALS BETWEEN
RAZOR-THIN AND WHITE-PAINTED
STEEL BEAMS
18/12/2012 11:35
39
including placing the paintings on plinths
within the space rather than hanging them
on the walls allowed SANAA to take the
radical step of erasing the walls. Lining
the gallery in polished aluminium, each
of the long flank walls curves almost
imperceptibly, and the floor too a gentle
concave rises to a gentle ramp, recalling
in miniature the Turbine Hall of Londons
Tate Modern. This subtle flexing helps
to turn what could have been a shed into
a mesmerising space, top lit at intervals
between razor-thin and white-painted steel
beams.
On close examination there is barely a
straight line in the entire museum, with the
external walls curving slightly in response
to the contours of the site, a former waste
tip with a mineshaft to one side of it.
This is a huge building, says Sejima,
and the site has a lot of historical points
contour lines, the shaft, the topography.
We like to retain these things as much as
possible, to respect them. These defined the
shape. Aluminium, she adds, reflects light
much more softly than stainless steel. In
comparison with their recent projects, the
Louvre-Lens has a good deal more finesse
than the New Museum on New Yorks
Images top, above left:

The glazed entrance hall
is articulated by curved,
frameless glass pods sitting
below metal mesh soffits
18/12/2012 11:35
40
IT IS PERHAPS A NAIVE HOPE

THAT THE BORED LENS TEENAGER
MAY BE DETERRED FROM IDLY
KICKING DENTS IN THE POLISHED
ALUMINIUM WALLS AND STUDY
THE DELACROIX INSTEAD....
Bowery but less lift than the Rolex Learning

Center in Lausanne. We provided a space
with skylights to subtly reflect the art and
the visitor, explains Nishizawa. They can
walk through a forest, a landscape and can
see themselves reflected among the art.
At 360m long, however, the monodirectional arrangement of space and
circulation means a lot of doubling back
for the visitor, as indeed can be true at the
Louvre in Paris. That notwithstanding, the
museum is, as a museum, an undoubted
success: the large temporary exhibition
pavilion is unexceptional, but the main
gallery, with its treasures glimmering ghostlike in its walls is sublime. There is also
of course the longer-term, wider picture
to consider the failure of worthy arts-led
regeneration projects are legion and Lens as
a town is uncommonly dreary.
The Louvre and the town hope that
as well as locals and the 14 million people
living within a 200km radius, international
tourists will be tempted to add Lens to their
tours of nearby battlefields and historic
towns, such as Valenciennes. A Michelinstarred chef is now being courted for the
circular restaurant out front and, no doubt,
there will be regular runs on the frites at
Chez Cathy. The surrounding coal mining
basin has also recently been declared
a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but for
its industrial history rather than any scenic
beauty. The Louvre-Lens is, however, just

one part of a wider Euralens masterplan by
design team Desvigne-Portzamparc,
to regenerate the area on the model of
nearby Euralille.
For now though, it is perhaps a naive
hope that the bored Lens teenager may be
deterred from idly kicking dents in the
museums beautifully polished aluminium
walls and instead be drawn by the glow,
studying the Delacroix inside and musing
on where Liberty led her fellow citizens.
It remains to be seen if architectural
subtlety can win the day as shouty curves
did in Bilbao a much larger and more
attractive town to begin with.
Sejima points to the final, glazed
pavilion at the end of the curated timeline.
I hope, she says, that through the glass
you can see the context and a possible
future.
Above: The Galerie du

Temps has gently curving
long walls and a slightly
concave floor, while the
exhibits sit on individual
plinths erasing the walls.
Below: French national
treasure Eugne
Delacroixs La Libert
guidant le peuple
18/12/2012 11:35
Project1:Layout 1
26/9/12
10:21
Page 1
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SCORE
ONE
FOR
DROOG
TWENTY YEARS ON, DUTCH

DESIGN OUTFIT DROOG IS STILL
GOING STRONG, THOUGH ONLY
FOUNDER GIJS BAKKER REMAINS
FROM THE EARLY DAYS AND BAD
BLOOD HAS FLOWED, FINDS
GRANT GIBSON
TEJO REMY
42
Accidental carpet designed

by Tejo Remy and made
from recycled wool
blankets from the Fifties
Rag Chair by Tejo Remy

from 1991
ROBAARD/THEUWKENS (STYLING BY MARJO KRANENBORG, CMK)
Milk Bottle lamp by Tejo

Remy was designed to
hang just above the floor,
looking as though the
crate had been removed
When we started in 1993 it was kind of

an earthquake, maybe because during that
period, design, in my eyes, was quite dull.
There was not so much renewal and it was
a lot about form.
Droogs co-founder Renny Ramakers
is remembering a time before the Dutch
collective made its indelible mark on
the 1993 Milan Furniture Fair. Led by
Ramakers, a design historian and critic,
and Gijs Bakker (see Review: Unexpected
Pleasures, p67), a jewellery and product
designer who had come to prominence in
the Seventies, the collective showed 14
objects, including a paper bookcase by Jan
Konings and Jurgen Bey, Marcel Wanders
stack of ready-made lamp shades, a bubbly
polyurethane bath mat courtesy of Hella
Jongerius, and Rody Graumans chandelier
of light bulbs.
They went on to set the design agenda
for the rest of the decade in much the same
way Memphis had in the Eighties. Droog
was fresh air, confirms designer and curator
Daniel Charny, who graduated from the
Bazalel Academy of Arts and Design in
Jerusalem the year the group emerged.
I guess its the first accessible, critical
design that we could engage with.
B02-042-Droog-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:38
43
Do Hit by Marijn van der

Poll is the opposite of
flatpack furniture. You
get a cube and a
sledgehammer to create
your own unique chair
The Crochet Chair by

Marcel Wanders moved the
Knotted Chair idea (see
p47)on a stage further
I think we were sitting in a world that

was dominated by Italians and other people
who created a design atmosphere that really
was about styling more than anything else,
remembers Marcel Wanders. The designers
in the Droog stable, by contrast, drew on
a range of inspirations: the simplicity of
Jasper Morrison; a fascination with the old
that perhaps owed something of a debt to
Czech designer and architect Borek Sipek;
punks DIY ethic popularised in the design
world by the likes of Ron Arad, Tom Dixon
and Mark Brazier-Jones; and a healthy dose
of (often surrealist) humour. Importantly
in a period of economic downturn it
empowered designers, suggesting it was
possible to get your voice heard and your
products made, albeit not in huge numbers
without the aid of a major manufacturer.
According to Charny, it also
represented an antidote to the hightech enthusiasm of the previous decade.
Technology was ahead of everything,
he opines. The designer just had to say
what to do with it. But Droog was about
materials again. It was very techniquebased and there was a clarity about the idea
present. Archetypes were subtly subverted
so a vase would surprisingly be made from
GERARD VAN HEES
One of the most iconic of

all Droog pieces, the Chest
of Drawers by Tejo Remy
from 1991
18/12/2012 11:38
44
soft polyurethane rather than ceramic or

used in different ways. Old, unfashionable
techniques (macram, anyone?) were
revisited while humble, domestic objects,
such as the light bulb, celebrated. And there
were wry comments on over-consumption
and sustainability before they became part
of the popular lexicon, particularly in Tejo
Remys early pieces. This was giddy stuff.
The story began when Ramakers
stumbled across a show at Galerie Marzee, a
jewellery gallery in Nijmegen, that included
a scrap-wood cabinet by Piet Hein Eek, two
pieces by Remy a chair made of rags that
had been bound together, and You Cant Lay
Down Your Memory, a collection of found
drawers each housed in their own maple
enclosures and then strapped together in
seemingly haphazard fashion as well as
Konings and Beys bookcase. After taking
the group to the 1992 Interieur Biennale
in Kortrijk where it was well received, in
early 1993 she organised a limited tour of
the show, which by now had expanded to
include pieces by up-and-coming designers
such as Wanders, Eibert Draisma and
Djoke de Jong alongside more established
names like Bakker. It culminated on a
single afternoon on the first floor of the
YOSHIAKI TSUTSUI
MARSEL LOERMANS
Hella Jongerius Pushed

washbasin is typical of the
playful materiality of
Droog here hard cermaic
becomes flexible rubber
Above: Co-founder and

current Droog director
Renny Ramakers (top) and
Droog co-founder Gijs
Bakker (bottom)
Amsterdam rock club, Paradiso a fitting

genesis. Subsequently she invited Bakker
to join her and Droog the Dutch for
dry was formed. We came with a bunch
of designers who looked at the everyday
normal world, not the design world and
were making simple products but always
in a conceptual way, explains Ramakers.
There was always a strong story behind it.
In retrospect one of the more
remarkable aspects of Droog was that
it managed to remain in the vanguard of
design for so long. Partly this was down
to Ramakers and Bakkers ability to package
the brand. Only five years after it was
created, they published Spirit of the Nineties
in which Ramakers carefully positioned
the group in a narrative arc of New Design
that began with Alchimia and Memphis,
inserting the young upstarts simultaneously
as natural heirs and rebels, quite prepared
to shake up the established order.
En route she played up the importance
of the groups Dutchness and its shared
sense of the importance of process.
Interestingly, looking back, Wanders thinks
there was often a disconnect between the
designers and intellectual framework Droog
provided. The way we worked on a project
WHETHER OR NOT ALL THE

DESIGNERS WERE ON THE SAME
PAGE HARDLY SEEMED TO MATTER
AT THE TIME. AS A GROUP THEY
POSSESSED A CREATIVE
RESTLESSNESS AND A DESIRE
TO REINVENT THEMSELVES...
18/12/2012 11:39
GERARd vAn HEEs
45
Jurgen Bey created the

Tree-trunk bench for
Droog, a favourite with
signature hotels
85 Lamps for Droog by

Rody Graumans are very
dramatic, but the original
design of exposed wiring
didnt quite meet with
health and safety
regulations in the UK
Still being sold by Marcel

Wanders Moooi
(pronounced moy), this
vase involved dipping a
natural sponge in liquid
ceramic, then firing it
was, Renny and Gijs, they gave a kind of

scope of reference. They called it a project
name. We were just doing what we were
doing, right? Theoretically there wasnt a
reference between one and the other. So the
way it was communicated was separate.
Our products were trying to prove a point
but they were not connected to the point.
However, whether or not all the
designers were on the same page hardly
seemed to matter at the time. As a group
they possessed a creative restlessness and
a desire to reinvent themselves, which
proved another key to longevity. It started
already after three years because our first
job was a kind of hobby selecting every
year some designs, presenting them in
Milan and that was it, says Ramakers.
But after three years it became a little bit
dried up. Then we said OK, we have to
start schemes ourselves and find designers
to work on them. That was the start of our
thematic projects.
These began with a collaboration
with the Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Aviation and Aeropsace called
Dry Tech, in which Marcel Wanders
launched the chair Knotted, using aramid
braid and a carbon centre impregnated with
18/12/2012 11:39
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18/12/12
12:57
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47
Marcel Wanders iconic

Knotted Chair used rope
impregnated with resin
normally used in the
aeronautics industry
epoxy. Meanwhile Bey produced Kokon,

which hid old pieces of furniture under an
elastic PVC skin. After this came projects
with manufacturers, such as the ceramics
company Rosenthal in 1997 and cigar box
maker Picus in 2001. In 2002 they took
over a run-down hotel in Milan and gave
each designer a room to create a different
intervention.
As media interest in design exploded
at the turn of the millennium and the
number of fringe events in Milan grew
exponentially, Droog kept up, extending its
portfolio of designers by looking outside
Holland. As Ramakers points out: Now you
cant pick a designer from the Academy any
more, because the Academy is presenting
itself in Milan already. It doesnt make
any sense. So our role to present young
designers on the international stage is not
there. And thats not a problem, but you
have to be aware of that.
More recently it has launched
installations such as 2010s Saved by Droog
at Milan, which asked 14 designers to
reconsider 5,135 items including a water
cooler, dog baskets, folding wooden chairs
and dish towels that the collective had
acquired at liquidation auctions to prevent
ROBAARD/THEUWKENS (STYLING BY MARJO KRANENBORG, CMK)
Glassdrop tiles by Arnout

