It also shows a series of writings compiled by Professor Aurora Fernández, of 28 architects who have somehow had a “meeting” with Oíza, and who help to understand the many facets of his personality. Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, architect and essential teacher of twentieth-century Spanish architecture. (more…)

 

 

With the exhibition »Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design«, running from 29 September 2018 to 10 March 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will present the first large retrospective focussing on the designer, author, and activist Victor J. Papanek (1923–1998).  In it, Papanek makes a plea for inclusion, social justice, and sustainability – themes of greater relevance for today’s design than ever before. The exhibition includes high-value exhibits such as drawings, objects, films, manuscripts, and prints, some of which have never before been presented. These are complemented by works of Papanek’s contemporaries from the 1960s to 1980s, including George Nelson, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan, or the radical design initiative »Global Tools«. Contemporary works from the areas of critical and social design provide insight into Papanek’s lasting impact.

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Practical Information

“Victor Papanek. The Politics of Design”
September 29, 2018 – October 3, 2019
Vitra Design Museum Gallery
Charles-Eames-Straße 2,  Weil am Rhein
Germany

 

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Faced with Nazi persecution in Austria, Papanek escaped to the United States in 1939. After pursuing a career as an industrial designer, during the 1960s he developed a critique of consumerism that would make him well known around the world. This position is also reflected in his designs, which he often developed together with his students or collaborators, including televisions and radios for African countries, electric vehicles, as well as the »Fingermajig«, an object designed to stimulate the sense of touch (1965–1970), and the »Living Cubes« series (1973), user-assembled furniture that could be modified to meet different needs.

 

 

Papanek’s true impact, however, is to be found in his work as an author and arbiter of a new and critical understanding of design. He lectured in universities around the world, inspiring generations of students, and tirelessly promoted a wider social debate about design. For example, beginning in 1961 he moderated a television series about design that was broadcast throughout the USA. Alongside his »Design for the Real World«, which has been translated into over twenty languages, additional books such as »How Things Don’t Work« (1977) or »Design for Human Scale« (1983) cemented his reputation as a pioneer of alternative design. In them he used pointed language and humour to criticize a blind belief in consumerism and adapt the ideas of the generation of 1968 to address practical issues of everyday life for a great number of people.

 

 

»Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design« is organized into four sections offering an in-depth look at Papanek’s life and work. The exhibition begins with an introductory, large-format media installation presenting the designer’s ideas in a contemporary context and follows with a biographical overview tracing Papanek’s life from his escape from Europe to his international success. For the first time, organizers were able to draw upon materials of the Papanek estate held by the Papanek Foundation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, which includes a number of documents that have never been exhibited, including notebooks, letters, furniture, pieces from Papanek’s collection of ethnological objects, as well as over thousands slides that the designer used for his lectures.

 

 

Two other sections focus on the main themes of Papanek’s work, including his fundamental criticism of consumerism and his engagement with social minorities, his commitment to the needs of what was then known as the »Third World«, ecology, sustainability, and »making« culture – creation and production using one’s own resources – which had its origins in the 1960s do-it-yourself movement. Visitors can also view a wealth of designs by Papanek, his students, and other collaborators, including those by the Danish designer Susanne Koefoed, who as a student of Papanek developed the first International Symbol of Access in 1968.

 

 

The exhibition is supplemented with around twenty carefully selected contemporary works that transport Papanek’s ideas into the twenty-first century by designers including Catherine Sarah Young, Forensic Architecture, Jim Chuchu, Tomás Saraceno, Gabriel Ann Maher, or the Brazilian collective Flui Coletivo and Questtonó. They, too, deal with complex themes such as global climate change, fluid gender identities, consumer behaviour, or the economic realities of migration, meaning they reflect the continuing resonance of the questions Papanek was already addressing in the 1960s. At the same time, they break out of the white, Western, and male-dominated world to which Papanek was bound despite all his efforts to the contrary.

 

 

»Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design« is thus both a retrospective as well as a themed exhibition. By focusing on Papanek the person, we can better understand a larger theme, namely the significance of design as a political tool. After all, what was revolutionary for Papanek’s time is now generally accepted: design is not only about giving form to something; it is a tool for political transformation that must consider social and ethical points of view. This is reflected by the fact that today’s debates over themes such as social design and design thinking draw upon Papanek’s ideas as a matter of course. The exhibition seeks to rediscover Papanek as a pioneer of these debates – and as one of design’s greatest forward thinkers – for the twenty-first century. At the same time, it examines how Papanek’s socially engaged design is changing our world today – as well as how it can make the world a better one.

