12th October 2023

October news: Zetteler welcomes BOLD, Giles Tettey Nartey, POoR Collective, and Black Females in Architecture

TEMPLO’s Designs for assisted dying, Penadés’ mini-Pompidou in Paris, and G . F Smith’s global hunt for the Colour of the Future

Campaign imagery courtesy of Dignity in Dying.

TEMPLO

Dignity in Dying

This October, Dignity in Dying is set to launch a groundbreaking report on assisted dying in the UK, exposing tragic stories of people failed by the current system and sharing new research around shifting public attitudes.

But how do you tell such difficult stories appropriately and sensitively? Enter TEMPLO. Known for tackling tough issues and topics ranging from human rights to corruption, cause-led designers Anoushka Rodda and Pali Palavathanan took up the task, revitalising the campaigning group’s identity and placing its members at the centre, to put human faces on the statistics.

(TEMPLO isn’t stopping there; major projects with Amnesty International, the UN and John Akomfrah are also in the pipeline.)

Get in touch

Photography of Croydon Colonnades, Queer Nature, Abundance in Paddington and Bristol Quilt by Gareth Gardner.

Adam Nathaniel Furman

Four new public projects open

What a special – not to mention busy – time it is for Adam Nathaniel Furman. They’ve opened Croydon Colonnades, 16 dazzling colonnades with a striking colour gradient featuring handmade porcelain tiles. At Kew Gardens, as part of Queer Nature, Adam has unveiled an enormous installation exploring the multifaceted meanings of plants within queer history, including their very own queer-inspired floral pattern. Over in Paddington, just a stone’s throw from the iconic station, Abundance is an amphitheatre-like art wall, fashioned from an origami-like use of metal sheets. And outside London, Bristol Quilt is a public artwork in which Adam cleverly uses standard pool tiles to deliver an uplifting splash in the centre of the city.

Get behind the scenes with Adam

G . F Smith’s Colour of the Future survey takes less than two minutes.

G . F Smith

What colour is your future?

From the muted neutral palettes of the average home to the grey car in its garage, from the slate clothes of our corporate wardrobes to the bland beige buildings of our cityscapes, it can sometimes seem like colour is leaching out of our everyday lives.

Against the backdrop of numerous reports saying the world is getting less colourful, G . F Smith is asking everyone to identify the Colour of the Future. For the next 12 months, you are invited to participate in the world’s largest survey about colour. Just take two minutes to complete the online survey, choose your personal vision for the colour of the future from a near-limitless palette, and check back here this time next year for the results.

Take your pick

Installation image of Tropical Modernism at Venice Architecture Biennale.

Bushra Mohamed

Tropical modernism in Sharjah

Following its critically acclaimed debut at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Msoma Architects founder Bushra Mohamed’s exhibition ‘Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa’ is set to launch in Sharjah, UAE, in November.

Through films and installations, the show explores the legacy of the Department of Tropical Architecture, a research centre founded by the Architectural Association in 1953 related to climate and the Global South, as a means of critiquing the colonialist implications of tropical architecture. Bushra will be at the show in Sharjah on 9–13 November, with a special evening film screening and panel discussion slated for the 12th.

Follow Msoma Architects

BOLD
Playful new platform makes architecture accessible – and fun

Founded by architectural designer Chun-Li Reid to change the ways we engage with architecture, the BOLD platform has brought a playful side to the industry. Since 2022, its Cooking with an Architect interview series has grilled architects about food as a means of rethinking our relationship with the built environment, and has hosted guests such as the recently elected RIBA president Muyiwa Oki. We’re delighted to take BOLD into the Zetteler fold. Get ready to hear more from this community-empowering initiative as it continues to make waves within architecture.

Take a bold step

Photography by Asier Rua.

Jorge Penadés

Camper’s extraordinary new Parisian HQ

While the Pompidou Centre is closed for refurbishment, Jorge Penadés’s and Camper are unveiling their newly revamped Parisian HQ, which takes inspiration from the museum’s idiosyncratic design ethos.

For Jorge's most ambitious Camper store to date, he has developed a remarkable shelving system that follows the entirety of the store’s walls in a continuous gesture – dramatically encapsulating the interior of the store.

See inside Jorge’s studio

Giles Tettey Nartey
Research-led and artful architecture

Giles Tettey Nartey is one of those rare people whose projects feel like poetry and politics all at once. A trained architect, artist, designer, filmmaker, researcher and educator, he was named by RIBA as a ‘Black architect of tomorrow’ in 2018, and has since exhibited his work at numerous galleries and biennale, including Seoul Biennale and London Design Festival.

Moving fluidly between art and architecture, his research-based practice spans curation, filmmaking, installation, performance and furniture design, and is rooted in traditional West African cultures, fostering a dialogue between craft and ritual, the intangible and tangible.

Learn more about Giles

Photography courtesy London Design Festival.

POoR Collective

Social enterprise storms LDF

The team at POoR Collective were unmissable this London Design Festival – from curating the PowerShift exhibition at Brompton Design District to winning the Emerging Design Medal, they made a serious impact.

We admire their commitment to supporting different voices and up-and-coming designers, and are so excited to announce we’re officially working with them.

Follow POoR

Black Females in Architecture co-founders, from left: Neba Sere, Akua Danso and Selasi Setufe. Credit: Tobi Sobowale.

Black Females in Architecture

A network of 450+ women driving sector-wide change

According to the ARB, less than 1% of architects in the UK are Black women. Despite an increased awareness about representation and inclusion within the architecture sector, the tangible change on the ground has been slow. That's why the co-founders of Black Females in Architecture came together to launch the organisation in 2018. With Selasi Setufe, Akua Danso and Neba Sere at the helm, BFA is a social enterprise that designs sustainable architecture projects, delivers EDI workshops and consultancy, and advocates for change across the sector.

Recently seen in Lesley Lokko's Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023, this trailblazing network of phenomenal women shaking up the industry have a number of high profile projects set to launch over the coming months. We're so excited to be working with them.

Follow Black Females in Architecture

Portrait of artist Alex Booker in his studio, by Sam Redman.

Alex Booker

Get creative with woodcut workshops in London this autumn

Want to learn a new skill? Artist Alex Booker has launched a new series of hands-on woodcut workshops in his studio, with sessions available to book from now until Christmas. This is a fun and friendly opportunity to make your own artwork using traditional Japanese hand tools, inks and methods (the oldest print techniques in the world!) – perfect as a gift or as a fun night out with friends. All materials – woodblocks, tools, paper, inks and a tube to take your works home – are included.

If you’d prefer to buy, rather than make, some art, Alex is also selling his unique woodcut prints at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair on 26–29 October.

Book a workshop in the day or evening