Visser. They look like
water droplets, but as
the name suggests they
are solid glass
Designed in the Nineties,

Peter van der Jagts
Bottoms Up doorbell
embodies much of the
simplicity and playfulness
of Droog
them from ending up as landfill. And most

recently it has opened its rather curious
new shop-cum-cafe-cum-exhibition spacecum-B&B, Hotel Droog, in Amsterdam.
The chief criticism of the brand
over the years has been its inability to
mass-produce. Brilliant at influencing
the cognoscenti, it never gained enough
traction further afield and it was partly
this frustration that led to Marcel Wanders
setting up Wanders Wonders (and later
Moooi) which produced several designs
initially developed by Droog. As Marijn
van der Poll, designer of the Do Hit chair
in Droogs Milan installation in 2000, says:
I think they were excellent as a design
promoter, they were visionaries in a way.
Im not sure that as a commercial enterprise
it was such a success. And even Ramakers
herself is prepared to admit, We have had
to learn. We were so keen on having these
beautiful designs, which are now famous.
Some succeeded but on the whole range
there were products that were not so easy
to produce. And then we had to make
a limited edition from it and then they
became so expensive. Now we are more
aware of those conditions.
When the co-founders clashed over the
AS MEDIA INTEREST IN DESIGN

EXPLODED AT THE TURN OF THE
MILLENNIUM AND THE NUMBER
OF FRINGE EVENTS IN MILAN
GREW EXPONENTIALLY, DROOG
KEPT UP, EXTENDING ITS
PORTFOLIO OF DESIGNERS BY
LOOKING OUTSIDE HOLLAND
18/12/2012 11:39
48
in the Far East as the creative director of
Yii/HAN Gallery in Taiwan, Ramakers
has her new hotel. This is set up for a few
reasons, she tells me. One is we wanted
to show how our products can be used
because many people think that they are
too conceptual and not serious And the
second thing is that I want to focus on
exhibitions and debates.
The brand might not be the media
darling it used to be, but it can still point
to a healthy legacy. Dry Tech, for instance,
brought craft and technology together in a
manner thats currently de rigueur; likewise
Do Create remains an early example of
user-centred design. Most importantly,
Bakker and Ramakers were hugely
responsible for defining our perception of
Dutch design, bringing to wider attention
a handful of designers in Bey, Wanders and
Jongerius to name but a few, whose global
influence inspired a new generation to
redefine the parameters of design in a postindustrial age. As Charny eloquently puts
it, Droog was concerned with the liberation
of doing it yourself and engaging ideas and
making, seeing design as a platform for
saying things as well as making products. It
was very exciting.
It certainly was.
Droog store New York, with

interior design by Studio
Makkink this was the
project that saw Bakker
and Ramakers parting ways
IAN TONG
THE BRAND MIGHT NOT BE THE

MEDIA DARLING IT ONCE WAS
BUT IT CAN STILL POINT TO A
HEALTHY LEGACY...MOST
IMPORTANTLY BAKKER AND
RAMAKERS WERE HUGELY
RESPONSIBLE FOR DEFINING OUR
PERCEPTION OF DUTCH DESIGN
opening of a Droog store in New York, the

schism between commercial imperatives
and design philosophy led to Bakkers
departure in 2009. Asked to contribute to
this article he politely declined, directing
me instead to a press release on his website
which explained his reasons for resigning.
The original ambition of Droog was to
identify and showcase talented Dutch, and
later foreign, designers and to stimulate
discussion about the real content of the
profession, it says. Millions of euros were
invested in opening a large, expensive
shop in New York an initiative of Renny
Ramakers while the philosophy of Droog
was pushed into the background. The shop
in New York implies, almost inevitably,
that from now on profitability will depend
on the development of only large, expensive
products. As I quiz Ramakers on the split,
her voice drops discernibly. For me it was
not nice, of course. I didnt like it. I regret
it but it happens. And I soon realised that
it gave me freedom, a new kind of freedom.
You miss your sparring partner but on
the other hand you can do what you want
yourself and thats also nice.
While Bakker, who recently left
his post as head of the Design Academy
Eindhoven, concentrates on opportunities
18/12/2012 11:39
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that flows from water.
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Opening times:
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Saturdays 11am 5pm
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18/12/2012 17:23
copYRight kURt Und ERnst schwittERs stiFtUng / kURt schwittERs ARchivE, spREngEl mUsEUm hAnnovER / dAcs 2012
50
kurt
schwitters:
the
merz
barn
FlEEing nAzi gERmAnY And thEn noRwAY, KURT

schwITTERs ARRivEd in BRitAin in 1940. oncE
AFFiliAtEd with AvAnt-gARdists likE El lissitzkY
And thEo vAn doEsBURg, thE mAstER oF collAgE
pRodUcEd mUch woRk on thEsE shoREs. ISABEL
SCHuLz REFlEcts on his FinAl mERz BARn
The Merz constructions were Kurt

Schwitterss workplaces and living spaces.
He created these proliferating, walk-in
sculptures, using whatever was to hand,
in a constantly evolving process of forming,
and in a series of locations. The private and
the public, life and art came together in these
complicatedly organic, cave-like spaces.
As an exile in Britain during the Second
World War, Schwitters learned that his
lifes work, which he had been constructing
in Hanover until the end of 1936, had been
damaged, later learning that the destruction
was irrevocable. At that time there was also
no way of resuming work on its sequel,
the House on the Slope, which he had
started in Norway in 1937 but had to leave
Above left: A notebook

page shows Schwitters
sketch of a floor plan for
the British iteration of his
Merz Barn
Above: Kurt Schwitters
Merz Barn at Cylinders
farm, Elterwater,
Langdale 1948. This was
his final Merz Barn,
following the destruction
of previous ones in
Hanover and Oslo
B02-050-Schwitters-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:41
CopYRight SpREngEl MUSEUM hAnnovER, KURt SChwittERS ARChivE
51
unfinished when he fled from the Nazis yet

again when they invaded in 1940.
Schwitters was well aware of the
unprecedented nature and historic
significance of his work, which is now
regarded as a precursor to installation art.
With this in mind, in April 1946 he started
to search for ways of preventing what he had
done in his Merz constructions from being
completely lost and forgotten.
Although the American businessman
Oliver M Kaufmann soon offered him
support in his efforts to rescue his Merz
constructions, it took until March of the
following year for Schwitters finally to
decide to make a new beginning. This was
also when he met the professional landscape
gardener Harry Pierce, whose portrait he had

been commissioned to paint. The portrait
sittings took place at Cylinders, Pierces
property five miles west of Ambleside, not
far from Elterwater.
Schwitters, as Pierce later recalled,
wished to work where I was busy forming
a garden on a hillside near my home. While
he painted he asked me if I had an old barn
where he could start afresh on his abstract
work, as this was impossible in his lodgings.
On 20 June 1947, on his 60th birthday,
Schwitters received official confirmation from
MoMA, New York, that he had been awarded
a fellowship grant that allowed him to start
making firm plans for his barn; he also drew
up a lease agreement of sorts, which was
to run for 50 years, ensuring the continued

existence of his work beyond his death.
Schwitters tireless creativity was
fuelled by his hope that the new Merz Barn
might make good the losses he had already
suffered. Even when his health failed him,
he refused to slow down. With the experience
he had gained from his two previous Merz
projects, he was now determined to create
an important work that would outdo what
he had done in the past.
On 19 July, not long after surviving a
haemorrhage, he wrote to his sons family
describing his plans: In this Park he [Pierce]
will build for me on a prominent place a
small house of 2 rooms, 4 x 4 and 4 x 2
meter. I can build in these rooms a new
18/12/2012 11:41
52
1943 with an earthen floor and no windows
on the remains of a gunpowder magazine
that had burnt down in 1930. There was
neither electricity, lighting nor heating, and
sometimes water flowed through it. Initially
Pierce just added a door and makeshift
windows; he planned to put in a cement floor
and to plant a grass roof later. Schwitters also
asked for a skylight as an additional light
source for the main wall, which he started
work on first.
At that time Cylinders was certainly not
a rural idyll; bearing the scars of its past as
forestry site used in charcoal production, it
had run wild and was now the scene of much
hard work to turn it into a viable agricultural
business and estate. Schwitters felt at ease
in these surroundings and appreciated

Pierces skill, which he compared to his own
Merz art: He lets the weeds grow, but makes
it into a composition merely by adding some
small touches. Exactly like I make art from
rubbish. After years of coping with confined
spaces at last he now had a place of his own
where he could operate on his own terms and
store his works and that even promised
a degree of publicity for what he was doing.
Despite energetic help from his
companion Edith Thomas, from the Pierce
family and from their employee Jack Cook,
by October Schwitters had to admit that, no
longer as strong as he once had been, it would
take another three years to fully realise his
Merz Barn. He reckoned just a tenth had been
CopYRight SpREngEl MUSEUM hAnnovER, KURt SChwittERS ARChivES / DACS 2012
Merzbau, No 3, with the American Money...

And the house would be in a park, what is
great for showing it. It would be a Lakeland
monument.
He described in glowing terms the
barns wonderful situation in the landscape
and made special mention of its closeness
to nature. Schwitters had always been close
to nature. Now in England, he had left
London for the Lake District, yielding to an
old, Arcadian longing for a more authentic,
holistic life that he hoped would fill him
with new energy.
In its very simplicity, the barn already
communicated a sense of being close to
nature. A traditional dry-stone construction
in slate, it had been built as a hay-barn in
18/12/2012 11:41
53
WHEN SCHWITTERS DIED JUST SIX

MONTHS AFTER BEGINNING WORK
ON THE BARN, IT WAS NO MORE
THAN A FRAGMENT
How Schwitters last Merz construction

might have grown inwards from the external
walls can only partially be imagined because
there are so few sources of information
about it. Tiny sketches of ground plans
by Schwitters himself show that, bearing
in mind the lighting situation in the barn,
he planned to partition the space with
a clearly drawn diagonal division from the
door at the front left to the skylight at the
far right, with a branch leading to the
window in the left side wall.
In addition there were to be low
walls and lowered ceilings with curved
shapes and bulges designed to draw the
light into the interior. No doubt individual
works by Schwitters would have been
COPYRIGHT PRIVATE COLLECTION / DACS 2012
Below: Two of Kurt

Schwitters collages make a
political juxtaposition.
Left, Untitled (The Hitler
Gang) 1944, using oil,
canvas, cardboard and
paper on paper, and right,
Mr. Churchill is 71, using
gouache, paper, fabric and
cardboard
completed, and he hoped only to live long

enough to finish it. When he died just six
months after beginning work on the barn,
it was no more than a fragment.
The construction that had been started
at the window in the left wall, visible in
photographs taken by Schwitters son Ernst
in January 1948, was removed. And the
relocation of the relief wall to the Hatton
Gallery in Newcastle in 1965 meant that few
original traces of Schwitters work in
the barn were left, aside from some plastering
on the wall in the entrance area and some
nails to which guidelines had been fixed.
Today the empty, modest barn is a quiet
place of haunting remembrance of the Merz
artist and of his exile.
18/12/2012 11:42
CopYRight spREngEL mUsEUm hAnnovER,

KURt sChwittERs ARChivE / dACs 2012
CopYRight thE ARmitt LiBRARY & mUsEUm, AmBLEsidE / dACs 2012
CopYRight spREngEL mUsEUm hAnnovER, KURt sChwittERs ARChivE / dACs 2012
54
Above, clockwise: Kurt

