Sometimes the imagination and skill involved in building can blow your mind. It is an honor to be able to highlight two of these achievements this month in the news section – the Sound Chapel in China that looks like a rock fell from space and Gingerbread which was made to raise funds for the Museum of Architecture in the UK.
In addition to big statement designs, we also have a thoughtful architecture with the individual in mind in the form of a library designed to help you connect with your passions and an unprecedented installation from Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis movement, designed to offer a personal space.
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Building a brave new world
China is in the midst of a construction boom that has made it the largest construction site in human history. With nearly half of the world’s construction going to take place in this one country in the next decade, the architects and builders who shape this horizon are of paramount importance. A new generation of homegrown architects is now replacing Western names as the makers of China’s most luxurious buildings. Not only is their new vision gaining international recognition, but their more sustainable practices are helping the planet as well. An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Reuse, Renew and Recycle: Modern Architecture from China, demonstrates this generation’s commitment to social and environmental sustainability – featuring work by Pritzker Prize-winning and Aga Khan-award-winning architecture buffs Zhang Ke and his studio ZAO/Standard.
Reinventing cultural architecture, a book covering the work of Open Studio, was published this spring. This Beijing-based studio has just finished work on a concert hall called the Chapel of Sound located in the shadow of the Great Wall of China. Open Studio strives to be in harmony with the environment in the design and materials used. Her most famous work is the UCCA Dune Art Museum built on a beach in Bohai Bay. The Church of the Sound is similarly small, built like a rock and open to the elements. Open Studio was founded by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing and their comments on their new work seem to epitomize the new Chinese spirit: “We are at a time when the question of our relationship with nature as human beings is more acute than ever before. Can we be humble enough to hear what we are overwhelmed with? Nature? We wanted to make something different, something meaningful.”
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Ettore Sottsass room in the room
Today we are familiar with the idea of a caveman as a place for the male type to have some precious time alone. The same concept was present in mid-century, postmodern Italian design – albeit in a somewhat more elegant incarnation.
In the mid-1960s, architect, designer, and founder of Memphis Group Ettore Sottsass built Sala Sottsass, a “room within a room,” in Casa Lana, the Milan home of a typist friend. Sottsas was fascinated by the relationship between men, their needs and rituals, and the inhabited space. So Sala Sottsass consisted of a wooden structure with sofas arranged to form a “protected space” to sit, chat and listen to music.
This project has never been seen by the public but now the Sotzas Archive has meticulously reconstructed it in the Triennale di Milano, the Museum of Design and Art in Lombardy. To accompany the installation, the Triennale has organized three exhibitions throughout 2022 that will delve deeper into the world of Sottsass.
In the meantime, any man moving into the spare room for some peace and quiet this Christmas would want to stare at this “little plaza… where one may move and meet” as Sottsas himself put it in 1967—and dream.
For more information on upcoming Sottsass fairs, check out the Triennale website
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Express your feelings in a pop-up library
Skip Gallery was founded in 2017 by curators and artists Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski in Skip. “We couldn’t find any where to display our work, but Borowski came up with a great idea to cast the jump as an exhibition in a parking lot, and our madness project was born,” Becker says. For Christmas 2021, Skip Gallery brings you a library of sentiments. This project is a collaboration with Architects Caukin Studio and Self Space Therapy Service. The library is a quaint and pop-thatched hideaway – built nearby, of course – in Spitalfields Market, London. Inside is a cozy reading room where you can learn about emotions from the shelves of the magazine library provided by Self Space.
“This has been in the making for two years, and we are about to launch the Feelings library. We feel very strongly about creating opportunities for artists and designers and demonstrating creativity in public spaces.”
With mental health issues increasing during the ongoing Covid pandemic, let’s hope our library of sentiment helps someone have a merry Christmas.
For more information visit library.com مشاعر feelings
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The Fabulous Life of Florine Stetheimer
German German Florine Stetheimer was one of the most important feminist artists of the twentieth century. Marcel Duchamp helped organize a retrospective of her work two years after her death in 1944, and Andy Warhol said she was his favorite artist. Stetheimer is best known for her poetry, costume design, and stage sets, but perhaps one of her most significant achievements was the painting described as the first nude self-portrait from the “female gaze” perspective, completed in 1915.
After spending her early years in Europe, she and her sisters Carrie and Etty helped introduce the modernist movement to America and supported the Harlem Renaissance through Bryant Park Salon in New York. Stetties, as the two sisters were known, each had their own creative pursuit. Carrie created a dollhouse containing an art collection of miniatures donated by her artist friends. Etty wrote feminist novels under the pseudonym Henrie Waste. Florine made works of outspoken political art long before it became the norm – addressing gender identity, apartheid, women’s rights, as well as the burgeoning avant-garde scene in her hometown of New York.
A new biography of art historian Barbara Bloemink focuses on these political works and brings a new focus to the innovative artist, reminding the world that behind her pseudo-naïve style – so beloved by Warhol – she was an intelligent woman, ahead of her time.
Florine Stettheimer’s Biography (Hermer Publishing/University of Chicago Press) was published on January 24
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Architecture is good enough to eat
Following the 2020 release of Ikea’s gingerbread furniture, new edible festive design projects have been undertaken this year. American designer Kelly Wearstler created a limited-edition modern-style gingerbread house in California with Los Angeles-based Flamingo Estate Food Company, with all proceeds going toward creating the structure, a charity that helps communities rebuild with sustainable housing after natural disasters.
Swedish studio Ulf Mejergren Architects (UMA) decided to find out how they could use gingerbread cookies and create an edible hut out of festive cookies. Miller Brewery has released a limited edition Ginger Dive Bar Kit which is unfortunately now sold out. If you want to admire the best of biscuit making, head to the London Museum of Architecture. They hold an exhibition annually where designers and engineers create the Gingerbread City. The gallery raises funds to support the museum’s philanthropic work.
Gingerbread City runs until January 9, 2022 at the Museum of Architecture, 6-7 Motcombe Street, Belgravia, London
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New eco yarn made of kelp
A report by the World Economic Forum this year found that the fashion industry’s supply chain is the third largest source of pollution on the planet. It contributes significantly to the production of synthetic fibers that use fossil fuels. Developing biomaterials to replace these non-renewable fabrics is a major area of research in fashion, and this month, Algiknit revealed its new kelp-derived yarns and plans to begin collaborating with fashion brands in 2022. AlgiKnit has spent four years developing technology to produce yarns that use Seaweed on a commercial scale.
Kelp is renewable and renewable and can be used to make versatile and durable yarns for shoes and clothing that have a much lower carbon footprint than traditional yarns, especially synthetics.
“We know that consumers want more cost-competitive and environmentally sound options that perform alongside traditional materials,” said Aaron Nesser, co-founder and chief technology officer at AlgiKnit. “The yarns we produce today have the look and feel of natural fibres, as well as all that is made of conscious, uncompromising material.”