Tabla de contenidos para March - April 2019 en Frame

Why do you believe better education comes from better communication? JIYOUN KIM: Traditionally, school was the place to learn, but now we can access the information we want anytime, anywhere. Our ability to find and apply new technologies is more important than the actual knowledge or information we discover. For example, few people memorize public-transport routes. When the time comes, we just need to know how to reach our destination. What impact do your ideas have on education? SEWON CHUNG: We believe that a better form of education would be to inspire a life attitude that has no resistance to learning new knowledge and skills. If curiosity or doubt arises, a student should be stimulated to find information independently – to be an ‘adventure explorer’. Please explain your proposal. SC:…

GWENAEL FRENCHMAN GWENAEL NICOLAS has lived in Japan for some 27 years. ‘I came here to escape history,’ he says. ‘When you explain a project in France, you need to explain why you’re doing it. In Japan, history begins now – from this moment on. That liberates the imagination.’ In 1998 he cofounded Curiosity with Reiko Miyamoto, whose experience at an advertising agency grants her the ‘sense of reality I don’t have’, says Nicolas. ‘We’re a good mix.’ Currently, the duo synthesizes the ideas of its 28-strong multicultural team in Tokyo into everything from interiors and furniture to graphics and cosmetics. Nicolas walks us through the five standout spaces that shaped the studio. 1999 PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE NYC ‘I’d always wanted to work with Issey Miyake for one reason,’…

SHANGHAI – In Asia, skincare is mostly the domain of Japan and South Korea – Shiseido and Amorepacific are two veritable global giants. But there is a new entrant to the game: China. The country claims the world’s third-largest consumer market for prestige skincare, topped only by Japan and the United States. Beyond size – numbers one and two are each twice as large as the Chinese market – the main difference separating the three is that the US and Japan are both native consumers and exporters, while China almost always assumes the role of importer. And yet, as the Made in China 2.0 wave expands to include new manufacturing categories, it’s also reached the beauty industry. Here’s where things get really smart, really quick: instead of competing with wellknown…

BERLIN – How should designers respond to the coming age of robots? By placing them in a context of human warmth and nostalgia, says Germany’s Studio Aisslinger. For Apotheke, a premium pharmacy in Berlin’s Schultheiss neighbourhood, the studio’s designers imagine the future while revisiting the past by combining cutting-edge technology with a familiar, Eames-inspired aesthetic. The 250-m2 interior showcases a robot arm that moves speedily along the shelves, selecting and delivering medicines efficiently and precisely (reassuringly, its picks are checked by a human pharmacist prior to sale). ‘The technology is actually quite common; many pharmacies have it,’ says Studio Aisslinger’s Monika Losos,‘but usually it’s hidden in the stock area, as though it had nothing to do with us humans. Yet technology now permeates our whole existence. We should accept that…

SHENZEN – Assuming an attitude more reminiscent of a design hotel than the shoestring ‘office factory’ of yesteryear, X+Living’s flamboyant Unova Co-Working Space marks the coming of age of co-working in China. With its playful and design-led scheme, the 8,800-m2 facility, located in the business hotspot of Shenzen, reflects China’s desire to transform itself from the factory of the world into a global centre for creative innovation. It’s an ambition that dates from 2015, when the Chinese government called for ‘mass entrepreneurship’. An unprecedented surge in start-ups followed: over six million were registered in 2017 alone. Naturally, the demand for flexible mini-office spaces boomed along with them. ‘Co-working is extremely popular in China right now,’ says design office X+Living’s Li Xiang. The new Unova space, she says, is occupied mainly…

WHEN ARCHITECTS turn their talents to their own homes, critics tend to fall back on clichés: a manifesto for new ways of living, the apotheosis of an architectural philosophy, or perhaps just cold and inhumane. Such descriptions often hold water. The limestone and cedar expanses of John Pawson’s family kitchen in Notting Hill are – as you might expect – spa-like, interrupted only by a Japanese cast-iron kettle, a few walnuts and bleached Hans Wegner chairs. Norman Foster’s retreat on the Riviera, now sold, boasted a vast four-storey atrium that replicated his corporate idiom – all aluminium, glass and white, right down to the Eames lounger and Nomos table. Strangely, the home of the greatest architect of the 20th century does not sit comfortably within these brackets. For the last…