 

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News source: Vitra Design Museum
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What are the best European buildings? For the first time the most prestigious European architecture prize is awarded to two housing developments. Having been awarded to predominantly sensational cultural buildings in previous competitions, this time the prize goes to two pioneering projects in the field of housing. The main prizewinning project, De Flat Kleiburg by NL architects and XVW Architectuur, involves the participative renovation and upgrade of a prefab development from the 1960s. One topic that is highly relevant here in Austria, where we are confronted with many major housing developments by postwar modern architects that are ageing and urgently need social, functional and technical renovation. The Emerging Architect Special Mention goes to a social housing complex by the offices of MSA and V+ in Brussels.

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Practical Information

“Europe’s best Buildings”
August 23  – October 22, 2018
Architekturzentrum Wien
Museumsplatz 1, Vienna
Austria

 

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Both prizewinning projects provide new reactions to the lifestyle changes of the 21st century. “The shift towards social housing, but with a concentration on converting and extending the existing substance, is a clear sign of a reorientation in architecture towards equitable building and the economic use of resources”, says Angelika Fitz, Director of the Az W. On show in the exhibition are a total of 40 buildings from the sectors of housing, culture, education, industry and infrastructure. They were all selected by a high-calibre jury from 355 projects, from 36 European countries. “The exhibition uses models, videos, original drawings and 1:1 structural elements to clearly convey the high quality of the projects”, explains curator Ivan Blasi of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation. In addition, at the Az W the 18 Austrian nominated projects are on display. The accompanying catalogue presents all of the nominated projects.

 

 

HOUSING WINS

In the main prizewinning project De Flat, the 400 metre long Kleiburg block estate containing 500 homes in the Amsterdam district of Bijlmermeer was given a second life. The De Flat consortium founded for the project saved the late-1960s building from demolition. While NL Architects and XVW Architectuur restored the communal spaces and made a number of essential interventions, the business concept envisaged prospective occupants’ renovating their apartments by themselves. The Emerging Architect Award goes to an apartment building with 5 social homes for low-income families with many children. With this project the team of architects MSA and V + have successfully achieved both an identity for the district as well as spatial generosity with an exemplary apartment building. Resourceful responses to the economic and structural restrictions have created homes with a great deal of freedom of movement and a superb view of the surrounding landscape.

 

 

 

PIONEERING EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE

Among the other finalists presented extensively in the exhibition are the projects Kannikegården by Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, which fits uniquely into the ensemble of the medieval main square in Ribe, Denmark; the Rivesaltes Memorial Museum in France by Rudy Ricciotti, which is buried in the earth with calm and determination, the power of the architecture lending expression to the history of Concentration Camp Joffre; Ely Court, another housing development project from London, by Alison Brooks Architects, and the Katyn Museum in Warsaw by BBGK Architekci, Jerzy Kalina and Maksa, which engages impressively with the history and with the location.

 

 

The remaining shortlisted projects also represent an impressive cross-section of the development of European architecture. The examples range from cultural buildings, like the extension of the Museo de las Colecciones Reales in Madrid by Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, via educational buildings, like the Inchicore Model School in Dublin by Donaghy + Dimond, infrastructure projects, like the Landmark by Monadnock with a café and visitor centre for the city of Nieuw-Bergan in the Netherlands, to commercial and office buildings, like the Timmerhuis by O.M.A. in Rotterdam.

 

 

MIES VAN DER ROHE AWARD

The key aim of the Mies van der Rohe Awards is to provide recognition and show appreciation for exceptional achievements in the field of architecture within Europe. Projects are awarded prizes whose innovative character serves as orientation, even as manifestos, for the development of contemporary architecture. Prize money totalling 80,000 EUR (Winner: 60,000 EUR, Emerging Architect Award: 20,000 EUR) is awarded for exceptional achievements in conceptual, technical and structural terms.

 

 

The Emerging Architect Award is intended to promote the profession itself and as encouragement for architects at the outset of their careers. From 355 nominated projects, from 36 European countries, a total of 40 projects were selected for the exhibition by an international jury — Stephen Bates, Gonçalo Byrne, Peter Cachola Schmal, Pelin Dervis, Dominique Jakob, Juulia Kauste and Malgorzata Omilanowska. The exhibition includes the 5 finalists and the two winning projects from the housing sector.

 

 

An accompanying catalogue presents all of the nominated projects, and is available throughout the exhibition.

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News source: Architekturzentrum Wien
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The main subjects of my incursions are places that have lost their original function or had it temporarily suspended – places where there’s a strong feeling they’re being ‘reclaimed’ by society. With a head-on approach I try to show the subject as it is, as an important document that talks about the past and present whilst submerged in an undefined time. It’s no longer about a ‘moment’, but a temporary space able to capture the unsettling, sublime dimension as a result of long, nighttime exposures that reveal colours and shapes invisible to the human eye – Primož Bizjak (more…)