Dezeen's top 10 talks and panel discussions of 2020

As part of our review of 2020, we're counting down the top 10 talks and panel discussions live-streamed on Dezeen this year. These include a talk about designing new planets, an interview that defined a new design movement and a discussion about what we should wear in virtual reality.

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Live talks, streamed to both our YouTube and Facebook channels, became a key component of Dezeen's output in 2020 as coronavirus prevented real-world events from taking place.

Formafantasma on the impact of the wood industry on the environment

This was the last real-life talk Dezeen hosted in 2020 before the pandemic confined us to our homes. Back in February, we spoke to Italian design studio Formafantasma about their Cambio exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London, which examined the use of wood throughout history and the timber industry's impact on the environment.

The pair spoke about how a lack of communication between institutions, corporations and consumers often prevents meaningful large-scale changes to make the industry more sustainable, and emphasised the role that designers can play in facilitating better communication.

Find out more about Formafantasma's talk ›

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Li Edelkoort talks about the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic

As the global events calendar shut down, Dezeen pivoted to virtual talks. In the first, streamed in April as the inaugural interview of our Virtual Design Festival, Dezeen spoke to trend forecaster Li Edelkoort about her thoughts on the impact of coronavirus.

The talk came after Edelkoort predicted that the pandemic offered "a blank page for a new beginning" in what became the most popular story Dezeen has ever published.

In the live talk, Edelkoort discussed how the pandemic has forced the world to slow down. She also launched her latest venture,  the World Hope Forum.

Find out more about Li Edelkoort's talk ›

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Architect Chris Precht on the impact of coronavirus on city planning

After Edelkoort, Austrian architect Chris Precht was the second guest to feature in the Screentime live talks series.

Speaking to Dezeen from his home office in the Austrian mountains, the architect argued that wilderness should be brought into the city to allow urbanites to connect with nature.

"If we lose this contact with our natural surroundings, we won't be able to solve climate change and all those really big issues we face for the future," Precht said.

Find out more about Chris Precht's talk ›

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Space Popular on the rise of virtual reality 

Space Popular founders Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg spoke to Dezeen about developments in virtual reality that could transform both the process of architecture and the way we socialise.

"Incredible things are happening," said Lesmes, who said that lockdown was pushing forward adoption of a technology that has previously failed to live up to the hype.

Find out more about the Space Popular's talk ›

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Adam Nathaniel Furman coins a new design movement

British designer Adam Nathaniel Furman defined a new design movement in this live talk about his colourful and ornate body of work spanning product design, furniture design and interior design.

In the interview, Furman argued that design education "brainwashes" students into rejecting elements like colour, pattern and ornament in their work.

However, Furman claimed himself and a group of his contemporaries, such as Yinka Ilori and Camille Walala, are part of a movement rejecting this minimal approach to design.

Spontaneously naming it New London Fabulous, the new design movement has since been written about in several publications including the Guardian, the Times and Home Journal.

Find out more about Adam Nathaniel Furman's talk ›

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Ini Archibong launches proposal for the Pavilion of the Diaspora 

In the midst of the global Black Lives Matter protests against racial inequality that were sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Dezeen spoke to American designer Ini Archibong and British textile designer Chrissa Amuah.

During the talk, Archibong explained that rather than dwell on conversations about race, he wanted to take action. He used the talk to launch his proposal for a Pavilion of the Diaspora to be built at the London Design Biennale in 2021.

This will represent the diaspora of Africans and their descendants who migrated from the continent or were forcibly removed through slavery.

Find out more about Ini Archibong's and Chrissa Amuah's talk ›

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Shahar Livne argues that designers can't save the world

Dezeen spoke to Israeli designer Shahar Livne about her work, which focuses on creating new materials for production using waste materials from industries such as meat production and plastics.

During the talk, Livne explained her neutral position towards issues such as ocean plastics and climate change and argued that expecting designers and creatives to come up with ways to save the world is unrealistic.

Find out more about Shahar Livne's talk ›

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Winy Maas on designing new planets to solve the problems on ours

Dezeen spoke to Dutch architect Winy Maas of MVRDV in a live interview during Virtual Design Festival.

