Architectural Lottery
Rem Koolhaas, along with his OMA cohort, were hard to miss in October as the month saw the opening of their Maggie’s Centre in Glasgow and a mighty exhibition of work-in-progress at the Barbican, London. With the Rothschild HQ nearing completion in the City of London the Dutch practice has been busy in London since [...]
Call For Entries: Designers in Residence 2012
Blueprint has joined forces with the Design Museum for this year’s Designers in Residence and the call is going out now for applicants. The scheme gives recent graduates – within the past five years – a chance to explore work around a given theme and grow as a designer, with a bursary provided by the [...]
Asif and Pernilla
Asif Khan is a young architect in an enviable position. He’s been hailed by Design Miami 2011 as a ‘Designer of the Future’, written up in the New York Times as one of five designers to watch this year, and awarded a prestigious ‘designer in residence’ slot at the Design Museum – the first architect [...]
Foster on Prouvé
There was a time in our evolving society when the making of things was considered not only honourable but was inextricably linked to their aesthetics. Perhaps, in retrospect, that is why we see integrity and consistency in the work of those individuals who were raised in the craft tradition.
Like Mies van der Rohe, whose knowledge of [...]
Biomimcry in Architecture
A few months on from the 10th anniversary in March of the Eden Project, Michael Pawlyn, one of its central architectural actors, has published a book on the ecological philosophy at the heart of the strange and exciting plant-filled biomes.
Biomimicry in Architecture is a primer to an all-encompassing way of approaching building culture. It steps [...]
Terence Conran Exhibition: Win Tickets and Books
The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. As well as this, his design studio and architectural [...]
Keith William Architects: Marlowe Theatre
Christopher Marlowe is arguably Canterbury’s most famous son, the Elizabethan playwright and contemporary of William Shakespeare who was stabbed to death in a bar-room brawl in Deptford, south London, at the age of 29.
The Marlowe Theatre has now switched on the lights and opened its doors following an extensive redesign, almost an entire rebuild, by Keith Williams [...]
OMA/Progress
One have might forecast that an exhibition surrounding OMA, the world’s most self-critical architecture practice, was never going to just another homogeneous exhibition. Indeed, at the moment of approaching the Barbican’s illusive west entrance – originally conceived as the entrance to the art gallery but never used – there is a sense that any other [...]
Out and Down In Paris
Filmmaker and artist David Lynch has applied his idiosyncratic vision to designing a Paris nightclub, a departure from film-making that’s not as far-fetched as it first appears. Silencio in Paris, which opened in September, is inspired by the identically named Club Silencio, which is a key location in his critically acclaimed film noir from 2001, [...]
Maggie’s Centre Nottingham: CZWG and Paul Smith
CZWG and Paul Smith have completed their Maggie’s centre in Nottingham after an 11th month construction period. Maggie’s Nottingham serves the Mid Trent Cancer Network and is situated next to the Breast Institute at Nottingham City Hospital. The Mid Trent Cancer Network covers the populations of Nottingham, North Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire – approximately 1.3 million [...]
Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby: Ascent
It’s been a vintage year for British design duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby; in the spring their first monograph was published by Rizzoli, which was followed a couple of months later by the unveiling of the 2012 Olympic torch, and now a solo exhibition at London art gallery Haunch of Venison.
Titled Ascent, the show [...]
The Power of Making
Walking into the Power of Making at the V&A comes as a bit of a shock. The place is stuffed to the gills with an eclectic range of objects, from a crocheted, full-size bear and a cake that looks like a real baby to a prosthetic leg and a Fabrican spray-on dress. The walls are [...]
Future Memory Pavilion
Future Memory Pavilion, an installation by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt, is unveiled today as the Future Memory in Singapore, as the platform for promotion of British architects and designers, culminates.
The Future Memory Pavilion comprises of two cones stretching up to eight meters high and 20 meters in diameter. Made of ice and sand, the [...]
The Best of Look Again
Thanks to everyone who visited our stand at 100% design this year and designed their own sign. We had hundreds of entries and here we bring you the ones that really caught our eye.
Look Again
Blueprint asked a series of designers, artists and architects to redesign the British roadsign. The response was diverse and thought-provoking, challenging the role of the ubiquitous notices and the type of commands we receive.
When was the last time you looked at a road sign? No, really looked? These ubiquitous parts of the urban fabric, order, [...]
The Living Room
The Living Room is a showcase of established and emerging British design. Opening at the start of the London Design Festival, founder of brand DesignedMade, Jonathan Krawczuk and design journalist, Alyn Griffiths have curated a show that brings together the best of British design, transforming the Luna & Curious boutique in celebration of British talent.
Comparatively [...]
Comment: New York
New York, New York, so good they made it twice. This time, the city is being reinvented as the Big Green Apple, with ‘liveability’ at its core, writes Greg Clark.
For New York City, the challenge to stay ahead and keep its lead in the world league of cities is not solely about regaining its economic [...]
Design’s best kept secret
Despite an outstanding programme of interdisciplinary workshops that has been running for more that 20 years, Boisbuchet is still design’s best kept secret. The brainchild of Alexander von Vegesack, founder and director of the Vitra Design Museum, Boisbuchet is a former agricultural estate in the heart of France, turned into an international cultural hub (pictured [...]
High Line
When the first part of High Line opened in 2009 it was greeted as a triumph of urban salvage. Variously named the hanging gardens of New York, park in the sky and the green ribbon, the story of how the 1.45 miles of decommissioned elevated railway was transformed into a vibrant public park has captivated [...]
Letter From: Belgrade
On 26 May the former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic was arrested and subsequently handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges that include genocide. The arrest closes a chapter in Serbia’s history and brings the country one step closer to joining its neighbour Slovenia as part of the [...]