Schwitters performing the
Ursonate, 1944; Bridge
House, Ambleside, Front
View, 1946, in oil on
cardboard; interior of the
Cumbrian Merz barn in
January 1948,
photographed by Kurts
son, Ernst
accommodated on or in these walls. The

unfinished construction at the left window
gives an impression of how Schwitters, in
his customary manner,was already creating
acute-angled, spiralling, convoluted forms
from intersecting guide lines (wooden laths
and planks) connected together by patches
of plaster, though this geometric substructure
was destined to largely disappear under the
relief-like finish of the walls.
In many parts of the barn, the
roughly worked, coarse surface of palegrey decorators plaster, so reminiscent
of the artificial tufa grottos made in the
16th century, would have contributed
to the faerylike effect of the Merz Barn,
as Schwitters put it with a sideways glance
to Hans Arp.
In terms of style, the approach and the
organic language of forms used in the relief
that Schwitters had already started on recall
other recent abstract works, such as Untitled
(Heavy Relief) 1945 and the sculpture
Untitled (Togetherness) 19457, which also
have a plaster finish and nuanced colouring.
There is a characteristic symbiosis here
of geometric planes and natural-looking,
organic sections, that draws on what
Schwitters and other abstract artists had
developed in the Thirties as a reaction
to the constructivists purism.
Aside from the stylistic difference,
Schwitterss approach to the Merz Barn
was fundamentally the same as it had been

in his two previous Merz constructions.
As before, he remained true to his Merz
principles by which he had lived since
1919 that is, to create a work by selecting,
distributing and disforming materials and
by constructing new artistic forms from the
detritus of past cultures. As in the hard times
he had endured after the First World War,
Schwitters now had only the humblest of
means at his disposal, which he worked with
basic tools and bare hands.
Whereas the first Merz construction was
above all his way of dealing with the cultural/
historical impact of urban life in Germanys
post-1918 Weimar Republic and was
influenced by both dada and constructivism
(albeit not to the exclusion of natural
elements), at Cylinders he found inspiration
in the landscape of the Great Langdale valley
and in the circumstances of the barn itself.
The rough stonework led Schwitters
to develop a new mode of construction:
in the spaces between the stones, he lodged
elements that now boldly reached out, up
to 70cm, into the space; he painted hollows
so that they now became striking colour
accents and framed niches so that they
could be filled with small assemblages.
Found objects from his rural surroundings,
such as a piece of a cartwheel or a section of
water pipe, were integrated, now as artistic
forms, into a rhythmically vibrant, three-
dimensional composition whose angular

braces and modellised arcs reached up
towards the light. Schwitters even added
some highly perishable gentians to his
relief. Besides being an allusion to the
blue flower of German romanticism, that
symbol of longing for the unattainable, these
also continued the old Merzblmchen
tradition and reinforced the Merz Barns
many connections to the preceding Merz
constructions, which were always present
in Schwitters thinking and doing.
To this day the spirit of Merz still
creates an imaginary bond between the many
parts of Schwitters Merz constructions
in different places, partially destroyed,
unfinished or separated from each other.
And although Schwitters never managed to
realise his plans for a Lakeland monument,
in the context of our present awareness of his
lifelong Merz project the Merz Barn arouses
more than merely the same kind of wonder
as a natural curiosity does, for it allows us
at least to imagine what might have become
one of the greatest and most exceptional
examples of biomorphous abstract sculpture
in European modernism after the Second
World War.
This text, courtesy of the Tate, forms part
of the catalogue that accompanies the new
exhibition: Schwitters and Britain, at Tate
Britain, 28 January 12 May
18/12/2012 11:42
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Courtesy Albert Speer & Partners
56
B02-056-Speer-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:44
57
FOLLOWING A FAMILY TRADITION INTO ARCHITECTURE NOT JUST AFTER

HIS NAZI FATHER BUT ALSO OF HIS GRANDFATHER AND GREAT GREAT
GRANDFATHER ALBERT SPEER HAS CARVED HIMSELF A CAREER THAT TOOK
OFF FIRST IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND CHINA, BEFORE WINNING PLAUDITS
IN GERMANY. CHRIS KANAL SPOKE TO HIM
PROFILE
ALBERT
SPEER
JR
You havent seen anything until youve
sketched it, Albert Speer Jr tells me over
coffee, but then the architect reveals
that he hasnt drawn for a decade. I talk
architecture, he says, smiling gently. What
I have learned is, dont stop thinking too
early. You have to think until the solution
becomes so simple. I used to tell my
students, if you havent dreamed about the
project then you never thought about it.
Speer was in London for the Olympics.
We were sitting on the sun-deck of the
MS Deutschland, the German Olympic
Committees base for the Games, docked
in the shadow of Canary Wharf. Speer and
two partners from his practice Albert Speer
and Partners (AS&P) were staying on board.
The Deutschland is an ber-kitsch setting.
The waiters, dressed in whites and silently
moving from table to table on the deck, could
have walked out of a Berlin kaffeehaus of the
Thirties. Onboard its a riot of mock baroque;
Liberace would have felt at home. It was a
world away from the icy corporate monoliths
that encircled us, and a lot more fun.
Speer was enjoying the Olympics: It is
crowded, crowded, crowded but marvellous.
I was in Beijing and in Munich in 72 but
here its the best. Speer was in London in
his capacity as a member of the German
Olympic Committee; as an architect he was
impressed by the architecture of the Olympic
Park. AS&P is part of the bid for the Qatar
2022 World Cup, and Speer was doing a bit of

research too. Cities need world events that
have a fixed date, he says. Otherwise the
normal organisation process falls apart.
The 77-year old was passionate as
he discussed the importance of creating
sustainable legacies, where intelligent
master-planning is crucial. A city is organic,
always changing and we have to provide
freedom to change, he asserts.
Seventy six years ago Speers father,
Albert Speer, who was famously/notoriously
Adolf Hitlers architect and the Third Reichs
armaments minister during the Second
World War, was the chief architect for the
1936 Berlin Olympic Games. While both
father and son have worked on grand scale
projects Speer Jrs work includes the designs
of Expo 2000 in Hanover and a grand axis for
the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 the
comparisons stop there.
Since training as an architect in Munich
the son has strived to make a name for
himself and step out of the shadow cast by
his father. From the beginning I have always
tried to be on my own and to be separate
as far as possible, he says looking into the
distance, the water around us blindingly
bright in the noon heat. In countries like
China and Saudi Arabia, nobody knows the
history of my father. In Germany, and for the
media, it is still in every interview. Still the
same questions.
18/12/2012 11:44
58
Frankfurt-based AS&P is one of
Germanys most successful architecture and
urban practices, and has had considerable
success outside of Europe, particularly in
the Middle East and China, where it has
had an office in Shanghai since 2001. The
120-strong practices work is divided 50:50
between architecture and urban design.
AS&P was probably one of the first practices
to actively embrace green design, way before
it got into fashion in the early Eighties.
Intelligent, sustainable design is an area
where Speer has subsequently carved a
name for himself and inspired a subsequent
generation of German architects, such as
Christoph Ingenhoven, who recently won
the commission to build the new Google HQ
in the San Francisco Bay area.
The word sustainability had not
been invented back then, Speer says, a
rare smile crossing his face. We were the
first green architects. The influential
German newspaper Sddeutsche Zeitung
described Speer as the green conscience of
the industry. AS&P recently designed 400
Passivhaus apartments, which use between
five and 10 per cent of the energy of a normal
house. These are the questions of the future,
asserts Speer, who wrote a book entitled Die
intelligente Stadt (The intelligent City). In
Germany the energy price is so high that
alternative green power is a necessity. In the
Left: A prize-winning
competition entry for the
urban plan of Nanchang,
capital of the Jianxi
Province and, with
approximately 5 million
residents, one of Chinas
growing number of
middle-sized cities.
Right (facing): Local
sandstone panels serve to
articulate the weighty
cube-like Criminal Court
Complex in Riyadh,
symbolising strength and
jurisprudence.
SPEER IS FRUSTRATED BY THE

LACK OF FORESIGHT THAT
INSTITUTIONS HAVE...
WHEN IT COMES TO INVESTING
IN SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS
Middle East and China though, its difficult

to promote green solutions because energy is
subsidised by the governments, he says. Ove
Arup has done a marvellous job in Dongtan
in Shanghai but nothing happens as investors
say costs to build it are too high to get the
smallest profit. The reason is the energy.
For the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Speers
chief architect, Karin Bertaloth, designed
five stadia which, intriguingly, will use the
suns heat to keep cool. Each stadium will
literally sweat. As a master planner Speer
is frustrated by the lack of foresight that
institutions from the World Bank, donors
and governments have when it comes to
investing in sustainable projects.
If you are building a city or working on
an intelligent project it takes 10 years, and
by then everyone involved has left, he says.
Reality is focused on individual planning
projects that only look at solar energy, only
at transportation, only at new urban design.
This is not put together into the system.
People want clear projects where you can
report to your sponsors in two years with
a result.
Speer describes his current role in AS&P
as being the man in the background. The
practice has eight partners, give of whom are
Above: A comprehensive
remodelling of a former
tram depot in Frankfurt am
Main introduced 11
townhouses, with a total
of 156 apartments, all
built to passivhaus
standards.
Right: The Lyoner Care
apartments are part of a
concerted change in the
Frankfurt cityscape, from
office district to residential
Speers former students from the University

of Kaiserlautern, where he was professor of
urban planning for 25 years until 2002. They
take the decisions now, he says.
But architecture is in his blood. His
great, great grandfather was an architect.
His grandfather Albert Friedrich Speer had an
architecture practice in Mannheim and many
of his art nouveau buildings survive. Born in
Berlin, Speer was one of six children. Speer
does not like to talk too much about his
father. When he does, there is both a palpable
sense of unease but also an underlying
profound sadness.
Growing up in the Bavarian alpine
retreat of Berchtesgaden, right below
Hitlers Obersalzberg, Speer hardly saw his
father. A year after little Albert was born,
his father met Hitler and was tasked with
organising the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.
Highly impressed with Albert Speers work,
Hitler commissioned him to design and
build several buildings including theReich
Chancellery and theZeppelinfeldstadium
in Nuremberg. His neo-classical buildings
displayedstark facades, clean lines and
columns. It was disquieting architecture on
an epic scale, designed to awe but equally
intimidate the entrance to the Reich
Chancellery made visitors look and feel very

small. There were also plans to rebuild Berlin
as Germania, a new capital for a victorious
Third Reich. Albert Speer soon became
a part of Hitlers inner circle and a close
confidante; in February 1942, he was made
minister of armaments. Despite the immense
Allied bombing campaign, Speer Sr was able
to maintain and exceed German wartime
production until the very end. The young
Speer was often at Obersalzberg, where he
used to watch Mickey Mouse films with
Hitler in his private cinema. His memories
of Hitler are of a distant uncle figure who
liked to give him sweets.
After the war, Albert Speer Sr. was
tried and sentenced to 20 years in Spandau
Prison for his use of slave labour and crimes
against humanity. He was the highestranking Nazi to escape the death penalty,
in large part due to his remorse and the
fact that he deliberately sabotaged Hitlers
scorched earth policy, intended to destroy
German infrastructure and leave nothing
for the Allies. Throughout his post-war
life, reasserted in his book Inside the Third
Reich, Albert Speer Sr. claimed to have no
knowledge of the Holocaust.
Following his release in 1966, his father
18/12/2012 11:44
All imAgEs ExcEpt this spREAd coURtEsY AlBERt spEER & pARtnERs
59
was unable to re-establish a relationship with

his children. By then his son had become
an architect. Albert Speers daughterHilde,
today a prominent politician for the
Green Party in Berlin, told historian Gitta
Sereny in her book, Albert Speer: His
Battle with Truththat One by one my
sister and brothers gave up, there was no
communication. Albert Speer Sr died during
a visit to London in 1981.
After his father was sent to Spandau,
the Speer family moved to Heidelberg. In
the post-war era life for ordinary Germans
was very tough. Life for the Speer family was
more so. This was a very hard time, Speer
Jnr recalls.
A shy boy he left school when he was
16. I stammered and I couldnt express
myself, he says. His maternal grandfather
had a carpentry firm in Heidelberg, and in
1953 Speer took an apprenticeship, and then
an exam. I constructed a music box, he says
but, raising his eyebrows and smiling again,
admits, It never worked.
Speer decided to study architecture in
Munich. Its an old tradition and I couldnt
escape, he says, laughing. Speer won his first
international prize in 1964, and opened his
own practice in Frankfurt, focusing mainly
18/12/2012 11:44
60
coURtEsY BUndEsARchiv Bild
sPEER foUNd ThaT BEcaUsE of

hIs NamE IT was dIffIcULT To
gET woRk IN EURoPE. IT dIdNT
hELP, hE says. I LIvE wITh IT.
ITs my LIfE. I caNT chaNgE IT
on residential and redevelopment projects of