Maas argued that many of the problems facing the world today, such as climate change and habitat destruction, can only be solved by thinking about Earth as a holistic design challenge. Designing alternative planets could reveal insights and solutions that could be applied to solve the problems faced on Earth, he argued.

Find out more about Winy Maas' talk ›

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Sebastian Cox on the benefits of rewilding landscapes 

In another ecologically themed talk, we spoke to designer Sebastian Cox about his studio, which harvests timber from its own woodland to create zero-carbon furniture.

During the talk, Cox argued that rewilding is a better way of fighting climate change and biodiversity loss than planting trees. The designer also talked about the benefits of using wood as an industrial material in the fight against climate change, in that it captures and stores carbon, calling it "solid carbon dioxide".

Find out more about Sebastian Cox's talk ›

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Amber Jae Slooten on the rise of virtual fashion during the coronavirus pandemic

In October, Dezeen teamed up with London design studio Ma-tt-er for a panel discussion about textile technology as part of London Craft Week.

On the panel was Amber Jae Slooten, co-founder of digital fashion house the Fabricant. She explained how the coronavirus pandemic has driven interest in virtual fashion as customers explore ways to dress their online avatars.

The virtual world allows people to "go completely crazy" with their outfits while remaining soberly attired in the real world, Slooten argued.

Find out more about the panel discussion with Amber Jae Slooten ›

Check out more of our live talks and panel discussions here.

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David Chipperfield Architects' renovation of Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie unveiled

The first images of the renovation of the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects have been revealed.

Neue Nationalgalerie released the images shortly after the scaffolding surrounding the building was removed following an extensive, five-year renovation of the museum by David Chipperfield Architects.

David Chipperfield Architects has restored the Neue Nationalgalerie

The images show the restored glass-walled main hall of the museum, along with some of the refurbished exhibition halls below it.

Completed in 1968 the museum for modern art was one of Mies van der Rohe's last major projects and his only building built in Germany following his emigration to the US.

Its the first major overhaul of Mies van der Rohe's museum since it opened

The building had not undergone any major works since its completion and was renovated to modernise its services and renovate its fabric while maintaining its original appearance.

"The refurbishment does not represent a new interpretation, but rather a respectful repair of this landmark of the International Style," explained the studio.

The stone floor in the main hall was removed, restored and reinstated

As part of the renovation, David Chipperfield Architects deconstructed almost the entire shell of the building and stripped back the interiors to the structure.

The exterior was restored with glazing replaced and the distinctive steel structure recoated and re-welded. The damaged, supporting reinforced-concrete structure was also repaired.

The timber cloakroom was restored

In total 35,000 individual components were removed from the building, with the majority restored and returned into their original positions.

This includes the natural stone floor slabs and metal ceiling grills in the main hall.

The lower-floor galleries were also restored

Along with the restoration, the renovation has also updated the air-conditioning, lighting and security systems in the museum as well as adding a lift to improve the accessible access. The cloakroom, café and museum shop have also been improved.

The renovation is set to be complete by April 2021, with the museum due to open in August with an exhibition of works by American sculptor Alexander Calder.

The Neue Nationalgalerie is set to reopen in 2021

Once the renovation is complete another major museum, designed by Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron, is planned to be built alongside the Neue Nationalgalerie and connected to it by a tunnel. The studio released renders of the Museum of the 20th Century in 2018.

Photography is by Thomas Bruns, courtesy of BBR.

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The House of Wood, Straw and Cork is an eco-friendly residence in the Italian countryside

LCA Architetti has used cork, straw and timber to build a simple and sustainable house overlooking woodland in the small town of Magnago, Italy.

Aptly named The House of Wood, Straw and Cork, the dwelling near Milan was commissioned by a young couple who wanted to live more sustainably and in closer contact with nature.

LCA Architetti designed the Italian house to evoke a barn

LCA Architetti's design is deliberately pared-back, in a bid to retain focus on the home's rural surroundings while minimising its environmental impact.

This is helped with the use of natural and recyclable construction materials, including a prefabricated timber structure, straw insulation and cladding made from cork – a renewable, resistant and insulating material that is harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree.

It is wrapped almost entirely in cork cladding

"The clients wanted a home in direct contact with nature, a healthy and environmentally-friendly building, where they could enjoy the little things," said the studio's founder, Luca Compri.

