26th June 2020

Women in design, the story of London, and life after the apocalypse: Design District director Helen Arvanitakis shares her reading list

The creative strategist building London a new creative quarter chooses five books that have helped shape her thinking, including a definitive guide to the design world, the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi and a manual for rebuilding humanity.

As the director of the Design District, the new purpose-built creative quarter due to open on Greenwich Peninsula later this summer, Helen Arvanitakis is understandably interested in the fabric of the human environment. A former business development manager for Tom Dixon and the managing director of Design Research Studio, Helen is a consultant, strategist and sector leader who specialises in helping design businesses become more creative. Right now, she’s tackling the considerable challenge of coordinating eight leading architects and the construction of 16 visually unique buildings as the Design District takes shape beside the O2, where it will offer London’s creative industries a new and permanent home.

Photography by Taran Wilkhu

It’s a mammoth task, and for Helen, reading is either a means to expand her knowledge of her professional realm, or an escape from the gloom and anxiety of the 2020 news cycle. “I love fiction for a little light relief,” she says. “Weirdly, I find crime based around true events to be perfectly relaxing.” For non-fiction, she mostly turns to the topics that touch on her life in design. Her choices reflect her position as a woman at the forefront of her industry, including work on pioneering female architects, design’s latent sexism, the urban story of London and – curveball – how humanity might survive the apocalypse.

Design as an Attitude
“Many years ago I worked at Arts Council England on Architecture Week (which sadly no longer exists), at the time when Alice Rawsthorn was the director of the Design Museum. I remember being struck by her ability to make any topic accessible regardless of whether you had any prior awareness of it. Her encyclopaedic knowledge and passion comes through in all her work, and her book Design as an Attitude breaks down the design world for anyone to understand. She opens up these subjects so well. I find myself learning something new every time, even if it's an area I am reasonably well versed in. And from a woman who I admire greatly; how satisfying.”

Lina Bo Bardi 100
“Lina Bo Bardi is an Italian-born, Brazilian-based architect who created a totally extraordinary body of work during her career. This wonderful volume was created 'from the viewpoint of her 100th birthday.’ I have the greatest respect for women architects at this time; they are trailblazers in a totally male world, and I cannot begin to imagine how much harder it must have been to make their way. Bo Bardi’s buildings range wildly in scale, from the enormous Museu de São Paulo with its signature red structure, to the smaller residential projects, like Casa Cirell. Occasionally we glimpse the furniture, custom designed for these projects, and get to see that she was also a brilliant product designer. It’s a shame more of this didn’t survive or come to fruition, not only as it is beautiful but also to remind us that she is one of the few people able to design at all scales, which is a truly rare talent.”

Invisible Women
“Thinking about women and design, it is impossible not to mention Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. One of the most brilliant things about this book is that it reminds us of all the hidden disadvantages women face in absolutely everything we do and come into contact with. Importantly, every argument is presented with solid data (facts!). This removes, as far as possible, any fog covering the bias towards one sex or the other. It’s so important not to be complacent about these things, and to try very hard to keep them in mind whenever we are presented with an opportunity to make change. I try to keep this in mind as much as possible.”

London: The Biography
“As the director of Design District, a major hub for the creative industries set to launch on the Greenwich Peninsula, I’ve been thinking a lot about the rich history this site has had in London. Once a floodplain, then a market garden and more recently highly industrial, there is a lot of character to the area. Its proximity to the City has always been one of its strengths, and when reading Peter Ackroyd’s London: The Biography it becomes very easy to imagine the noises, smells and bustle going on here. Never has a history book stirred the senses more than this, and my love for and fascination with this city are only heightened by the feeling that in many ways there are so many elements that haven’t changed.”

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World After an Apocalypse
“Finally I can’t help but mention The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell, which feels like an appropriate read right now. I’ve always had a (no longer secret) morbid interest in apocalyptic stories told through almost any medium. The ones that sit closest to reality are hard to ignore, as we imagine how we would fare in this post apocalyptic u- or dystopia, facing the extinction of humankind. The Knowledge summarises all you need to kickstart the human way of life again. Growing food, making clothes, construction are all covered. But there is a somewhat disturbing introduction, explaining the different types of apocalypse – and how some are better to survive than others. Ideally you want reduced population but all resources intact. So, my advice is to keep this book by your bedside (along with torch, wind-up radio, ancient grains and a lifetime supply of antibiotics) and keep your fingers crossed that a solar burp isn’t what takes us down.”

Discover more about the Design District