Old Towns within regional cities like Speyer
and Lbeck. Speers first major project was
theDeutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank
in Frankfurt.
After his release from Spandau, Speers
father occasionally visited his son at his
Frankfurt office. He was very curious to see
what I was doing, says Speer. But I think he
never really understood. It is another kind of
thinking, to work not for a dictator but for
a democratic government and to influence
public discussions and compromise. He
didnt understand it. I ask the son if his
father liked his work. He pauses for a few
seconds. I dont know, he says. He was
proud, sure.
Speer found that because of the family
name and history it was difficult to get
work in Europe. It didnt help, he tells
me, leaning forward. I live with it. Its my
life. I cant change it. Speer is clear though
that his architecture is not a reaction against
his fathers.
The young architect looked beyond
Europe and what followed was a fruitful
period of commissions in architecture and
master-planning in the Middle East and
China. Of these, the Diplomatic Quarter
in Riyadh built at the end of the Seventies
was a defining project for the practice. Other
projects included an eight-year consultancy
to the Algerian government. Speer is
fascinated by Middle Eastern cultures (he
tells me how, in Saudi Arabia, anyone can
petition the king).
In countries like Saudi Arabia, the
merging of public and private interests
allows for strong partnerships and an really
swift development process, from design to
realisation. Here business and politics merge,
requiring a completely new jargon. Reinier de
Graaf, partner at OMA, once described it as
...a very weird hybrid that is fundamentally

based on the non-separation of powers,
whereas our whole culture is the opposite in
the context of the separation of powers.
Speers success has come from the large
number of public projects commissioned by
governments from Saudi Arabia to China,
ones which openly use architecture as a
means to articulate their nations ambitions.
Coming from a country extremely sensitive
to its relationship with autocratic regimes,
Speer has no unease about this. Its is a
discussion that has been going on Germany
for many years, he asserts. For Speer,
Europeans dont have the right to dictate
what government others should have,
democratic or otherwise.
German democracy is very young,
he adds. My opinion is we have to be very
I dont know what the English word is
bescheiden (modest). Saudi Arabia is a
Bedouin country. Chinese culture is 5,000
years old. I dont think Germans should go
there as a prophet or a teacher and tell them
how to do things.
Speer views work the work of AS&P
in countries such as China as a form of
knowledge transfer that will allow the new
generation of Chinese architects and urban
planners to avoid the mistakes made in the
past in the West. He tells me that out of
the Riyadh DQ project, a think tank was
formed for all strategic projects in the
country related to urban planning. It is
still running. He believes other architects
overestimate the influence that they have
on institutions and society abroad.
The Arab Spring that has rocked the
Middle East over the course of the past
year is on Speers mind. AS&P is working
on two master-planning projects in Egypt:
the 6th October City urban renewal
project in Cairo and another in Alexandria.
Above: As draftsmen,
Albert Speer Sr and Adolf
Hitler shared disciplinary
interests; here they look
over some plans at the
Obersalzberg retreat in
1938
Everyone is sitting and waiting, he says of

the government ministries that he works
with. People are afraid to stand up and say
something because they might sit back down
and there is no longer a seat there.
Speers architecture can be characterised
by its simplicity, pragmatism and sense
of understatement. Architecture is one
part art, but it also has to function and be
economical, he says. Speer has little time for
projects that are simply for prestige.
For example he doesnt like Renzo
Pianos Shard. This building from the 30th
floor upwards is hardly sustainable in terms
of floor space, he says, adding that the site
in Southwark is a historical area where
skycrapers have no place. He compares it
to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A marvellous
building, he enthuses before adding. Its
unnecessary and society doesnt need it.
However, Speer does love the work of IM Pei,
particularly the Museumof Islamic Art in
Qatar, pronouncing it: One of the loveliest
and most intelligent buildings in the world
that plays with modernism and Islamism.
Following the demolition in 2007 of
the Palast der Republik, the former GDR
parliament buildingin Berlin, there are now
plans to rebuild a 19th-century style baroque
castle, the Hohenzollern Stadtschloss, on
the site It has become a focal point for debate
in Germany over what many see as the
Disneyfication of history and an unhealthy
nostalgia for the past.
Its hard to find anyone in Berlin who
is in favour of it. I am against rebuilding
history if nothing was left, says Speer, rising
up from the seat to return to his cabin. It
is no use playing Don Quixote, he says with
a laugh, before stopping for a moment. Speer
glances ahead to the silver skyscrapers of
Canary Wharf, transfigured by sunlight:
When its gone, its gone...
18/12/2012 11:45
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THE HOME OF INNOVATIVE SURFACES FOR ARCHITECTS

AND INTERIOR DESIGNERS
REGISTER NOW
surfacedesignshow.com
CELEBRATING A DECADE
Incorporating
In Association with:
Media Partners:
REVIEW
>>ExhIbItIons
63
BaRBaRa HEPwoRTH:
THE HosPITaL dRawINgs
The Wakefield Hepworths latest dose

of its eponymous artist may come
as a surprise to many of its visitors,
more used to her oft-sinuous
abstracted forms.
The hospital drawings are exactly
that, drawings, representational images
of post-war doctors and nurses in or
about to enter theatre. They do have a
slight three-dimensionality to them
though but more of that later.
The back-story of how this
strangely beguiling set of images came
about is fascinating in itself. Its not,
as you might suspect, purely linked
into the foundation of the now-world
famous thanks to Danny Boyle
anyway NHS and Barbara Hepworths
well-known, strong Socialist leanings.
Its a far more personal tale and one
of the times.
One of Hepworths triplet
daughters by Ben Nicholson was
hospitalised for a considerable time
with the bone infection osteomyelitis,
starting in 1944 just before the end of
the war. And its during this time that
Hepworth met the surgeon and
amateur artist Norman Capener. Via
a burgeoning friendship between
Hepworth, Nicholson and Capener,
the latter suggested she come and
observe in the operating theatre,
which eventually led to these
paintings. Capener in turn spent time
with the couple in St Ives, when he
was convalescing following an illness
a few years later.
This was pre-NHS (set up 1948),
so this treatment for their daughter
meant the couple was running up
large medical bills. Capener waived his
own fees and later went as far as
buying a number of the hospital
drawings, the first of which was
created in November 1947.
BOWNESS, HEpWORTH ESTATE, IMAGES COURTESY OF HAzlITT HOllAND-HIBBERT
The Hepworth wakefield

Until 3 February
Review by Johnny Tucker
Curator Nathaniel Hepburn, who

created this travelling exhibition for
Mascalls Gallery, at Mascalls School
in Tonbridge, Kent, says: What
inspired Hepworth when she entered
the hospital theatre was entirely
artistic: human interaction, which
excited her interest in figures in
landscape and spontaneous forms,
which felt to her like ready-made
sculptures. But Id hazard a guess that
no mother of a seriously ill child, who
is also under severe financial stress, is
going to be able to push that
emotional turmoil away completely.
In several cases the drawing
groupings are very classical, like
religious tableaux with lines of figures
putting you in mind of the last supper,
but the feast has become a patient.
Hands too, albeit holding scalpels or
putting on gloves, take on a saintly
quality. Hepworth brings a highly
emotive intensity to the eyes of the
subjects, which along with the hands
dominate these images.
As Hepburn says in the image
notes at the exhibition: She tried to
THE dRawINg
gRoUPINgs aRE vERy
cLassIcaL, LIkE
RELIgIoUs TaBLEaUx
wITH LINEs oF FIgUREs
PUTTINg yoU IN mINd
oF THE LasT sUPPER
portray her sculptural idea rather than
portray the individual involved.
However, she acknowledges that in
some work portraiture has crept in.
And of course the main figure in the
portrait, often Capener, was a central
player in her life at that time.
As well as the eyes and hands,
there is a third strong element of detail
to these drawings other than the
massing and forms. Hepworth also pays
close attention to the quite basic
medical tools of the trade, like bone
saws, chisels and hammers,
interestingly, for me, literally carving
the human form using tools in a way
that Hepworth would clearly have
Left: Tibia Graft,

1949
Below left:
Concentration of
Hands II, 1948
related to. Making this even more

personal, there is one drawing here
of an operation on an arm, that puts
you in mind of a Da Vinci sketch,
which was actually executed by
Hepworth while having her own arm
worked on under local anaesthetic.
First shown in 1948, these
drawings are not flat as you might
first suspect, neither are they simple
pastels or chalks (though the latter
is used) over brown paper. Close
inspection reveals them to be thickish
layers of gesso, followed by colour
wash and then pencil drawing. In many
images the gesso is scraped and carved
to create further line, form and depth.
To an extent, the very nature
of these drawings was also probably
prompted by post-war austerity,
where the lack of materials would have
made large-scale sculptures difficult.
Whatever the reasons and
circumstances, this is a wonderful
time-capsule of resonant work, which
has an almost palpable intensity that
manages to be simultaneously highly
personal and disinterestedly objective.
B02-063-Rev1-Hospital-PH2.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:46
64
>>SHOW
DEsIgN MIaMI
Above right: Israeli

duo Noam Dover
and Michal
Cederbaums work
was on show
opening and closing
mechanical bowl
and concrete vessel
that references
Israeli recent history
by New York-based Alex Mustonen

and Daniel Arsham of Snarkitecture.
Bursting above and below the
A-frame marquee and suspended in
clusters that craved a public space
fit for permanence, the white plastic
cylinders formed a cavern that
intermittently revealed patches of
sky and offered an oasis.
Its largest installation to date
and a first attempt at inflatable
architecture, Snarkitectures pavilioncum-canopy belonged to what
Mustonen describes as the family
of topography-inspired functional
objects, such as Shelve and Break
Cabinet. The success of Snarkitectures
material excavations lies in subverting
the viewers understanding of what
is true and what is usable.
Equally uncanny was the
installation Lost Time, for Perrier-Jouet
by London-based studio Glithero.

Invited to respond to the forms of art
nouveau that influenced the 200-yearold champagne house, Glitheros
lengths of metal beads hung from
the ceiling in a series of elongated
flute shapes looped delicately above
a reflecting pool mirrored Gauds
elegant catenary string statics
model. Cloaked in darkness (behind
a cannily placed Perrier-Jouet bar)
the effect was somewhere between
a catacomb and a crystalline cave.
Though difficult to read, it relied
on audience engagement to shift
the reflection, invited interpretation
and changeability to the otherwise
static arrangement.
Indeed, participative design
formed the backbone for the sponsored
installations, none better executed
than in Parhelia, by British architect
Asif Khan for Swarovski. In his usual

inimitable style, Khan recreated
the natural phenomenon of ice halos
using an LED, a hole in the ceiling
and a shed made of crystals. Using
two types of crystals one aptly
named aura borealis Khan inserted
the gems into a honeycomb panelling
system that formed the skin
of a typical shed construction.
The elevated installation, whose
circle of light followed the visitor
around the space and which was
accessible only by crouching beneath
it to pop up through a rectangular
cockpit in its floor, marked a step
change in Swarovskis annual
collaborations.
By eschewing mere object making,
Khan bridged scientific experiment
(collaborating with Manchester
University) and commercial ornament
COURTESY LOUIS VUITTON
Below right: Among

the high-profile
designers responding
to the Louis Vuitton
theme of nomadic
was Atelier O,
which created these
stools
Arriving at Design Miami visitors were

presented with a design that they
could not buy, nor touch, nor see,
though it was intended to be the
most memorable part of the yearly
showcase. This memory was a smell,
called Belle-Ile a watery, musty,
floral scent created by Dawn and Sam
Goldworm of Paris-based olfactory
branding company 12.29.
Born with the rare condition
of synesthesia, the twin sisters have
harnessed their ability of interpreting
colours as smells to produce signature
scents for the likes of Lady Gaga,
Italian furniture company Poltrona
Frau and, since 2009, Design Miami.
Made up of tones including anise,
lily and extracts that mimic Miamis
sea air, the scent was composed using
the same details that might inform
a graphic identity colour scheme,
mission statement and context and
was then released from carefully
positioned diffusion boxes around
the tent venue. Among a glut of
visual information, it was a refreshing
proposition that by relinquishing
responsibility to a subconscious
experience, a memory can still be
formed.
Speaking to the shows
overarching theme of curiosity, BelleIle revealed itself over time, much
like some of the most interesting
architectural installations on display.
Drift, for example, was the unruly
and compelling entrance to the show
COURTESY THE DESIGNERS
4-10 December
Miami south Beach
Review by Gwen Webber
B02-064-Rev2-Miami-ph.indd 2
18/12/2012 12:49
to produce a powerhouse or should

that be power-shed of intimate
moments and dazzling banality.
One particularly unusual aspect
of the shows staple diet is Design
Performances, for which a designer
and manufacturer are partnered for a
collaborative new product that is then
demonstrated at the event. This year,
Fendis historic influence on design
became the fodder for Maarten de
Ceulaers Transformations.
Taking its cue from modernist
patterns of rectilinear abstractions
in Fendis archives, de Ceulaers simple
planks of foam sandwiched between
a variety of different coloured leather
illustrated the idealism of reductive
design. De Ceulaers interpretive
design traces history but is careful
not to repeat it.
The consciousness of a designers
own place on a timeline was evident

in several works. Two of the most
impressive examples were Minneapolisbased furniture designer-maker RoLu,
which repurposed less favourable wood
materials to create furniture rooted in
literary, cultural and artistic moments,
and Israeli duo Noam Dover and Michal
Cederbaum.
Due to have their work shown
at the Barbican, London in the theatre
production Savanna by Amit Drori,
for this event the pair showcased
a mechanical sensor-triggered bowl
that opens and closes depending
on its use. Beside this was their more
sobering work; broad vases that have
been chiselled to arrest particular
moments in their production, concrete
vessels that reference the Israeli
redevelopment and devastation,
and sandblasted plates, which
were imbued with political and

spatial wartime references.
Firmly traditional, the shows
interior aspirations were once more
complemented with a range of designrelated events across the causeway
within Miamis Design District. Here,
a huge number of boutiques and
furniture manufacturers fill their
showrooms with unique collaborations
and commissions and open them
to the public.
Louis Vuitton transformed its store
with oversized hybrid calligraphy by
museum-favoured street artist Retna,
while inside it presented 11 designers
responses to the theme of foldable
objects using its nomade leather.
Among high-profile designers on
show, including Campana Brothers and
Barber Osgerby, was innovative Swiss
collective Atelier O. Evolving existing
STEVE BENISTY
COURTESY FENDI
65
systems and structures for dramatic

interior design and kinetic furniture
from its studio in a repurposed motel,
it used pinched leather cuttings from
the Vuitton factory, pinned them
into bowtie shapes and strung them
together to form a luxury hammock.
Kenya Haras Architecture for
Dogs proved to be a more serious
affair as the dog houses, clothes and
platforms by an impressive roster of
architects, including Suo Fujimoto,
Kazuyo Sejima, Shigeru Ban and
MVRDV, were, in most cases, scaleddown distillations of the practices
that designed them. It wasnt clear
whether the reluctant dogs brought in
for demonstration, or those keen to
perform, were supposed to provide
a useful survey or mere amusement.
It was in giving Vito Acconci
the Designer of the Year award that
Above left: Fendis

historic influence
on design was
the inspiration
for Maarten de
Ceulaers piece
Transformations
Above: Working
with the University
of Manchester
Asif Khan bridged
scientific experiment
and commercial
ornament with
Parhelia for
Swarovski
Below left:
Snarkitecture
subverts the viewers
understanding of
what is true and
what is usable with
the piece Break
COURTESY SNARKITECTURE
foR swaRovskI asIf

khaN REcREaTEd
ThE PhENomENoN
of IcE haLos, UsINg
aN LEd, a cEILINg
hoLE, aNd a shEd
madE of cRysTaLs
Design Miami demonstrated its value
and relevance as a design showcase.
As part of this recognition, the man
who cut his teeth with Steven Holl
designing the Storefront for Art and
Architecture will have his mindbending Klein Bottle Playground
installed in the Design District in
2014. Dancing on the lines between
performance installation and a new,
meaningful architecture, Acconci asked
a younger generation of designers:
Does architecture still need surfaces?
Roll on Design Miami without walls.
B02-064-Rev2-Miami-ph.indd 3
18/12/2012 12:49
Project5:Layout 1
1/11/12
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Page 1
63
hm63
design: Nigel Coates
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67
>>EXHIBITION
CopYRight LUCY WiLLiAms; CoURtEsY timothY tAYLoR gALLERY, London
Lucy WiLLiams:
PaviLion
Until 11 January
Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Review by Herbert Wright
Right: Williams epic
collage, depicting
Jean Dubuissons
Maine-Montparnasse
apartments across
2.7m, appears as
a rich, articulated
texture from afar
but reveals intimate
interiors close up
Like much of the architectural

community, British artist Lucy Williams
is transfixed by modernism. She uses
montage to create images of modernist
architecture, layered pictures with just
millimetres of depth and a variety of
materials that are so meticulous, each
can take up to three months to make.
At the Timothy Taylor Gallery, some
of her latest works are even mounted
on an orthogonal wooden frame with
coloured panels inspired by Bauhaus.
The 16 works on show survey
interiors, which are not identified, and
exteriors of specific buildings. All are
unpopulated, and most works present
a straight-on view of buildings. Seen
through the lighting gel and Perspex
she uses to brilliantly represent
the bronzed glass in the Seagram
Building, and across her four-storey
section, ceilings angle with height.
That particular piece infuses Mies van
der Rohes monolithic design with
unexpected warmth.
Her renderings of Eric Lyons Span
housing share it, underlined by use
of astutely chosen materials such
as jesmonite in the lattice panels of

Herrick Court. However, an occasional
use of blue needlepoint, as in Parkleys,
is a misfit its opaque texture is
totally unlike a clear sky. Otherwise,
colours are painstakingly built up with
paint, and depth with layers built on
cork or elements protruding from their
plane. Even oven knobs in an interior
have form.
Perhaps the most stunning work
on show is the biggest, a 2.7m-wide
representation of the facade of Jean
Dubuissons Maine-Montparnasse
apartments (1959-64). Here, Williams
is a peeping tom, revealing each
lampshade, cupboard and book
behind every window. Yet through

some 1,000 windows, there is still
no-one to be seen.
Stripped of context as well as
people, this mammoth residential
block, in reality part of the looming
Paris complex that incudes a
210m-high office tower, becomes
a mesmerising field of colour and
geometry. It has the joy of the
Unite dHabitation, but without
embellishments (roof structures,
piloti), leveraging the grid to
the max. Here, the abstract purity
Williams finds in modernism is taken
furthest, verging magnificently
towards a flat Piet Mondrian canvas
(despite the 3.5cm depth frame).

Its easy to compare Williams
with Thomas Demand, the master of
cardboard facsimiles. Both render their
subjects super-cleanly, opening a gap
between reality and representation.
While Demand exploits this gap
to question perception, Williams
is passionate, out to celebrate her
subjects. With depth, colour and
texture, she refreshes their puritan
rationalism and adds to it. She strips
modernism of its arrogance and makes
it lovable again. Williams is so much
more than a master draughtsperson
with an eye for colour she brings
beauty and fascination to her subject.
diverse techniques, ideas and

processes, but it also loads the visitor
with somewhat dense information,
requiring a deliberately paced trip
around the gallery.
Statement pieces are dotted
around in solitary cabinets under the
heading Worn Out. These showcase
notable designs as precious artefacts,
such as Droog co-founder Gijs
Bakkers Dew Drop (see p42 for more
on Droog), a photograph of a rose
encased in PVC to be worn around
the neck, and Paul Derrezs Pleated
Collar of plastic and steel. Another
well represented Dutch designer
is Ted Noten, whose Tiara for Maxima
is, as usual with his work, loaded

with humour.
For the opening, a panel
discussion, chaired by Design Museum
director Deyan Sudjic with a luminaries
including Cohn, design critic Stephen
Bayley, the V&As Glenn Adamson, and
jeweller Solange Azagury-Partridge,
sadly fell back on tired deliberations
that cloud craft-related disciplines.
The customary barriers between
design, art and craft were thrown in
with some archaic statements about
what design is or should be; however,
as pointed out by Bakker, this
conversation is over.
Contemporary jewellery traverses
boundaries of fine art, design and
craft, and has done so for years. In
regards to the exhibitions validity
at the Design Museum, Adamson
made the valid remark that museums
and galleries are starting to behave
as the art students of today who,
make a video one day, a pot the
next and a necklace the day after
that, realising that there is no longer
a need to be rigid within disciplines.
One would hope that this
flexibility in the arts will lead
to a wider appreciation and
acknowledgement for areas such
as contemporary jewellery.
>>EXHIBITION
unEXPEcTED PLEasuREs
Right: Atelier Ted

Notens Tiara for
Maxima was
designed in the
wake of Princess
Dianas fatal crash
with the safety
of her Dutch
counterpart Princess
Mxima in mind
By way of introducing Unexpected

Pleasures, curator Dr Susan Cohn
describes the relationship between
contemporary jewellery and design
as akin to the rapport between two
strangers at a party: They spot each
other across the room, think they
know each other but are unsure. They
end up talking find they get along.
This slightly awkward relationship
is an apt description of where
contemporary jewellery has previously
sat within the design world.
Unexpected Pleasures marks the
first foray of contemporary jewellery
into the Design Museum. The
exhibition, containing an impressive
186 pieces, is split into a variety
of themed displays. The categories
that Cohn has created are welcome
additions to the customary labelling
jewellery or craft receives. Instead
of focusing entirely on the skills,
materials and processes used by the
jeweller, the message being portrayed
CoURtEsY AtELiER tEd notEn
Until 3 March
Design Museum, London
Review by Enya Moore
is treated with equal importance,

if not more.
Physical Matters examines the
use of different materials to enhance
a given idea, whereas Handmade
highlights the making skills of
jewellers. Nel Linssens trademark
paper jewellery illustrates this to great
effect; Linssen stacks paper discs to
create thick, textured coils to wear
around the neck or arm. And Finish
Me Off takes digital technologies as
its focus, highlighting that within
jewellery making digital manufacture
has been used for quite some time.
Dividing the jewellery into these
categories succeeds in highlighting
B02-067-Rev3-ph.indd 1
18/12/2012 11:51
68
>>BOOK
BRINkmaN & vaN dER
vLUgT aRchITEcTs
By Joris molenaar
Nai 010 publishers, 40
Review by Thomas Wensing
The director of the Van Nelle Factory
in Rotterdam, Kees van der Leeuw
(1890-1973), found himself with
an acute problem in 1925 his
architect Michiel Brinkman had
died. With a new site bought and
the existing premises bursting at
the seams, a successor needed to be
found urgently. Jan Brinkman, the
architects son, was still studying
civil engineering and deemed
too inexperienced to take on the
assignment. The young and talented
modernist Leen van der Vlugt was
approached, and the firm Brinkman &
van der Vlugt was born.
Even though the office had
specialised in industrial buildings,
the task was daunting and new staff
were drawn from avant-garde circles
to meet the high expectations of the
client. After all, van der Leeuw had
towering ambitions he wanted a
building which would still be modern
in 25 years time.
Brinkman & van der Vlugt,
under the direction of van der Vlugt,
became one of the leading and
most prolific modernist architectural
practices in the Netherlands before
the war. With the unique combination
of a progressive clientele and
talented staff (most memorably
the communist Mart Stam from
1926-28), it set out to create a string
of remarkable buildings, and aimed
to transform the future of Rotterdam.
In doing so the practice was
able to exert an international
influence on architecture, of which
the Van Nelle Factory is the most
noteworthy example.
IMAgES COURTESY NAI 010
Right: Rotterdams
Van Nelle Factory,
by practice
Brinkman & van
der Vlugt, had a
profound influence
on architecture
The progressive influences on

the architecture of Van Nelle were
diverse; from Theosophy to New
Objectivity, from Fordism to Russian
Constructivism. It resulted in a
project in which, as English architect
William Curtis so eloquently put it,
the pragmatic was transcended,
idealised, given a poetic, expressive
presence... matters of which style is
only an outward manifestation.
The factory attracted much
attention, even before it was
finished; it was included in the
Die Wohnung exhibition of the
Werkbund in Stuttgart in 1927,
and in 1932 was adopted by
Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell
Hitchcock as an example of
International Style architecture.
The canonisation of this single
building in the historiography of
modernism has had, of course, the
unintended side-effect of drawing
attention away from the other
innumerable accomplishments of
Brinkman & van der Vlugt, and from
the larger historical and geographical
contexts of these developments.
The English language monograph
Brinkman & van der Vlugt
Architects Rotterdams City Ideal
in International Style, largely fills
this lacuna, and specifically focuses
on the role played by the offices
attempt to redesign Rotterdam along
modernist lines. In doing so it offers
a welcome addition to the literature
available in English on these
important topics, but in its aim
to appeal to a wider audience
accuracy and depth of interpretative
analysis are lost.
Molenaar, an architect who
has beautifully restored many of
Brinkman & van der Vlugts buildings,
has been researching its work since
the early Eighties and has made
ThE PRacTIcE sET oUT

To cREaTE a sTRINg
of REmaRkaBLE
BUILdINgs aNd
aImEd To TRaNsfoRm
ThE fUTURE
of RoTTERdam
valuable contributions on the topic
in many publications. As a researcher
his stance is pragmatic and his
attitude post-ideological. He is of
the opinion that assessment of the
work ought to be based on evidence
and primary sources to avoid an
excess of ideologically motivated
historiographical speculation. While
such a stance is laudable in principle,
it runs the risk of overlooking the fact
that the works were built in an era
that was deeply ideological, and that
you could rewrite history by omission
or even through misrepresentation.
The most troubling example
of not fully acknowledging the
complexity of different ideological
positions is his freewheeling use
of the term International Style in
the book. Ideology is inescapable in
history writing, and the International
Style of Hitchcock and Johnson is
in itself a thorny bedfellow; they
were, after all, pursuing an agenda
by glossing over the leftist leanings
of many of the modernist architects.
Furthermore, Hitchcock openly
rejected the functionalist adage
to which many of the European
architects subscribed. So the bringing
together of many different strands
of modernism under the misnomer of
International Style unduly focused on
formal expression, to the detriment
of the polemical and programmatic
substance of these works.
If I were to follow the logic

of using primary sources truthfully,
I would refer to the architecture
in the same manner as the architects
would refer to it themselves, which
is Nieuwe Bouwen or Nieuwe
Architectuur. The closest English
translation would be
New Architecture.
It is a fact that van der Vlugt
was first and foremost a builder and
he detested people who would like
to skip building and start with urban
planning and world reforming straight
away. He was not stylistically or
theoretically dogmatic, and he gained
respect from his contemporaries for
his craftsmanship and technical skill.
This neutral attitude is not the
same as to imply that his position
was mainly form-driven and stylistic,
however; van der Vlugts concern
was to make architecture both useful
and beautiful, and sometimes he
complained that his clients did not
understand the sobriety of the New
Architecture. Interestingly enough,
he was offered positions in the
USA, which he declined because he
was of the opinion that American
architecture was not modern enough.
He died in 1936 at the age of 42,
following a two-month visit to the
USA. Le Corbusier remembered him
thus: It is an immense grief to know
that we will not meet again and we
will no longer see his talent flourish,
especially at a time when, once
again, the horizon opens itself
up, and architecture is to become the
predominant activity of a new society
wishing to furnish itself in the
service of man and man will no longer
be grinding mechanically under the
dominance of the power of money.
A more beautiful riposte to the
vacuity of Hitchcock and Johnson
cannot be imagined.
B02-068-Rev4-Brinkman-PH.indd 2
18/12/2012 11:52
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15/11/12
09:13
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71
MOCA building, Cleveland,
Ohio, by Farshid Moussavi
72
EDITORIAL FEATURE: FRONT FACING
74
SHACKERLEY
76
FORMICA
78
YORK HANDMADE
80
NBK CERAMIC
ImAgE coURtEsY FARshId moUssAvI
SPECIAL
FOCUS
FACADES
2013
B02-071-Facades 2013 (feat) PH.indd 71
18/12/2012 15:17
72
front
facing
A BUildings FAcAdE cAn BE so mUch
moRE thAn thE pUBlics onlY EncoUntER
And onlY mEmoRY oF thE stRUctURE.
it cAn cARRY sERvicEs, windows And
contRol sYstEms And ExpREss A hint
oF whAt liEs BEYond in thE intERioR.
SHUMI BOSE REpoRts
The facade of a building often forms the

first, if not the only, encounter one might
have with a built work. Think of how many
buildings we know from a purely retinal
point of view more often than not it will
be the public-facing exterior that acts as
anchor in the memory. Facades can work
hard: firstly, carrying services, housing
windows, environmental control systems,
insulation and load bearing elements.
Secondly, it expresses the interior
articulation of space, giving clues to the
function or volumetric arrangement of the
spaces behind a buildings veneer.
Thirdly, most immediately, arguably
most importantly to the client and possibly
the architect, the facade carries the
expression of the project to the public. Yes,
a buildings perimeter acts as a physical
barrier, delineating the outside from the

inhabitants but the facade is perhaps
foremost a communicative tool. Plainly
embedded in the word, the facade is the
face of the project, the surface to which
the public or viewer responds prior to
entering or using the building.
This makes it the perfect surface in
which to embed an idea; take, for example,
the noble geometric values of the Golden
Section, discernible in the facades of Notre
Dame Cathedral and 20th-century
modernism alike, hinting at aspirations
towards classical wisdom.
The recently opened MOCA Cleveland,
the first American project designed by
Iranian-born British architect Farshid
Moussavi, is an example of the facade
expressing the buildings character,
18/12/2012 11:56
COURTESY FARSHID MOUSSAVI
73
Main image: The MOCA

building in Cleveland is
clad is black, mirror-sinihs
Rimex stainless steel,
reflecting and distorting
the local environment
Below: The futuristic BIQ

house, due to be
completed next month,
features a living facade
of algae
COURTESY ALISON BROOKES ARCHITECTS
Right: Alison Brooks

Architects used prismatic
forms on the Lens House,
a renovated 19th-century
residence in London
COURTESY SPLITTERWERK ARCHITECTS
especially in its material. Its as if the

building is performing for you, says
Moussavi. The faceted prismatic form
like a crystal which has landed in the
cosmopolitan streetscape of downtown
Cleveland constantly changes to reflect its
urban surroundings as well as the flexible
programme of this non-collecting museum.
Clad as it is in black mirror-finish
Rimex stainless steel, MOCA Clevelands
sleek facade takes on the appearance of the
local environment like a chameleon,
reflecting and gently distorting both the
fleeting moods of the Ohio skies and the
visitors who congregate on the piazza
outside. The buildings striking sculptural
form can never quite disappear, but the
new museum definitely embeds itself
into the passing public life around it,
as well as allowing views in one side
is glazed, flooding the galleries with
natural daylight, as well as allowing
an intriguing permeability into and out
from the curated spaces.
Farshid Moussavi Architects has
previously used a similar stainless-steel
cladding on the Selfridges department store
in Leicester, but here the more spectacular
facade uses a double-glazed wall
construction of richly patterned glass,
inspired by printed textiles referencing the
citys heritage. Moussavis installation at
the recent Venice Biennale, as well as her
book, the Function of Ornament,
demonstrate the capacity of the decorated
facade in evoking an affective response.
Modern computational modelling
allows designers to think of the facade as
more of a three-dimensional membrane
rather than fascias stuck on the front of
functional boxes. Prismatic forms define
Alison Brooks Architects recently
completed renovation of an 1860s private
residence in north London. Called the Lens
House, Brooks house extension expands the
property to accommodate a family home
and workspace.
The angular extensions, in this case,
make no attempt to blend into the 19thcentury brickwork; instead, approximately
260 sq m of Corian cladding has been
wrapped and folded to create distinctive
appendages, which touch the ground lightly
while making a striking visual impact.
Again, the planar geometry of the extension
made possible by the precision that can be
achieved with Corian creates a specific
effect from the interior as well as the
outside; in this case, the fully glazed
first-floor window was devised to frame
a particular view of a huge walnut tree, and
the other surface form around this desired
orientation.
These days, regulations and the
financial realities of development mean that
building designs are sometimes constrained,
even preconceived within an inch of their
lives. Floorplates, function and even interior
volumes can be predetermined to some
extent, leaving the architect with the role of
juggling spatial arrangements, and wrapping
them with an appropriately expressive
membrane. In the Sixties Italian critic
Manfredo Tafuri observed the danger of

architects who were reduced to the
variegated design of facades, within cites
determined by development, rather than an
integrated urban strategy sound familiar?
Contemporary buildings must
negotiate between the ever-increasing
importance of the image and the need
for an enduring appeal which goes beyond
cartoonish historical references, towards an
expression of future concerns.
Enter the zero-energy BIQ house,
proposed by Splitterwerk Architects in
collaboration with ARUP and Colt
International, which features a living or
bio-adaptive facade, made up of glazed
louvres holding bio-reactive micro-algae.
The louvres are already designed to provide
some solar shading; the growth of the algae
increases the amount of internal shading

provided and, whats more, the solar
thermal energy captured in the panes of
algae, as well as the biomass of the algae
itself, which can be harvested as clean,
renewable power to run the building. If that
all sounds impossibly futuristic, the BIQ
house will be completed in next month and
installed at the International Building
Exhibition in Hamburg.
It is left to architects to confound and
reclaim their task, resisting the perils of
creating aesthetically interesting buildings
that act either as historical references or
foremost as marketing-friendly assets, and
instead ensure that facades, as the publics
initial point of encounter with architecture,
are designed to perform in a truly
propositional manner.
18/12/2012 11:56
74
Sureclad Ceramic Granite Ventilated Faades...
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ShackERLEy (hoLdINgS) gRoUP LImITEd

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t: 0800 783 0391
e: info@shackerley.com
w: www.shackerley.com
...by Shackerley
At Shackerley we are extremely proud of our
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perfected and patented over a decade ago,
enabling the A & D community across the
UK to benefit from the versatility, high

performance and sheer beauty of ceramic
granite ventilated cladding.
British, independently owned and
renowned for innovation, we have long been
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ceramics. Today we are universally recognised
as the UKs leading authority and market
leader in the design, manufacture and supply
of ceramic granite ventilated faade systems.
From our Lancashire production facilities
we offer the complete range of specialist
prefabrication services required to transform
large format ceramic granite slabs into
installation-ready ventilated faade panels.
We also offer a comprehensive planning and
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at every stage during the specification, design
and installation of your faade system.
Specified by the countrys leading
architectural practices, Sureclad faades have
18/12/2012 11:57
75
transformed the appearance and enhanced the
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Ceramic Granite?
Ceramic granite is a fully vitrified, precision
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Manufactured from a blend of refined
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Free of the flaws and weak points

inherent in many quarried materials, faade
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costs of procurement, prefabrication and
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With almost zero porosity, ceramic
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Standard panel sizes include 600x600mm,