"The house wanted to be born from the earth and have the colours of the earth, of the cultivated fields that surround it," he told Dezeen. "The composition is deliberately simple and primitive, the model was the old barns still present in the area."

The cork is disrupted by a large glass window in the living room

The size and shape of The House of Wood, Straw and Cork takes its cues from neighbouring buildings, which includes a series of old agricultural barns.

Devoid of ornament, this form establishes the textured cork cladding as the home's focal point.

Each cork panel has a wavy textured finish

The use of cork also provides a thermally efficient skin for the house that, in tandem with the straw insulation, helps to minimise the building's energy demand.

The straw that has been used to insulate the building was all acquired from rice plants discarded by local farmers.

An array of rooftop solar panels and an air-source heat pump help reduce the building's energy consumption further.

The living room forms the heart of the house

Inside, the ground floor of the house contains a kitchen, bedroom and study, alongside two bathrooms, a laundry room and a double-height living room.

Above, a mezzanine floor houses a small gym, alongside a second bedroom, a bathroom and another study.

A material palette of marble, oak and ceramics features inside

The living room, which sits at the heart of the house, is fronted by a large glazed wall that disrupts the monolithic cork cladding.

This is designed to frame the surrounding landscape, ensuring that nature has a "constant presence in the daily life of the house and of the people who live there".

This includes bespoke oak cabinetry

The furnishings used throughout The House of Wood, Straw are complete in a minimalist material palette of oak wood, ceramic and stone.

This is acts as a continuation of the home's simple form exterior and helps to retain focus on views outside.

Stand-out furnishings include seamless bespoke cabinetry across the walls, marble-cladding on some walls and the deep-set door frames.

The minimal interiors act as a continuation of the simple exterior

Rundzwei Architekten also recently used cork cladding to create the Cork Screw House in Berlin. The panels are made from waste cork granules discarded by a wine-bottling company.

Studio Bark built a garden building almost entirely from cork in 2018 to show how one eco-friendly material can be used to form an entire building envelope.

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

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Project credits:

Architect: LCA Architetti
Windows and frames: SMP serramenti
Furniture: Falegnameria Codar
Cork: Tecnosugheri

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Matías Zegers Arquitectos builds stone courtyard house in Chilean wine country

Casa Tapihue by Matías Zegers Arquitectos is a house in a vineyard built from white stone around a courtyard with a firepit in Casablanca, Chile.

The residence is named for the valley of Tapihue between two mountains in Chile's wine-growing region.

Casa Tapihue sits in the middle of a vineyard

Matias Zegers Arquitectos designed the family home to give the resident plentiful ways of enjoying the natural landscape while being protected from the area's fierce breezes.

"There will be no trees or vegetation to mediate one's scale against vastness around the building for a while, so we wanted the house to support life not only indoors but outdoors too," said the studio.

White-stone walls enclose the four volumes

Four volumes are arranged around a square central courtyard paved in concentric rings. A dish-shaped metal fire pit sits at the centre.

"The whole program is laid out around this patio that will provide a serene atmosphere through a hand-reach landscape full of aromas and protected from the permanent winds of Casablanca," they added.

Glass walls allow views from the courtyard to the mountains

Matias Zegers Arquitectos raised the house almost a metre above ground level on a concrete plinth to elevate the views above the rows of planted vines.

A grand library occupies one side of the house. Full-height glazing overlooks the courtyard internally and the valley outside.

A fire pit and a water butt in the courtyard

Open bookcases made of wood allow for views straight through from the fire pit to the mountains.

The roofs slope up on the volumes flanking the library, which has an overhanging steel roof that creates shelter and creates an unusual roofline for the house.

Sloping roofs and sliding doors

"Seen from a distance the geometrical shapes resemble a strange object in the landscape emerging from the vineyard field," said Matias Zegers Arquitectos.

Trees and plants cluster in organic-style flower beds around the exterior of the courtyard. Sliding doors can be opened to external terraces and allow smells from the vegetation to waft through the house.

Built-in furniture includes low benches

A minimal metal water butt sits on one side, where rainwater from the roof collects and pours from a pipe into a barrel below.

