A Tiny Lizard Attends Miniature Gallery Opening to See ‘American Gecko’ and ‘The Birth of Gecko’

All images © Jill Young

The Gecko Museum’s opening only had one visitor to consider its most prized pieces: a mango-loving crested gecko that goes by The Mayor. Arriving around 7 p.m., the nocturnal lizard visited his personal gallery earlier this week, stopping to contemplate “American Gecko” and “The Birth of Gecko.” Dallas-based Jill Young, who both painted and curated the miniature museum’s permanent collection as part of a humorous quarantine activity, told Hyperallergic that “The Mayor was particularly fond of my ‘American Gothic’ spoof, ‘American Gecko.’ I guess he’s in an American Modernism phase.”

Similar to the brothers, Pandoro and Tiramisù, that disregarded signs requesting they not chew on the furniture or artworks in The Gerbil Museum, The Mayor ignored the red rope cordoning off the artworks. “I now understand that The Mayor’s relationship to art is a necessarily tactile one, which I can appreciate,” Young said. Despite her gecko’s unconventional approach to art, though, Young hopes to see the small-scale trend continue. “Every pet deserves a cultural outing,” she said.

 

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Type Crit Crew is a new virtual one-on-one typography class from industry experts

Launched by Monotype type designer Juan Villanueva, the project will put mentors from the likes of Hoefler&Co, Sumotype Foundry and XYZ Type in touch with eager students.

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"Art and design change, but sometimes people don't" says Paola Antonelli at Forward Festival

In the first part of today's collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and Vienna's Forward Festival, MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli talks about the role museums play in documenting the times.

Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, spoke at Forward Festival in Vienna in 2017.

Since this year's Forward Festival in the city cannot take place due to coronavirus, it has teamed up with VDF to present five of the best of its past lectures.

In her talk, Antonelli focused on how, as a curator in a big museum, you can move things forward by pushing unorthodox projects.

MoMA exists to "document and praise" art

"The motto of the museum is that it exists to document and praise the art of our time," Antonelli said. "As the technology changes, art and design change with it, but sometimes people don't," she said.

Antonelli acquisitions for the museum include the first set of emojis, designed by Shigetaka Kurita and released in 1999, and the rainbow flag.

In her talk, she revealed how she came up with concepts for exhibitions at MoMA that included more unusual types of design, such as interactive design, video games and digital design.

"I had to consider rethinking my position on design"

Antonelli argued that including new types of design and unfamiliar ideas in the museum's collection challenged its audience, and consequently managed to push its work forward.

She revealed how her work at MoMA has also made her reflect on her own views about design. An example is the museum's project Design and Violence, which started with the launch of Cody Wilson's open-source 3D printed gun that could shoot real bullets.

"I was stunned, and then five minutes later I was angry at myself for being so surprised. Of course anything that we do as human beings can go either way, whether we want it or not," she explained.

"I had to consider rethinking my position about design and being a little more nuanced, rather than so black and white."

Last year Antonelli curated the groundbreaking Broken Nature exhibition at the Triennale di Milano. In October, she was a keynote speaker at the Dezeen Day conference in London. She is one of the judges for Dezeen Awards 2020.

About Forward Festival

Based in Vienna and founded in 2014, Forward Festival runs conferences for creatives in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. The conference, the centrepiece of the festival, is accompanied by various side events, such as workshops, live art sessions and networking events.

Past speakers at the festival include Oliviero Toscani, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Kate Moross, Erik Spiekermann, David Carson and MoMA New York. The next edition of the festival will take place on 8-9 October 2020.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

The post "Art and design change, but sometimes people don't" says Paola Antonelli at Forward Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

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Fabio Novembre calls for architects and designers to help create a new world order after coronavirus

Designer Fabio Novembre questions the desire to return to normal after the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that "the virus is in the system we used to live in", in a video message recorded for Virtual Design Festival.

"We are all living in a surreal situation," Novembre says. "It's really like when reality goes much further than science fiction itself."

In his video message, recorded in his studio in Milan, Novembre expressed scepticism towards a collective desire to return to normal life and called for a new world order to be created in response to the societal conditions created by the pandemic.

"People say: let's go back to normality. But what is normal?" he said. "The virus is in the system that we used to live in."

"The answer to a catastrophe is not about re-establishing the previous order. It's about creating a new one."

"A better world"

Novembre called on architects and designers to put forward new imaginative ideas to help create "a better world".

