nature

A Deeper Dive: Design Miami/ Tour Highlights The guided tours I led through Design Miami/ sought to help visitors navigate the fair by taking a deep dive into the content, illuminating themes and historical continuity in the contemporary work. What follow are five highlights from the tour, representing a range of themes I found throughout the work on display – nature, materials, process, and play. Design Miami/, contemporary design, Lonneke Gordjin & Ralph Nauta, Nendo, Lasvit, Studio Glithero, Snarkitecture, Sylvain Willenz, CIRVA, Glass, process, nature, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Galerie VIVID, Volume Gallery, Victor Hunt	, , , ,
Hauntingly Beautiful: Frederic Edwin Church’s Parthenon Sketch Home of the mythological goddess Athena, the Parthenon is a hauntingly sacred place where the air is ominously rife with magic. Or, at least, that is the mood evoked in Frederic Edwin Church’s (1826-1900) oil sketch of the Parthenon. To create this effect, Church chose to paint the building from below, giving the impression that it looms over the viewer. In reality, this particular view of the Parthenon does not exist, but is rather contrived from composite views and memory. The contrast of red and blue illumination was also almost certainly invented by the artist. Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, Parthenon, Hudson River School, Romanticism, artificial lighting, Greece, composite view, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American landscape, Architecture, columns, icebergs, nature, Athena, mythology, paintings
Rooms with a View: Landscape and Wallpaper This exhibition features 90 selections of wallpaper—from the 18th to the 20th century—that document changing attitudes toward nature. The exhibition focuses on wallpaper production and use especially during the 19th century, when landscape in art was a metaphor for spiritual and national aspirations. Prior to 1840, wallpaper was block-printed and too costly for middle-class consumption. Machine printing made wallpaper accessible in the latter part of the 19th century, both in Europe and America. wallpaper, wall coverings, nature, landscapes, exhibitions, ch:exhibition=35350105
Growing Respect for Dirt A new project by Marieke Staps highlights the emerging interest among designers to devise inexpensive and ecologically sound solutions to ordinary problems. Soil Lamp signals a new environmental consciousness by focusing on simple, abundant materials like soil and finding new ways to harness them. Why Design Now, Triennial, Exhibition, 2010, Marieke Staps, ecological, inexpensive, solutions, soil, dirt, Soil Lamp, materials, technology, batteries, earth batteries, metals, microorganisms, bacteria, renewable, energy, Lebone, Bioconcrete, clock, biomass, nature
Designer David Trubridge answers why design? It is not primarily to do with recyclable materials, efficient material use. To me these are the basic givens of design — any good design automatically does this by default. If not, it is not good design. David Trubridge, basics, stories, role, problem, solve, solutions, rationality, left brain, thinking, nourish, depth, nourishment, cultural, connection, value, nature, fresh, clean, clouds, form, senses, emotions, rewarding, why
Meier 75 Personally, I am partial to Richard Meier’s approach to architecture. According to Meier, a building is an act of “willful artificiality;” a “man-made” spatial construct that functions as a receptacle for experiencing the world of nature. Richard Meier, Architecture, artificiality, man-made, white walls, nature, Frank Lloyd Wright, influences, building, natural, landscape, stage, Display, separation, art, modernist, Le Corbusier, machine, silversmith, Jean Puiforcat, theory, unity, harmony, Modular, system, scale, proportions, drawings, lines, Getty Center, Los Angeles, gift, collection, contemporary, Tod Williams Billie Tsien, Museum of American Folk Art, Alvaro Siza, Galician Center of Contemporary Art, Santiago de Compostela, spain, sketches, museum
Design Geography Fernando and Humberto Campana grew up in Brotas, Brasil, 235 kilometers (146 miles) north of São Paulo. When the Campanas were growing up it was a small town that was renowned for its exuberant natural features and good soil for growing coffee. Campana Brothers, Fernando Campana, Humberto Campana, brothers, product design, Industrial Design, geography, Brotas, Brazil, town, nature, growing up, movies, films
Video: Curating Campana Brothers Select “I think the curatorial process is how to tell a history about something in a different way with a different point of view, with a different light on it.” —Fernando Campana Campana Brothers, Humberto Campana, Fernando Campana, brothers, curation, Select, Exhibition, video, Brazil, product designer, Industrial Designer, nature, create
Slideshow: Making Trans... chair Fernando and Humberto explain their TransPlastic series as a fictional story wherein, in a world made of plastic, synthetic matter eventually becomes fertile ground for transgenic creations in which nature grows from and eventually overpowers plastic. Campana Brothers, Fernando Campana, Humberto Campana, brothers, furniture design, chair, Trans Chair, story, plastic, wicker, materials, woven, nature, transgenic, collection, Select, Exhibition, elements, dual, permanent collection, Brazil, slides