Inside, the walls of chalky-white geometric stone have been left bare and contrast with poured concrete floors and warm wooden doorways and built-in furniture including shelves and low benches.

Stone, concrete and wood feature in the interiors

Matías Zegers Arquitectos was founded by Matias Zegers in 2010. Previous projects include horse stables near Santiago with wooden beams and a central skylight.

Photography is by Cristobal Palma.

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Project credits:

Architect: Matías Zegers Arquitectos
Principal in charge: Matías Zegers
Project architect: Andres Gayangos
Associated architect: Catalina Pacheco
Team: Nina Vidic, Diego Terán, Marianne Webber

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H&P Architects designs white corrugated-metal house in Hai Duong

Vietnamese studio H&P Architects has completed a corrugated metal-clad house in the An Lai hamlet in Hai Duong, Vietnam, which features an open-plan interior and playful net floors.

The two-storey house, named HOUSE by the studio, was built for a new family on a plot of land opposite an existing building. To keep it as self-sufficient as possible, H&P Architects added solar panels on the roof.

Top image: the two-storey house is built around a steel frame. Above: white corrugated metal clads the building

These can produce twice as much electricity as necessary for a conventional household, according to the studio, and residual electricity can be stored or traded.

A rainwater tank provides water for the house, while filtered water from its septic tank is used for watering the garden.

The 75-square-metre building was constructed from a reinforced-steel frame made from pillars and beams that form a pitched roof and are visible in the interior. It was clad in an envelope of bricks and hardwearing, corrugated white metal.

The house is located next to a garden and the family home

The house was commissioned by a family where the son is getting married and is located next to the family home.

"The husband works for Mao Khe Coal company in Quang Ninh province and his wife does farming work and also is a mason coolie after harvest time," H&P Architects founder Doan Thanh Ha told Dezeen.

"They decide to have this house built for their son because the one they are living in is too small."

Brick and metal were combined to create the exterior of the house

Inside the house, the architect designed open-plan spaces and left the brick walls bare.

The interior was created based on the needs of the family and features a playful, open net-floor that allows air to move through the house and complements the gridded sides of the staircase.

Steel, wood and bamboo were used for the interior

"I decided to use steel, wood and bamboo for the interior as they are popular materials in rural areas in Vietnam," Thanh Ha said.

"Void space play an important role in small houses and can be filled when needed to increase the usable area."

"The nets inside present a solution that fits these two states – open and closed – bringing about fresh experiences to the house."

Net floors open up the space

The residence is a part of H&P Architecture's HOUSE project, which stands for "Human's Optional USE" and sees the studio design the frame of a house and then adapt it to its surroundings.

"As Human's Optional USE is made of three components – frame, covering, furnishing – it can be used flexibly in areas of different climate patterns according to its owner’s need," Thanh Ha said.

Bare brick walls give the interior a warm feel

The buildings can be adapted for vulnerable areas, such as areas prone to flooding, and be built on steep ground.

"The frame allows lifting the foundation pillars to form a house-on-stilts for mountainous terrain, or spreading the foundation into a floating house supported by many barrels beneath over water," Thanh Ha said.

Two-storey houses could help save resources, the architect said

Building these kinds of houses en masse could help save resources in Vietnam, he argued. "In order to save land and water area, the houses I have made have at least two storeys," he said.

"If houses in Vietnamese rural areas – about 70 per cent of the population – are made in this fashion, Vietnam can save a lot of natural resources, thus promoting more sustainable development."

The studio is working on new versions of the building with the same structure

The studio previously created the AgriNesture house in Mao Khe in the same way, but that version was adapted to have a plantable roof.

"Human’s Optional USE is the continuation of that way of thinking," Thanh Ha said. "At the moment, I am working on another house in Ninh Binh but with different materials. I hope to spread more of this fashion in the future."

H&P Architects previously also wrapped brick walls around the Brick Cave house in Hanoi, which was designed to make the residents feel close to nature.

Photography is by Le Minh Hoang.

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Project credits:

Architect: H&P Architects
Team: Doan Thanh Ha ,Tran Ngoc Phuong, Han Minh Tu, Nguyen Hai Hue, Tran Van Duong, Luong Thi Ngoc Lan

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