"We are dreamers. Let's try to dream about a different world, a better world," he said. "This is the greatest chance we might have."

Novembre ended his video message by looking to a future beyond the social distancing measures currently in place around the world.

"In spite of this digital message, I really hope to give you an analog hug as soon as possible"

Novembre's video message features in Dezeen's launch movie for Virtual Design Festival, along with video messages from 34 other architects, designers and artists in lockdown around the world, including Stefano Giovanni, Es Devlin, Ini Archibong, Ben van Berkel and Bec Brittain. You can watch the movie here.

Novembre is an Italian designer and architect who has previously designed pieces for furniture brands such as Driade, Kartell and Gufram.

In 2018, he was appointed scientific director at the Domus Academy's school of design in Milan.

Send us a video message

Dezeen invited architects, designers, artists and industry figures to record video messages from lockdown and made a montage of 35 video messages, to launch Virtual Design Festival.

We'll be posting an individual video message each day. Check them out here. To submit your own message, see the brief here.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It intends to bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

We will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more. It will complement and support fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

The post Fabio Novembre calls for architects and designers to help create a new world order after coronavirus appeared first on Dezeen.

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Oliver Leech Architects uses soft colours to create bright and airy kitchen extension

Oliver Leech Architects has extended a house in south London, adding a kitchen that pairs natural wood and brick with a muted colour palette.

The London-based studio aimed to create a calming atmosphere in its renovation of Vestry Road, a two-storey Victorian house in Camberwell.

The project involved a complete remodelling of the building, to create a more open-plan layout for the ground floor. Some of the original walls were knocked through, while the original kitchen was replaced with another twice as big.

This new room functions as both a kitchen and dining room, freeing up space elsewhere for a new study.

Every new material and surface ties into a colour palette that is consistent through the house. Natural shades, like the pale yellows of the brick and wood, are paired with other soft tones.

In the kitchen, cool grey concrete flooring and worktops combine with fern-green cabinets, while the renovated first-floor bathroom brings the pink tones of natural plaster together with pale grey tiles.

The aim was to make spaces feel warm but not too overbearing.

"The project was a celebration of simple materials which have been carefully chosen to provide a subtle distinction between the old Victorian property and the new extension," explained studio founder Oliver Leech.

"The soft warm colours of the new brickwork were matched with the cool grey concrete floor to give the project a simple elegance without losing the feeling of a cosy spaces that can be enjoyed throughout the year," he continued.

"Texture also had a key role to play and the materials were chosen to provide tactility as well as visual beauty."

To create the new kitchen, new extensions were built around the side and rear of the old house. Leech chose a pale beige brick that matches the London stock of the main house, but is a few shades lighter.

This brickwork, left exposed both inside and out, is very similar in tone to the Douglas fir used for joinery.

Wooden elements include a rear door and a large window with bi-fold glazing, which both open out to a herringbone-patterned patio.

There are also exposed wood ceiling rafters, which sit beneath a skylight over the dining table.

"Height and light are important themes in our projects to create beautiful and healthy living spaces," said Leech.

"We maximised the height of the new extensions and introduced large glazed openings to bring in as much light as possible."

Vestry Road was named Compact Design of the Year at this year's Don't Move, Improve! The annual competition celebrates the best new house extensions in London.

For the client, advertising executive Maximilian Taylor, the transformation has allowed him to stay in the property for a few more years, when otherwise he might have gone looking for a larger home.

"It feels amazingly homely and light," added Taylor. "I still enjoy just sitting in silence in the space that's been created – the atmosphere is very calm."

Photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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Project credits:

Architect and interior designer: Oliver Leech Architects
Structural engineer: Croft Structural Engineering
Principal contractor: Firfield Construction
Landscaping and planting: Anderson Woods
Bricks: Weinerberger
Pitched skylights: Standard Patent Glazing Company
Aluminium windows: Velfac
Timber windows: Capital Joinery
Cast stone lintels and window seat: Albion Architectural Concrete
Micro-cement floor: The Micro Cement Company Ltd.
Bathroom tiles: Parkside Designs, Claybrook Studio
Sanitaryware: Bathroom Discount Centre, Lusso Stone, Cast Iron Bath Company
Lighting: Mr Resistor, Muuto, Flos, Heal's, Workstead, Tala
Switches and sockets: Focus SB
Ironmongery: Homebits, M.Marcus
Kitchen: MG Carpentry
Kitchen fittings: Neff, Franke
Kitchen worktop: Stoneworktop.co.uk

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