This week Dezeen launched the first ever Virtual Design Festival

This week on Dezeen we launched a Virtual Design Festival featuring a live video interview with Li Edelkoort and messages from architects and designers from across the world.

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first online design festival, launched this week to help unite and uplift the industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

The event kicked off with a compilation of video messages sent in by scores of creatives from around the world sharing their situations and their hopes for the future.

Trend forecaster Li Edelkoort sat down for a video interview with Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, discussing her new manifesto for how hope can change the world. Klein Dytham Architecture also dialled in from Tokyo to talk about PechaKucha, which they founded.

Burning Man will go digital for 2020

Burning Man festival in America has cancelled its event in Black Rock City and will host a virtual alternative this year due to the pandemic. Organisers revealed that Virtual Black Rock City will be going ahead with the original theme of the Multiverse.

With America now the epicentre of Covid-19, the American Institute of Architects has cancelled its annual conference. The crisis has also revealed the deep issues with New York's housing, local architects told Dezeen.

Anyone can download a template for Tokujin Yoshioka's face shield

Face shields have become an essential part of the front line in the fight to contain coronavirus. In an interview with Dezeen, US physician and epidemiologist Michael Edmond said that everyone should be wearing one outside of the house as they could be more effective than masks.

Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka has released his design for an easy DIY face shield that anyone can cut from a piece of flexible plastic and slot through the arms of a pair of glasses.

Nike Air Max 2090 is a futuristic take on a classic

In non-coronavirus news, Nike has unveiled the "shoe of the future". The Nike Air Max 2090 will have a sole designed to mimic the feeling of walking on air, and has been redesigned to be as lightweight as possible.

Another update to a classic is architecture studio SO-IL's plan to introduce a shortcut to Amanda Levete's Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Called Beeline, the installation will connect visitors to Lisbon's waterfront via a secret back door.

Dezeen spoke to Parasite's production director about creating the sets from scratch

It was a week for film buffs on Dezeen. Readers responded to a list of 10 films with exciting architecture with recommendations of their own, which we compiled into another movie guide.

Dezeen interviewed the production designing of Oscar-winning film Parasite Lee Ha Jun about creating the film's set.

Architect Timothee Mercier turned an old farm in France into a house for his parents

This week Dezeen readers also enjoyed a concrete guesthouse overlooking the sea in South Korea, a French farm conversion with minimalist interiors, and a light and airy house extension in London.

The post This week Dezeen launched the first ever Virtual Design Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2VAPRNb

Made Thought and DesignStudio donate expertise to corona-hit businesses for Now Needs New

Launched by Ask Us For Ideas, the new pro-bono creative strategy workshops will see top design studios help businesses to find direction in a tough year.

from It's Nice That https://ift.tt/3bj6Bz4

“Create an image inspired by a scene/moment from your favourite movie or TV show” – our top picks from the Weekly Brief

Cute, funny, and emotional – here’s some wonderful homages to TV and film’s best moments.

from It's Nice That https://ift.tt/2Vjbbb8

Minimal white buildings form Menorca house by architect Marina Senabre

Two white volumes are fronted with large openings that frame countryside views “like works of art on the wall” in this Menorca house designed by local architect Marina Senabre.

The home is intended to reflect both the architecture of the Mediterranean island and minimal contemporary design.

Both structures are rendered and painted white. One is long rectangular building with a flat gravel roof, while the other is a smaller gabled unit topped with recycled terracotta tiles.

"The house is presented as a conversation between two architectural pieces," Senabre said. "Two volumes that represent, on the one hand, the characteristic construction and building of the island of Menorca and, on the other, contemporary architecture."

"There is no place for ornament, the house values the concept, proportion and simplicity," she added.

Doors are formed from wood planks to match the frames around the square windows, which are arranged to capture scenes of the landscape.

"The Menorca countryside manages to enter the house through the large square openings, like works of art on the wall that completely link it to the territory," the architect added.

Living spaces, including the kitchen, dining and lounge are housed in the larger volume. Inside, white walls are paired with pale floors, wood accents and simple furnishings, including a rustic wood coffee table and white couch.

The kitchen walls are covered with a series of white cabinets coupled with stainless steel appliances. A large white island and pendant light fixtures stand out in the centre.

"The interior of the house has been designed to reflect the same duality, it is minimalist and also warm, thanks to continuous materials that cover horizontal and vertical surfaces always in contact with traditional elements, such as natural woodwork," Senabre said.

The smaller structure contains guest quarters, a space for playing sports and a small indoor pool. This shallow basin of water has a miniature fountain decorated with rocks and is situated in front of a large window directed at a view of the landscape.

A bigger pool also runs alongside the two buildings outside. Concrete and gravel paths connect the structures and also form a narrow patio space.

Marina Senabre is an architect and graphic designer who founded her eponymous studio in 2012 with offices in several Spanish cities including Menorca and Barcelona.

Other white houses in Menorca with generous views of the landscape include a concrete volume fronted with large openings that face the sea and a holiday home formed by a series of irregularly stacked boxes.

Photography is by Julio Feroz.

The post Minimal white buildings form Menorca house by architect Marina Senabre appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/3cvuLql

"Don't work with a***holes," says Erik Spiekermann at Forward Festival

In the second part of today's collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and Forward Festival, Erik Spiekermann shares seven propositions for designers to remember.

"I was looking forward to, for once, speaking in German," the type designer and author jokingly began his talk in Vienna at Forward Festival in 2017.

Spiekermann's lecture looked at the things he has learnt from his long career, including his first rule: "Don't work with a***holes."

Among Spiekermann's most well-known accomplishments are two typefaces, FF Meta and ITC Officina, that are considered modern classics.

The German designer has also created branding for Audi, Bosch and VW, and his practice is behind the visual identity for German railway company Deutsche Bahn.

"If you ever take the train in Germany, everything you read was designed by us," Spiekermann said in the lecture.

"Everyone asks me the same question"

A regular on the lecture scene, he explained that he always gets the same questions and that he hates being called a "creative," as he thinks everyone is creative.

"Everyone who interviews me asks the same question: 'what does creativity mean to you?' You know, the c-word. Boring, boring. And 'where do you get your ideas from?' Boring, boring," he said.

In 2018, Spiekermann worked with five students from around the world to revive five unfinished fonts from the Bauhaus school that had been "lost to history".

In his talk, he shared his tips for people who are just starting out in the design industry: "What advice would I give aspiring designers? Think. That's the best thing you can ever do. And read."

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 "Don't work with a***holes," says Erik Spiekermann at Forward Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

from Dezeen https://ift.tt/2xCe6m4