Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary at the V&A

From tomorrow, the V&A in London will be hosting an exhibition on British designer Thomas Heatherwick as part of the museum's British Design season, which also includes the Ballgowns exhibition in the adjacent galleries. This is certainly not a retrospective by any means, seeing as the practice is still very young, but more a celebration of their studio. Making and creating are very central to the exhibition, with over 150 objects ranging from fully-functional models (the Rolling Bridge really does curl up as it does in real life, and will be demonstrated every Friday afternoon) to maquettes and test pieces that show the design process. The detail even goes down to the laser-cut labels that give off a vaguely smokey scent as you navigate the exhibition. On display is a section of a new London Routemaster bus, which recently started it's first journey on the No. 38, juxtapositioned next to a modest plank of wood that geniusly folds into pieces of furniture. The exhibition is full of contrasts; small and large, polished and rough, smooth and sharp, finished and unfinished. It's really like taking a walk through their studio. 

Rolling Bridge, Paddington Basin, London, UK 2004 © Steve Speller

 Teesside Power Station, Stockton-On-Tees, Teesside, UK 2011 © Heatherwick Studio 

 UK Pavilion Seed Cathedral, Shanghai Expo, China 2010 © Iwan Baan

New Bus For London, UK 2011 © Heatherwick Studio 

All images courtesy of V&A unless otherwise specified

Thea Stratton in Toby Knott’s Editorial for Velour Magazine

Images

Aberrant Architecture at Clerkenwell Design Week

A small red theatre popped up at Clerkenwell Design Week, here the designers at Aberrant Architecture explain it's presence.

 

Images my own. 

Review of new Eames film on Blueprint magazine website

Check out an article on Blueprint magazine's website which I wrote after seeing a new film, Eames: the Architect and the Painter at Clerkenwell Design Week. 

http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/index.php/design/review-eames-the-architect-and-the-painter/

Images: Eames office

Spray Painted Concrete Bollards by EVOL

Back in the beginning of the month I wrote a post on the urban cityscapes spray painted on cardboard by graffiti artist EVOL (see it here). The pictures in this post however, show another piece of work; the spray painted concrete bollards made to look like rundown housing estates, situated in Smithfield Market. 

Images: My own

Steven Holl Daeyang Gallery and House Watercolours

I often think that Steven Holl's watercolours are somewhat overlooked in favour of glossy photos in architectural publications. So with that in mind, here are some atmospheric watercolours of recently completed Daeyang Gallery and House, situated in the Kangbuk area at the base of the hilly mountains in Seoul, Korea. The three copper-coloured pavilions of the building are arranged around a pool, with separate programmatic spaces rising above and below the plane of the water's surface. 

Images: Steven Holl Architects via

"Versailles in a Socialist France"- Chanel's Resort Collection 2013

Chanel's Resort Collection was set this year amongst three of the grand fountains of the Chateau de Versailles in France. A typically Rococo, Marie Antoinette setting, though punked up with music courtesy of M.I.A and the gold platform trainers worn by the models. Speaking of the show and the recent restoration of a left-wing government following France's recent election, Karl Lagerfield said, "I don't want the rest of the world to think of France as a sad, gloomy country. They won't come to buy our products"(source).

Images

Christian Louboutin at the Design Museum

The instantly recognisable glossy red soles of the typical Christian Louboutin stiletto reveal a creativity driven by fantasy, play, fetish and sex. The first UK retrospective of the iconic French shoe designer follows Louboutin's creative approach, focusing on the foot as an object of desire. Disrobing and nudity have become important themes, with Louboutin stressing his preference for shoes that 'undress', rather than 'dress'.

Louboutin was born in 1964, the son of a cabinetmaker, and as a child recalls seeing a sign to a Museum of African and Oceanic Art showing a high heel shoe crossed out by a vivid red line. This is a lasting influence that seems to have inspired both the slender silhouette of the heel, and the erotic restraint of his work; particularly evident in his 2007 'Fetish' exhibition at the La Gallerie Du Passage in Paris. The collaboration of photography with artist David Lynch showed footwear that was near impossible to walk in; there was even a 'mono-shoe' consisting of two shoes glued together. From the age of 14, Louboutin was a regular visitor to the Paris nightclubs and cabarets, and in 1980 was offered a job at the famous Parisian music hall, the Folies Bergere. This dramatic element of theatre  and flirtation can be seen as a strong recurrence in his work; where the front of the shoe is plain like the dancer's body, but the back is a bouffant of detail like the showgirl's tail of feathers. 

It must be incredibly hard to create an exhibition of shoes without reducing the content to the appearance of a shoe shop. This has been successfully avoided at the Design Museum, with the use of fragmented rooms exploring Louboutin's design process. Perhaps the piece de la resistance of the whole exhibition is the 3D hologram of American burlesque dancer, Dita Von Teese, by multimedia projection specialists Musion (well known for their recent resurrection of Tupac for the Coachella Music Festival). Taking centre stage above a red display platform mimicking the red sole of a Louboutin, the hologram morphs a shimmering stiletto into the seductive silhouette of Von Teese. 

Images: top three, middle three, bottom two