Lia Forslund
About Lia...
Design Stories: New Perspectives on a Collection
Contributed writings, Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing, November 2024What is design and what difference can it make in our lives? The traditional perspective of the Global North is that design shapes things to make them more attractive to consumers, easier to manufacture and use, and to generate market value. However, it is just as much a matter of creation linked to change – a way to protest against injustices, or to comment on the current social order. How design is understood, practised and consumed affects the possibility of challenging dominant power structures, which over time have themselves determined what design is, could be and should be.
Design Stories – New Perspectives on a Collection is published in connection with the Röhsska Museum’s new permanent exhibition. Through essays, conversations and visual essays, a range of designcritical issues are discussed, reflecting on the roles of both design and the museum in society.
Editor: Johanna Agermann Ross
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nomad magazine: Chris Taylor
Contributed writings, nomad magazine, June 2024For this summer’s travelled-themed issue of nomad magazine, I speak to Chris Taykor, Director of Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University. We talk about travelling as a creative method and how the land shapes us.
In 2019, I was part of the program, doing 6000 miles across the American West in a semester. Five years on, it was a pleasure to sit down, discuss saturation and time as material, to unpack the embedded ways of learning he taught me, which forever changed my practice. Photos by Franek Wardyński.
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Disegno: Scraps on Show
Contributed writings, Disegno, April 2024Disegno #37 featuring a story where Alastair Philip Wiper and I venture inside the factory of aluminium manufacturer Hydro to watch metal dance out of machines tended by engineers in silver coats.
For Milan Design Week, Hydro has collaborated with Lars Beller Fjetland to curate a series of designers from across Europe, who have created objects made from the first ever 100 per cent recycled aluminium alloy. The designers had total freedom bar one constraint: their objects had to be squeezed through a 200mm hole.
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nomad magazine: Intelligent Incongruities
Contributed writings, nomad magazine, Nov 2023For nomad’s 15th issue, themed ‘intelligence’, I met up with the Creative Director of Magniberg and Sahco, Bengt Thornefors, to step into his world of lateral thinking. We talked art & floorball and other juxtaposed environments, digging deeper into where his talent for clashes first emerged.
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Monocle magazine: Telling stories
Contributed writings, Monocle, June 2023For Monocle's June issue, a special on art collaborations, I visit AMAA
Collaborative Architecture Office For Research And Development in Arzignano, Italy ahead of the Venice Biennale where they were part of the exhibition ‘Dangerous Liaisons’, which will highlight the practice of 37 designers working across disciplines.
Read more here
nomad magazine: Humankind
Contributed writings, nomad magazine, June 2023For nomad’s 14th issue, themed ‘care’, I visit Brussel-based Studio Plastique, to learn more about the power of education, exploring why designers should pair up with economists, how to avoid using the word sustainability, why energy should be a topic at school, and how to break down big, abstract questions into digestible and actionable tasks.
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Prototypa #29: Stilride
Moderator, curator and writer, Prototypa, June 2023Prototypa is the forum where Form Us With Love and I ask how we can take better creative decisions through iteration. For the 29th edition, we had a session withStilride to learn how they move swiftly from paper to metal, from folding to electric motorcycles.
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Monocle magazine: Civic beauty
Contributed writings, Monocle, December 2022
For Monocle's December/January issue, the annual special on soft power, I visit Sweden’s Eslöv Civic Hall, a monument to civic governance and social ambition. As the mid-century building is restored, we find out how a theatre, assembly spaces, local government offices and rooms for communal gatherings, foster “good citizens” through beautiful and intimate architecture.
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Design Nature: Summer school
Guest tutor, Design Nature, July 2022
DesignNature campus is set among the most beautiful open heaths and small meadows, thick forests and wild rivers in Poland. And the secret of its success? A creatively inspiring symbiosis between humans and nature, where every intervention begins with attention to the site, the wilderness and the immersive landscape.
More than just beautiful surroundings, the key to the magic at Design Summer School Sobole is sensitivity, which communally empowers. From the minute you walk into the old Manor House, to the impressive facilities of the new workshop, the meals we partake in, and the recreation we enjoy together, sensitivity is mirrored in all shared experiences of design, architecture and art, expressed in the site-specific responses.
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The Monocle Book of Entrepreneurs
Contributed writings, Monocle, November 2021
A job for life is hard to come by but what about a vocation that helps you live well? This is the upbeat starting point of The Monocle Book of Entrepreneurs, a handbook that’s designed to encourage, inspire and perhaps even gently prod readers into taking the plunge and starting something for themselves.
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+Halle: roundtable On Sharing
Moderated talk, +Halle, November, 2021
In 2019, +Halle held its second annual briefing, which was organised around the theme of Sharing. Following a series of collaborative crits, two products were developed and manufactured. The Stockholm-based design studio Form Us With Love presented ‘Picnic’, a round table with integrated seating, while global architecture firm Snøhetta produced ‘Summit’, a modular multi-level seating system.
A roundtable discussion, held in Copenhagen in November 2021 brought together the designers to hear their thoughts behind these collections, and experience of working through the annual briefing process. For the first time since their initial meetings, they were able to meet face to face, and once again share their ideas and the same space.
Monocle Weekly: Tricks of the trade
Article published, Monocle, September, 2021
While we warmly welcome the return of Salone del Mobile, its enforced absence did give us pause for thought: how could it – and other large trade fairs – become even better? Here are 10 steps, from navigability to nourishment, that would change the event for the good. On with the show.
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Stochom Creative Edition Opening
Moderated talk, SCE September, 2021
We are excited to be a part of a new annual independent design week in Stockholm, a more heartfelt event with a focus on an intimate experience of design, set in a beautiful autumn September week, cleverly immersing us in conversation, nourishment and conviviality.
From a design perspective this means less flexing sales muscles, and more concentrating on sustainability, creativity, local provenance its road ahead.
Photography by Grand Relations
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Stochom Creative Edition Design therapy
Design therapist session, The Kinship Method, September, 2021
Stockholm Creative Edition, the new annual design week, invites The Kinship Method & Friends to show experimental projects with alternative design processes and methods at A House Ark. To create design methods with focus upon other aspects than the normal is one way to break patterns, structures and outcome. New forms take place together with new thoughts. Together with invited colleagues they show a diversity of projects linked by alternative design methods such as design theraphy, performance and audiovisual experiences.
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The Monocle Book of Homes: Community
Contributed writings, Monocle, August 2021
The Monocle Book of Homes is a guide to exceptional residences – with a few tips on how to make the most of your own living space thrown in for good measure.
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Monocle: Staying in shape
Article published, Monocle, issue 144, June 2021
In a year when so much has changed, the fashion industry’s leading brands have overcome the demands placed on them by refining their established business models rather than completely reworking their offerings. Many of the industry’s successful players – such as the veterans of their respective trades who Monocle speaks to here – have experience in this regard.
A dapper gentleman walks into Stockholm’s Gabucci shop on a sunny Friday afternoon and owner Bob Tavakoli springs into action. He greets the customer warmly like an old friend, before bringing out a Cesare Attolini suede jacket that he picked up with his visitor in mind on a recent buying trip to Milan. Tavakoli advises his patron not to purchase a blue jacket because he bought a similar one last year and doesn’t need another. The men chatter jovially about the customer’s forthcoming anniversary dinner as multiple jackets are tried on and tactful feedback is provided.
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OnOffice Magazine: Aska Architects
Article published, OnOffice, issue 155, Summer 2021
“Our job is to capture essence.” Polina Sandström and Madeleine Klingspor refer to their newly founded architect firm Aska. Despite being a young force behind an exciting contemporary office project for haircare company Maria Nila’s new headquarters in Stockholm, the pair embodies a sense of humbleness that is rarely found in modern architecture. “Its ambitious, but we want to widen the role of the architect,” Polina Sandström says sitting in the firm’s studio, a loft above a 300 sq. meter street-facing gallery in central Stockholm. “Our practice was founded on the idea of making architecture accessible, acting as an integral part of any brand, environment or expression.”
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The Entrepreneurs: Learning with no limits
Article published, The Entrepreneurs, issue 4, May 2021
As the world of work changes, the way we study and prepare for it must too. With its revamped site in Stockholm, the Berghs School of Communication has its eye on future-facing education, with a uniquely agile view of what the classroom can be.
It is the first semester of the year at the Berghs School of Communication’s new site in Gasverket, a redeveloped industrial area of northern Stockholm. Students are participating in a variety of ways as lectures from entrepreneurs and professionals unfold both online and in person. The 1890s building’s red brickwork, round-arched windows and ribbons of brown and yellow tiling contrast with the subtle, minimalist interiors. “This learning environment is all about providing tools – not answers – and conditions for creativity to thrive,” says architect Jani Kristoffersen, co-founder of Campus, the studio behind the school’s new design. “We were inspired by ‘undictated’ spaces such as Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London or Palais de Tokyo in Paris – places where activity is constant.”
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Monocle: The Monocle Design Award
Contributing writer, Monocle, issue 143, May 2021
Monocle’s inaugural Design Awards, a formal recognition and celebration of the world’s best designers and new works of design. 50 individual awards including ‘best in field’ categories selected by our editors and network of design correspondents
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Monocle: Going against the grain
Article published, Monocle, issue 142, April 2021
There is a finely tuned business and creative alignment between husband and wife team, Elin Kling and Karl Lindman. As they discuss their relationship with the fashion industry it’s clear that they share the same outlook. Sitting across the room from one another on the second floor of their brand’s handsomely designed Stockholm HQ, the duo are excited by what they’ve achieved and their loyal following. “There is a service aspect to fashion today and we believe the future of luxury comes down to simplifying choices,” says Lindman. “We are intrigued by the hospitality of a brand,” adds Kling. “That is what inspires us – finding ways to simplify.”
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Monocle: Concrete jungles
Article published, Monocle, issue 141, March 2021
A meandering waterway flows through Bishan, an area in central Singapore characterised by high-density residential blocks. When monocle visits, families are taking their shoes and socks off to play in the water, wading to visit little islands or observing the insects and animals ashore. This was once a concrete canal that separated the residents from the park but it’s now a multifunctional rewilded waterway; a green and porous infrastructure with benefits to the environment and the community at a low cost to the city.
Read more here
Monocle: Beyond repair
Article published, Monocle, issue 141, March 2021
“Restoring lights is a little bit like assembling Meccano,” says Erik Heggestad, founder of Svenska Armaturer. “It might be the most standardised repairing niche that there is.” Founded on his passion for renovating industrial lights, his shop in the Stockholm suburb of Midsommarkransen sells about 50 remade and rebuilt lights a week, as well as restoring various pieces for a loyal clientele.”
Read more here
Stockholm Design Week: Room Service
Moderated talk, Beckmans Design Collaboration, Feb 2021.
Talk with Beckmans College of Design, presenting six design collaborations at at Superellipsen, Sergels torg.
At a time when work and play merge and we need to co-exist in the same space and take a new look at the room and remake/remodel, we present the exhibition Room Service - six products developed in a collaboration between the final-year students at the Product Design programme and Dux, Gärsnäs, Johanson Design, