29th July 2021
Note and Vestre build a utopia in Milan, Walala goes outside the Box, and one of the best places on the planet
July news: TIME names Design District among World's Greatest Places; Camille Walala plays with perspective in Plymouth, No Isolation pinpoints the problem with touchscreens, and Design Can asks ‘what’s changed?’
London's first permanent hub for the creative industries. Photography Taran Wilkhu.
Design District = one of the best places on Earth
According to TIME magazine (and us)
According to TIME magazine (and us)
The opening on 15 September may still be a few weeks away, but that hasn’t stopped TIME recognising the incredible scope of what Design District has to offer. The magazine’s third annual World’s Greatest Places issue has honoured London's new creative heart with a listing in its prestigious hotlist of 100, alongside only one other UK location: the city of Bath. Nominated by TIME’s international correspondent network, the destinations on the list range from individual neighbourhoods to entire countries, all chosen on the basis that they have something extraordinary to offer visitors. TIME paid tribute to Design District’s dedication to affordability (notably the £5 per sqft office rental scheme), giving creatives of all stripes an opportunity to build their businesses and get back on track, post-pandemic.
Positive tech company No Isolation is calling for an end to digital exclusion. Image courtesy No Isolation (Shutterstock, Wavebreak Media, ID: 688534228).
You can't touch this
No Isolation’s new report explains why touchscreens are not the answer for everyone
No Isolation’s new report explains why touchscreens are not the answer for everyone
Most tech companies act as though touchscreens are a silver-bullet interface, enabling everyone to navigate their device with ease and intuition. In a new report, loneliness-targeting tech company No Isolation exposes the flaws in the assumption that touchscreens make everyone’s lives easier. In fact, for around 5.6 million older people in the UK, touchscreens are more a barrier than a benefit.
That’s a huge cohort being left behind because designers aren’t taking their user’s actual needs into account. Have a read of the report, and get in touch if you’d like to speak to No Isolation’s UK director Harriet Gridley about how mainstream design is unwittingly shutting out many of those who stand to benefit from it most.
That’s a huge cohort being left behind because designers aren’t taking their user’s actual needs into account. Have a read of the report, and get in touch if you’d like to speak to No Isolation’s UK director Harriet Gridley about how mainstream design is unwittingly shutting out many of those who stand to benefit from it most.
Now You Know champions alternative voices in design. Photography Timi Akindele-Ajani.
Now You Know even more
Sound Advice issues second print run after sell-out launch
Sound Advice issues second print run after sell-out launch
Now You Know burst into print in June in a blaze of insight, wit, and righteous anger – a manifesto for change in architecture that shines a stark light on spatial inequality our built environment. Containing essays, poems, anecdotes and interviews from 60 architects and urbanists of colour, Sound Advice’s debut publication is essential reading for anyone interested in the landscape of discrimination and how to fix it. Turns out, that’s a lot of people – the first print run of 1,000 copies sold out in a matter of nanoseconds (well, pretty damn fast), so Sound Advice are now taking pre-orders for round two.
Given the – much merited – buzz around Now You Know, the second edition is every bit as likely to sell out as the first, so if you want to get your eyes on a copy when it leaves the printers in late August, get an order in asap.
Given the – much merited – buzz around Now You Know, the second edition is every bit as likely to sell out as the first, so if you want to get your eyes on a copy when it leaves the printers in late August, get an order in asap.
Artist Camille Walala plays with perspective in a new collage-inspired sculpture. Installation photography by Dom Moore.
Camille Walala puts things in perspective
New artwork installed outside the Box in Plymouth
New artwork installed outside the Box in Plymouth
Camille Walala has unveiled a head-popping new artwork in Plymouth’s new public square, Tavistock Place, just outside the city’s new flagship museum: the Box. The result of a lockdown-long process of reflection and experimentation, Putting Things in Perspective is recognisably Walala in its dynamic 3D optics and the vibrancy of its colour palette, but departs somewhat from the perfect geometries and symmetries of her previous work to introduce softer contours and uneven, more organic patterns. The result is an exuberant neo-cubist sculptural collage of contrasting forms that plays with shifting planes and perspectives like a trompe l'oeil painting.
Design Can is a campaign and tool for an inclusive design industry. Graphic identity by Not Flat 3.
Design Can – but did it?
Two years after the campaign for equity in design launches, has anything changed?
Two years after the campaign for equity in design launches, has anything changed?
When Design Can launched in 2019, calling for urgent and meaningful action against inequality in the design sector, its arrival was widely welcomed by a creative community tired of seeing the same faces dominating the industry. Since then, the events of 2020 catapulted the BLM to the forefront of global consciousness; more campaigns sprung into being; and many people and individuals expressed their vocal support for change.
But what has – actually – changed? As its second birthday approaches, Design Can will launch a survey asking everyone working in design, at every level, what progress has been made, what obstacles remain, and what still needs to happen. Keep your eyes peeled for Thursday 12 August.
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Note and Vestre are planning a design fair installation like no other. Illustration by Note Design Studio, for Vestre at Milan Design Week 2021.
Natural Habitats
Note Design Studio x Vestre go green for Milan 2021
The centrepiece of the Via Tortona show is an immersive ‘utopia of biodiversity’ – an enclave of greenery in which the new collection is woven into a landscape of trees, plants and flowers. Visitors are invited to step into this immersive space, lured forward to explore deeper by the curve of the walls, the winding path and the glimmers of light ahead.
The exhibition also finds room to introduce visitors to Vestre’s new manufacturing facility the Plus – the world’s most environmentally friendly furniture factory – and to champion the brand’s sincere dedication to sustainability and the circular economy. This is embodied in the fabric of the exhibition itself – all materials are being recycled from the award-winning stand Note created for Vestre at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020.
Note Design Studio x Vestre go green for Milan 2021
Salone returns in September and the band’s getting back together. Serial collaborators Note and Vestre are teaming up once more with an exhibition to launch Habitats – Vestre’s trailblazing new collection of outdoor furniture that actively integrates with the natural environment.
The centrepiece of the Via Tortona show is an immersive ‘utopia of biodiversity’ – an enclave of greenery in which the new collection is woven into a landscape of trees, plants and flowers. Visitors are invited to step into this immersive space, lured forward to explore deeper by the curve of the walls, the winding path and the glimmers of light ahead.
The exhibition also finds room to introduce visitors to Vestre’s new manufacturing facility the Plus – the world’s most environmentally friendly furniture factory – and to champion the brand’s sincere dedication to sustainability and the circular economy. This is embodied in the fabric of the exhibition itself – all materials are being recycled from the award-winning stand Note created for Vestre at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020.
Bureau's architecture by HNNA, interiors by Roz Barr and photography Ruth Ward.
Sneak peek inside Bureau
First look at Roz Barr’s interiors for Design District members’ club and workspace
First look at Roz Barr’s interiors for Design District members’ club and workspace
The full photoshoot is due at the end of the August, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on this first-look shots inside Bureau, and check out interior architect Roz Barr’s materially honest fusion of the utilitarian with the sophisticated. Working with two blank canvas buildings – one care of HNNA; the other by Architecture 00 – Roz Barr Architects has worked with the contours and features of each structure to create versatile and adaptable workspace layouts to suit the needs of diverse creatives and disciplines.
Developed during the pandemic, Bureau is designed to offer a flexible ‘third-way’ workspace, offering the social and collaborative benefits of the office with the freedom and flexibility of working form home. As Roz puts it: “It’s not about rows of booths and cubicles anymore – we need places where we can connect with each other, build ideas together, and enjoy the magic of chance and happenstance.”
Developed during the pandemic, Bureau is designed to offer a flexible ‘third-way’ workspace, offering the social and collaborative benefits of the office with the freedom and flexibility of working form home. As Roz puts it: “It’s not about rows of booths and cubicles anymore – we need places where we can connect with each other, build ideas together, and enjoy the magic of chance and happenstance.”
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