OF ALL THE FURNITURE types, the shelf is the only one democratic enough to let the user finish composing what the designer started. While quite a few show-stopping shelves have passed in review – among which Franco Albini’s precarious Veliero bookcase (1940) and the unmistakable Nuvola Rossa by Vico Magistretti (1977) – they are seldom pieces that make a splash on their own. An empty shelf is incomplete, and unlike the many armchairs and coffee tables that have reached iconic status, it retains a humbler, more complex character. Curating 12 Shelves for The Aram Gallery in 2018 gave me cause to ponder the position of the shelf in modern life. With photos, books and music all stored on digital devices, and urban living space at a premium, is the typology…

RIYA PATEL is curator of London’s Aram Gallery, an independent venue dedicated to new and experimental design. Since earning her master’s degree in architecture and beginning her journalism career at the Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review, she has been an editor at Frame, as well as a senior editor at Icon, for which she now serves as a contributing editor. Patel writes for publications such as Disegno, Wallpaper* and The Independent. On page 152, she reviews the evolving role of the shelf. The work of Finnish photographer TUOMAS UUSHEIMO captures the unspoken stories of architecture, built environments, interiors and objects. His images have been featured in international publications such as The New York Times, Monocle and Architectural Digest. He teaches architectural photography at the Lahti Institute of Design and…

WELLBEING – An ageing population means that consumers are living longer and, consequently, are likely to have at least one chronic disease. It’s a care-provision crisis that’s hitting many major economies. Along with the wellness industry’s powering interest in preventative health solutions, old age is demanding more and better healthcare devices for use at home. A 2017 Gartner survey of US, UK and Australian households – which found that home health-and wellness-management systems have an adoption rate of 11 per cent – shows the market is still modest. But as the population grows more familiar with having healthcare delivered in domestic rather than clinical environments, the percentage is expected to rise. In terms of aesthetics, domestic and clinical settings are very different: one comfortable and familiar, the other austere and…

DAISUKE TODAY’S ARCHITECTS are expected to be the ultimate all-rounders. Over the years, their lists of expertise have accumulated anything and everything, from a natural progression into interiors to the less-but-still-related specialities of typography and web design. As more in the field head down the jack-of-all-trades route, how can the new generation set itself apart? For Tokyo-based studio DDAA, the answer lies in defining a leitmotif, one that speaks to the zeitgeist. The firm offers an ‘architectural perspective on multi-disciplinary projects’, says founder Daisuke Motogi, who established DDAA in 2010 after majoring in architecture at Musashino Art University, where he now teaches. ‘Although my thoughts are rooted in architecture, I don’t consider different genres separately when I design.’ Those designs could be city plans, landscapes, interiors, products or branding –…

➀ PLACE IT IN SIGHT We always say that the American college campus is one of the most recognizable brands in the world today. The university library – true to its stature in the life of the university – should always occupy a central and prominent position on that campus. A library out of sight is fundamentally out of mind. ➁ BUILD IT TO LAST There is nothing sadder than architecture a decade old that was supposed to have been the architecture of the future and already feels out of date. We are stupid to think we can ever design anything that will always look like the future, and we shouldn’t try. Instead we should anticipate functional parameters of the future as well as we can and create architecture that…

‘ONE SIMILARITY between architecture and book-making is that both have unbelievably long traditions but are also forced to be of the moment, constantly updating in order to survive,’ says Rem Koolhaas, director of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Since its inception in 1975, the Dutch firm has attempted to reinvent architecture by incorporating rigorous research into its design methodology. Over three decades, OMA tackled the question of the library through four projects, each providing a different answer to two pressing questions: the survival of the book following the complete digitization of life, and the potential for public space to act as a platform for civic gathering and intellectual exchange. Within this ideological ambition, the book and its storage are no longer the central concern, but just one of a…

TECHNOLOGY – If this is the era of the smart object, the fact remains that most things are resolutely dumb. But should a century’s worth of devices be forced to wear a dunce cap merely because you can’t operate them from your phone while driving home or taking a bath? The committed design enthusiast who is nonetheless keen to embrace the convenience of IoT technology is faced with an irresolvable dilemma. Do you throw out that Michael Graves kettle and Richard Sapper lamp in favour of modern equivalents that are most likely inferior in every way other than their facility for remote control? Not if you’re Frolic Studio, whose prototypal Smartians kit uses a range of web-connected servos to push, twist and pull the buttons and dials on all sorts…