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All our ceramic granite slabs are
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Below are just a few of our recently
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We look forward to hearing from you and
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18/12/2012 11:57
76
FORMICA GROUP
t: 0191 259 3512
e: info.uk@formica.com
w: www.formica.com
Formica Group remains on the cutting edge

of building envelope art and science with
VIVIX faade panels, the innovative lightweight
rainscreen cladding solution that redefines the
landscape of contemporary construction for
both new builds and renovations.
Today, building faades have taken on a
new significance. There is a constant need for
innovative and affordable means to rejuvenate
and refurbish properties. With a range of
exterior cladding solutions available, architects
are increasingly choosing materials that are
not only decorative and allow them to
accentuate elements and features; but that are
also practical, functional and contribute to the
performance of the building as a whole.
With a decorative surface on both sides,
VIVIX offers opportunities to play with colour
and shape while providing the necessary
thermal insulation to bring energy efficiency
up to 21st century standards. VIVIX panels can
18/12/2012 11:57
77
complement or add a design feature to
residential developments and are also ideal for
office buildings, public buildings, cultural and
sports facilities, transportation centres,
industrial buildings and educational facilities.
Developed in consultation with leading
architects, VIVIX architectural panels are
available in plain colours with sophisticated
neutrals and striking accents, nature-inspired
abstract patterns and rich woodgrains. The
VIVIX range provides the possibility to create
exclusive looks in a creative and cost efficient
way. In addition to faades and cladding, VIVIX
panels can also be used for exterior applications
such as balconies, decorative screening and
fencing or to accent an entrance way of a
building. They can be used to differentiate
between floors or levels, or simply to design an
innovative pattern to make a building stand out.
VIVIX panels allow the architect or
specifier to take into consideration appearance,
design and maintenance when choosing exterior

cladding, comments Simon Wild, European
Marketing Director at Formica Group. The
advantages of this type of rainscreen
application become especially apparent when
refurbishing a building. An old housing block
of flats which has poor thermal insulation due
to the age of the building, can be redesigned to
include energy saving modern materials that
will provide an outstanding insulative
performance. These materials, together with
VIVIX faade panels, can completely transform
a concrete or brick building into one with a
modern design now wrapped around it,
reducing the running cost dramatically. At the
same time tenants of such a building would
not be disturbed as all the installation work is
on the outside of the building.
VIVIX panels can be fabricated away from
the building for efficiency, but if required they
can easily be cut on site. They can be used
with a variety of fixing systems, from simple

timber battens to proprietary metal systems
and hung by visible face-fixing or by concealed
fixing arrangements depending on the
aesthetic requirement. The panels can easily
be cut into a variety of shapes and sizes to
express a whole variety of design concepts.
They cause minimal environmental
impact as determined by Formica Groups Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA). All of Formica Groups
Global manufacturing sites and distribution
centres have achieved the internationallyrecognised Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Chain of Custody (COC) certification.
Formica Group is also the first laminate
manufacturer in the world to be awarded the
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A product brochure VIVIX, a Fresh
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www.formica.com.
Formica, the Formica

anvil device and VIVIX
are registered trademarks
of the Diller Corporation
2013 The Diller
Corporation. A Fletcher
Building Company
18/12/2012 11:57
78
York Handmade Brick co Ltd
t: 01347 838881
w: www.yorkhandmade.co.uk
York Handmade have developed a range of

long thin bricks. Initially these were based on
a 327mm x 50mm x 102mm buff grey brick.
These were developed for a new building for
the Chetham School of Music, Manchester
designed by Stephenson Bell architects.
Stephenson Bells design had been influenced
by architect Peter Zumptors Diocesan
Museum in Cologne. The original idea for
the brick was to give the building a common
denominator of the local vernacular spanning
from Roman times to the modern day.
From this seed, long thin bricks have
highlighted the flexibility of bricks to be made
into many different shaped modules to enhance
buildings in a way that is exclusive to brick products.
Chetham School of Musics new development
is an exemplary example of how the new long
thin shape combined with the unique character
and variation of a York Handmade brick can
make for a thoroughly vibrant design.
18/12/2012 11:58
79
250,000 327 x 50 x 102 mm bricks as well
as 50,0000 precast units and over 400 types of
special were used in the Chetham School of
Music design demonstrating York Handmades
ability to deliver the toughest of specifications.
The Maxima size is available in the full
York Handmade range of colours to cater for
all our customers requirements.
The Chetham School of Music is a
thrilling new statement for the 21st century
in Central Manchester. This iconic building
which equips this famous school to continue
its work for many more centuries uses curves
and Maxima bricks to great effect.
The result is a thrilling mixture of strata
brickwork with lines which immediately
excite the mind and catch the eye like no
other. Added to the mix of colours now
available we have a through coloured grey for
the first time which can be available in either
light shade or a darker version. The Chetham
grey named after our first major project,

the iconic new Chetham Music School in
Manchester, is a rare beast among colours. We
offer the choice of a genuine through colour
in a colour which is very much in vogue at
the present time.
The specification world has noticed a
distinct reawakening of interest in brickwork
as the material of first choice for commercial
buildings and some modern homes. The origins
of this recent revival and interest in brickwork
lie in the Kolumba Church in North Germany
which was designed by renowned architect
Peter Zumptor. However York Handmade as a
specialist manufacturer has not been slow to
take up the challenge and provide architects
with a new range of bricks made in Britain
which can be used in many sizes and colours.
The big advantage which York Handmade
has in this matter is their method of
manufacture. Using a mould based circuit
system the Company can offer sizes from

290mm in length down to 37mm in thickness
in all the main colours in its range. These
are available in York Handmades traditional
distressed look for which it has won many
awards over recent years or in the classic
neat bench made texture which gives the
architect a neat option in the same range of
colours. Basically any brick found in the York
Handmade range can be made in these sizes.
The hallmark of the York Handmade
production system is its flexibility. It only
requires the production team to change the
moulds from a standard 215mm format to the
new range dubbed MAXIMA.
The radial bricks have been used for the
gentle curves on this building. Radial bricks
can easily be made on the same production
line as the straight bricks ensuring seamless
uninterrupted blend of colour and texture
Copyright York Handmade 2012.
18/12/2012 11:58
80
NBK KeramiK GmBH

Reeser Str. 235, D-46446 Emmerich
t: +49 (0) 28 22 / 81 11-17
f: +49 (0) 28 22 / 81 11-70
w: www.nbk.de
The University of Vilnius is the oldest

university in the Baltic States and
alongside Prague one of the oldest in the
whole of Central Europe. It dates back to
the Jesuit College founded in 1569, which
was then upgraded to an Academy by the
Grand Duke of Lithuania, Stephan Bathory,
in 1579. The venerable university buildings
are right in the middle of the historic city
centre, opposite the Presidential Palace.
However, the needs of modern university
facilities have outgrown the original
buildings, which is why the decision was
taken to relocate the university. A suitable
site for the new buildings that would be
needed was found in the so-called Sunrise
Valley on a piece of land, near woods at
the edge of the city, where a remarkable
new campus designed according to state-ofthe-art standards is being built in quiet
surroundings that are close to nature. It
will provide the perfect environment for

scientific endeavour and exchanges of
ideas, for encounters, meetings,
communication and academic life in
general. The first construction project that
was completed was the new university
library, an impressive design that is set to
become a real landmark.
The architect Rolandas Palekas:
University Campus in Sauletekio Valley,
site in a natural environment near woods
and pedestrian path. IDEA: expressive
forms mark exceptional role of the
building in the Campus. REALIZATION:
opening 2012.
The area is not urbanized, and the
boundaries of land plots are not formed: a
large forest surrounds the plot. The
constructions of Saultekis
BreakthroughValley will emerge in the
natural surroundings, nearby a pedestrian
18/12/2012 16:45
81
walkway. The library should become one
of Sauletekis Valley projects realized so the
building should be comfortably accessible,
even if the infrastructure is late.
This environment inspired
architectural conception of the Library
building: cubature of expressive silhouette,
cozy inside spaces and their linkage with
nature. When moving around the building,
scenery changes unpredictably: silhouettes
cover one another in different shapes. A
plaza of the Library in front of main
entrance is important place. Entrance hall
is something as prolonged the plazas space
with falling-in facades and concrete floor,
the same as in the plaza; here you can
hardly feel inside yet. Walking deeper you
are entering reading rooms- floor by floorwhich are connected by two atriums
focused to the forest. Inside spaces are
universal and easily transformed. A
diversity of reading stations can be foundfrom hidden single cabin to informal group
work spaces. White color dominate inside.
Furniture and other movable elements are
produced under Palekas ARCH studio
supervision.
The product TERRART: Light grey NBK
ceramic elements are used to clad the three
strikingly inclined individual buildings that
are connected to each other via a glazed
atrium. Panels with a length of 2,995 mm, a
thickness of 40 mm and a height of up to
600 mm were used for the 4,160 m2 surface
of the facade. They were arranged in such a
way that the terracotta panels are perfectly
horizontal and all joints and gaps run
parallel around the building. Ceramic
panels were also fitted to the walkable roof
surfaces, which measure 1,360 m2 in total;
these panels are 50 mm thick and feature a
concealed mechanical attachment.
The complex terracotta trim is being

manufactured and assembled in the space of
just five months: The inclined structures
necessitated a range of different oblique
cuts for the facade elements, with a total of
seven different angles of inclination, which
resulted in 15 different mould shapes with
individual cross sections.
The panels were mounted as a backventilated structure with special joint seals
to ensure that the outer skin of the building
is downpour-proof, particularly with regard
to the inclined facades. NBK developed and
manufactured a special support system for
this purpose that is capable of meeting
these exceptional architectural
requirements. An individual solution for
the support system of the roof cladding was
also developed. The joints were left open
here, as a result of which water can be
channeled underneath the terracotta panels.
18/12/2012 16:46
82
WILToN CaRPETs
bespoke floorcoverings from
Wilton Carpets Commercial now
grace the corridors, bedrooms
and suites of the prestigious
5 star Jumeirah Carlton Tower
Hotel in Knightsbridge, London,
cementing the luxury hotels
strong working relationship
with the british carpet
manufacturer and injecting
glamorous contemporary style
into its interior. Inspired by
the spectacular leafy scenery of
the nearby private gardens of
Cadogan Place. using a trendinspired colourway of mustard
and midnight blue, this carpet
incorporates a bold falling leaf
design.
Wilton Carpets
01722 746000
sales@wiltoncarpets.com
PaRaPaN
High gloss, acrylic Parapan is now being specified
for prestigious installations in both retail and
commercial sectors. black Parapan, with its mirror
like surface, is being used for drawer fronts and
fascias to create a dramatic backdrop for the cool,
cult Illamasqua range of make-up. Parapan is
available in 22 uV stable colours. It can be cut to
bespoke sizes and thermoformed to create a wide
variety of curves for any vertical surface.
sChELL
Schell GmbH, for many years one of europes
leading designers and manufacturers of elegant
and innovative taps, has been granted WraS
approval for three of the companys self-closing
taps. represented in the uK by IVy Product
Management, the taps already hold all the
relevant european standards but this recent WraS
Certification No. 1206321 will assure these fine
products acceptance in the uK.
Landau holdings
01482 440680
info@parapan.co.uk
www.parapan.co.uk
LoNGDEN DooRs
Longden the bespoke
manufacturer of hand crafted,
hardwood doorsets is pleased
to reveal its latest design,
the Hepplewhite panel.
adding to Longdens large
array of outstanding interior
styles, the Hepplewhite panel
offers stunning features of
a traditional panelled door
with a contemporary twist.
additionally, the Hepplewhite
can be specified with glazed
panels, adding that extra bit
of light into a room, as well
as being available in a variety
of fSC accredited hardwoods
including european Oak, rock
Maple and american black
Walnut.
Ivy Product Management

0751 8858 298
martyn@ivypmltd.com
www.schell.eu
Longden Doors
www.longdendoors.co.uk
KI
faveo, designed by Paul brooks,
is a new task and occasional
seating range which has
received a red Dot Design
award. The faveo task chair is
both inviting and attractive. a
mesh back provides optimum
and ergonomic comfort, due
to the point synchromatic
integrated mechanism which
provides a wide range of
reclining options with free
flow and four position locking.
Instant ergonomic adjustment is
delivered to the user by simple
easy touch controls with seat
height and tension adjustment
on one side and the forward tilt
and recline lock on the other.
KI
020 7404 7441
www.kieurope.com
VILLERoy & BoCh

berNINa is a high quality, vilbostone porcelain
Villeroy & Boch
www.villeroy-boch.com
stoneware range. The tile concept provides a
diverse basis for floor and wall design throughout
the house and outdoors, too. The matt, slightly
structured tiles are modelled on natural quartzite.
fine, irregular veins cover the surface, creating a
natural-stone look with a sleek, contemporary flair
and application advantages unique to porcelainstoneware tiles.
BLUEPRINT february 2013
bpfeb.indd 82
18/12/2012 10:21
83
NCS COLOUR
VORwERK CaRPETS
unique carpet tiles from Vorwerk Carpets now
Vorwerk Carpets UK
020 7096 5090
cover the floors of international law firm K&L
www.vorwerkcarpets.co.uk
Gates London, adding striking architectural style
to the public function room and conference areas.
Choosing a mixture of coarse frisco and smooth
velours forma textures, Lehman Smith McLeish
worked with Vorwerk to create two bespoke grey
colours for the public areas, using the carpet to
define breakout meeting zones.
RaK CERamICS
raK Ceramics has introduced its
stunning new Zebra Collection.
bringing a taste of the african
plains to the home, the new
range includes zebra-patterned
dcor tiles and borders, along
with complementary monotoned tiles. The dramatic range
injects a real wow factor to
any interior, whilst providing
an exceptionally durable and
practical surface. both the Zebra
plain ceramic and dcor tiles are
available in 30x60cm formats.
Co-ordinating 60x60cm porcelain
formats are also offered in each
design, along with matching
borders measuring 10x60cm and
a 5x60cm
Colour identification: The NCS

Colour Scan measures colour
samples to the closest NCS
reference in seconds, making
it easy to identify and cross
reference any sample in the
studio or on site. It gives LrV,
CMyK and rGb and tells you
where you can find the colour
in the NCS Index. buy them
together and save 75. NCS
colour can be specified for
many products.
NCS UK
01491 411717
info@ncscolour.co.uk
DaRE STUDIO
Dare Studio
The bronte was designed by Sean Dare to
01273 607192
compliment our Hardy Wingback collection as a
low back option. With a sumptuous fixed seat and www.darestudio.co.uk
an invitingly soft aesthetic, the bronte features a
rounded horseshoe back and beautifully tapered
solid timber legs. Offered in a variety of Leather
and fabrics with a choice of american black
Walnut or Oak Legs
RaK Ceramics
marketing@rakceramics.co.uk
www.rakceramics.co.uk
INDIgENOUS
THE INTERIORS gROUP

The Interiors Group have recently fitted out the
The Interiors group
www.interiorsgroup.co.uk
Chinese Visa Centre office in the City of London.
Working in conjunction with edge Design, The
Interiors Group had the initial brief to present the
visa centre as a Gateway to China both in the
literal sense of entry following visa approval and
in an experiential sense of Chinese culture. The
brief was for a clean and contemporary palette of
materials and finishes reminiscent of China.
Indigenous has introduced the

Oak Collection to its natural
flooring range. The Collection
includes Classic, Old floor,
Pavilion and rustic floors,
which each include a variety of
designs and finishes. all floors
are crafted from sustainable
european Oak and benefit from
an engineered construction; this
provides stability and makes the
floors ideal for installation with
underfloor heating. The Classic
Oak Collection is characterised
by vibrant grains and rich
colours. The range is offered in
various widths and long lengths,
from 600mm to 2400mm.
Indigenous
01993 824200
enquiries@indigenousltd.com
www.indigenousltd.com
bpfeb.indd 83
18/12/2012 10:21
84
GRaNoRTE
The design-led Studio range of
engineered cork flooring from
Granorte is proving that ecofriendly style can be exciting
and eye-catching with a whole
variety of contemporary surface
decors that deliver maximum
impact in the home. available
in a range of plank sizes to
deliver a truly individual look,
homeowners can choose from
traditional planks, narrow panels
and square tiles that can be
used and fitted together. This
mix of options ensures that
there is something to suit every
home and allows retailers to
offer individual looks.
Granorte
01785 711 131
info@granorte.co.uk
www.granorte.co.uk
haNsGRohE
The new axor Starck Organic bathroom collection
combines unique design with a responsible
way to handle water. Developed by axor, the
designer brand of Hansgrohe, and Philippe Starck,
the organic-minimalist design and harmonious
lines, reminiscent of shapes we see in nature,
characterize axor Starck Organic and give the
collection an exciting, powerful and sculptural
immediacy.
PhILLIP WaTTs
hansgrohe
01372 465655
enquiries@hansgrohe.co.uk
www.hansgrohe.co.uk
KhRs
New for 2013 Crushed is a fantastic wall tile,

Philip Watts Design
made from solid hand cast resin with a real metal 0115 926 9756
sales@philipwattsdesign.com
powder top coat. The top coat impregnates the
resin surface for a super durable vibrant metal
finish in brass, bronze or copper. The tiles can
also be made from solid metal, and shown here in
mirror polished aluminium.
Khrs Oak Hampshire wood

flooring has been installed
at St Nicholas Church in the
centre of Nottingham. The
stunning 272 sq m installation
forms part of an extensive
refurbishment project, designed
by Mark Stewart, which included
re-ordering of the entire church
interior. Khrs one-strip wood
flooring was installed over
under-floor heating throughout
the church and first floor
balcony, by Capital floors. all
flooring was specified and
supplied by reflex Sports.
Khrs (UK) Ltd

023 9245 3045
sales@kahrs.co.uk
www.kahrs.co.uk
DELTaTLIGhT
Narrow and wide streets draw
black lines through space
and literally form a lighting
path that dialogues with the
architecture of the surroundings.
flexible LeD modules for accent
lighting, T5 Seamless lamps for
general light, or high-power LeD
modules for an extra-powerful
solution. The new dimensions of
the Splitline 29 and 52 facilitate
installation, including perfect
90 corner constructions. The
bigger Splitline 52 offers new
opportunities thanks to the
extended range of flexible
modules, such as the you Turn
Pro module.
Deltalight
0870 757 7087
design@deltalight.co.uk
www.deltalight.co.uk
KomfoRT
Pioneer Point is a residential development of
Komfort
www.komfort.com
two prestigious towers providing more than 250
serviced apartments in the heart of Ilford. The
Komfort 5000 Series thermally broken steel framed
system was fitted with 29mm thick Contraflam
fire insulation glass throughout. The Contraflam
glass has a layer of gel between the doubleglazing that provides 60 minutes of structural
integrity and 60 minutes of insulation.
bpfeb.indd 84
18/12/2012 10:21
85
HAF INTERNATIoNAL
NoRA
The noraplan sentica rubber floor covering from
nora flooring systems Uk Ltd
nora systems has won the gold Nightingale award. 01788 513166
www.nora.com/uk
The newest member of the noraplan product
family, noraplan sentica, convinced the members
of the jury in the category resilient floor
coverings in several regards, winning praise for
its quality, functionality, wear resistance, design,
sustainability properties and the excellent
cost-performance ratio.
FoRBo
forbo flooring Systems unique
and comprehensive product
portfolio has brought to life
a striking new refurbishment
project at LeasePlan uK,
berkshire, where a wide range
of forbos textile and resilient
products have been specified
as part of an exciting modular
flooring solution. In order to
create a lively and inspiring
environment, Crisps clever use
of the floor space was a key
part of the major refurbishment.
Colour and pattern are integral
to the overall design helping to
bring vibrancy into the space,
so bright and bold furniture
products were chosen.
Haf International door levers,

pull handles and accessories
designed without compromise
to match the very best in
contemporary interior and
architectural design. Our solid
stainless steel door handles are
built to endure, and with our
bespoke finishing service you
can be certain the ironmongery
specified for your project
complements your design vision.
To understand more about the
Haf ironmongery products and
services, and to pre-order the
new 2013 catalogue visit the
Haf website.
HAF International
0845 180 1246
www.hafinternational.com
IGUzzINI
Laser blade, the first linear downlight with circular iGuzzini
info@iguzzini.co.uk
distribution, combines an extremely minimal
www.iguzzini.co.uk
design with iGuzzinis considerable experience in
LeD products for internal applications. The body
of the fitting is a long and thin strip of only 4cm
wide designed to create sophisticated optically
circular light distributions. Laser blade avoids the
dot like effects typical of single LeDs and creates
a more traditional circular distribution.
Forbo Flooring systems

www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/
modularity
RETRoWoRks
jIs EURoPE
brand new additions to the JIS Sussex range are a jIs Europe
set of three fletching rails, substantial towel rails thecoastalrange.co.uk
especially conceived to match the modern trend
towards retro-styled bathrooms. The fletching
rails are beautifully made to a smart but
chunky design that has distinct overtones of the
massiveness of superior Victorian plumbing. The
fletching rails are in top quality stainless steel in
a polished finish.
TheSpindle is a bookcase /
shelving unit which can be
composed according to the
owners preference. The case is
fully handmade from stainless
steel, and is clamped between
the floor and ceiling by a nonvisible screw system. Therefore,
it can be placed at less obvious
locations, for example on the
corner of two walls.
The carriers are clamped round
a central spindle, and can easily
be adjusted at every desired
height and direction, resulting
in a unique and personal piece
of furniture.
RetroWorks
+31 (0)6 12214311
info@retroworks.nl
www.retroworks.nl
bpfeb.indd 85
18/12/2012 10:21
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87
from the archives

Marking its 20th anniversary in 2013, the prolific and hugely influential Droog
Design has travelled far from its origins in the early Nineties. Initially the
brainchild of Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker, the business reaches its
milestone with Ramakers flying solo. Earlier in this issue, Grant Gibson
examines the work produced by selected designers under the Droog umbrella
and looks back over the rollercoaster ride of their designs over the past two
decades (p42). To celebrate, weve pulled out our very first Droogy feature
from the archives, when people were still asking: What is Droog? That was
back in October 1996 perhaps by now they have finally figured it out.
B02-087-Archive-ph.indd 87
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18/12/2012 12:04
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18/12/2012 12:04
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8/10/12
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ARPER MEETS
LONDON
Arper London Showroom

11 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5PA
london@arper.com
www.arper.com
Arper sponsors the project
Lina Bo Bardi: Together
www.linabobarditogether.com

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BLUEPRINTISSUE323

FEBRUARY 2013 5.99

DrOOg hitS 20 KUrt SChwittErS iN BritAiN ALBErt SpEEr JUNiOr

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The ofce as a living space, divided into

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KURT SCHWITTERS IN BRITAIN

ALBERT SPEER JNR

Copyright LuCy WiLLiams; Courtesy timothy tayLor gaLLery, London

BOWNESS, HEPWORTH ESTATE, IMAGE COURTESY OF HAzLITT HOLLAND-HIBBERT

the V&A; Chethams School of

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Werneth Health Centre the most environmentally

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Organisers of Close, Closer,

Lisbons Triennale team has launched

Beatrice Galilee and a youthful team

Lisbon, tackling existing spatial

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Two Hong Kong-born architects have

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Imagine yourself in a theatre, not a

fascinate her myth and gender.

COURTESY THE ARTIST

The latest work of extraordinary artist

Above: Liliane Lijns

Buddhist monks meditate. They have

to look for new feminine images,

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Stem A new view on space

Stem is a revolutionary storage system. Flexible, modular, dynamic and imaginative.

If you were going to choose to build

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THERE HAVE BEEN

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Above left: The

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Opera HOuse nears crescendO