TECHNOLOGY – It is arguable that today, more than ever, we need to watch what we say. The reason? Not state-sponsored surveillance but convenience capitalism. Many of us have eagerly installed AI-enabled listening devices from the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google into our homes, trading diffuse (and largely unconsidered) invasions of privacy for the seamlessness of voice-user interfaces. The speed of uptake is unprecedented. According to market-research company eMarketer, 9.5 million UK residents used such ‘smart speakers’ in 2018, a staggering growth rate of 98.6 per cent over the preceding year. These figures are mirrored across the majority of Western countries. Although the most these devices usually do is give you a weather update or allow you to reorder washing tablets hands-free, several instances have proved more nefarious, such…

STREET FURNITURE – Let’s be honest. In an era of extremism, bullets and bombs, at times urban architecture and street furniture feel more menacing than protective. A corner dustbin can appear to pose a threat. Is it concealing an explosive device? Even a streetlamp – especially with its light source extinguished – can seem hostile rather than reassuring on a dark night. Take the bollard, originally invented to moor ships and control traffic and now often seen as a last-ditch defence against vehicular ‘ram raiding’ attacks. In response to such sinister references, designer Beatriz Peró Giannini presented the Rocker, the Slider and the Wobbler as part of the Ulterior exhibition. Her pieces suggest a way for designers to help pedestrians take back their public spaces. Giannini created playful lemon-yellow accessories…

‘THERE’S A PLAYFULNESS and a disregard for the normal,’ says Bronwynn Welsh. The CEO of Doos Architects is describing the appeal of working with Moooi, whose products have appeared in the Stockholm-based studio’s designs since 2005. That was the year that Doos selected Maarten Baas’s Smoke Armchair for the atrium of Hotel Artemis in Amsterdam. ‘I thought the chair was brutal in its expression – imperfect and unapologetic,’ says Welsh. ‘I liked that.’ And as the ongoing relationship proves, there was much more to like as well. Doos specializes in restaurant and hotel interiors. Why do you think Moooi pieces work well in such spaces? BRONWYNN WELSH: Hotel projects are generally quite cost conscious. We make smart choices across the board to leave room in the budget for bold statement…

MUSEUM ATTENDANCE IS reportedly declining in both the UK and the US, but the cause is yet to be determined. Perhaps the downtrend is following an organic curve – at least in the UK, where numbers drastically increased between 2008 and 2014. Was that level of growth – from 39.7 million to 50.8 million visitors across 15 museums – simply unsustainable? The consequence is that fewer people are seeing and interacting with works of art in a traditional museum context. But with news articles claiming theatre attendance is higher than ever – and recent stage designs by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Wolfgang Tillmans taking the limelight – will we witness the emergence of a valuable medium for artists, one that showcases their oeuvres in an all-encompassing manner? For…

AMSTERDAM – They used to call it the Widow of the Zuidas. The plain-looking building, located in the budding business district on the south side of Amsterdam, had been vacant and forgotten for nearly a decade. That was until Boudewijn Poelmann, a man known for his visionary endeavours, saw beyond the rough concrete columns, the grey walls and the uninspired atrium. Poelmann is the founder of the Goede Doelen Loterijen, a multi-lottery organization that has turned the Dutch love of random numbers into donations for charity programmes in developing countries – since 1990, its contributions total more than seven billion euros, making it one of the largest private donors in the world. He also came up with the then-preposterous concept of the now crazily successful Postcode Lottery: bet on your…

THE LIBRARY IS EXPERIENCING a renaissance. It’s no wonder, really, since the institution may represent the original example of the now flourishing sharing economy. In the US alone, 44.8 million adults used online sharing-economy services such as Airbnb and Uber in 2016, a figure that’s expected to nearly double by 2021. Millennials are the biggest growth drivers in this area – hardly shocking, since they’re the first generation of digital natives. Somewhat surprising, though, is that despite concerns that the emergence of e-books and other digital media would render physical libraries redundant, millennials are outnumbering other demographics when it comes to library usage. Analysis of new Pew Research Center data on US library attendance, for example, found that over half of survey respondents aged 18 to 35 had visited a…

OUR POWERS OF ATTENTION are failing, or so the headline reports keep reiterating. The span decreases decade to decade: 12 seconds, 10 seconds, 8 …. If you’ve failed to read that far, let me sum up the essentials. Unable to consume a full intellectual meal, today’s consumers merely snack on bite-sized pieces of information, served screen-first. Particularly for millennials and the Gen Zers following behind them, weightier fare apparently equals indigestion. It’s hardly surprising. Social feeds and streaming services offer a festival of rich, interactive and interrelated media at pace. If you liked that, you’ll love this – and this, and this, and this. While reports that we're increasingly unwilling or unable to consume long-form media have largely proved false, what is certain is that this new content landscape is…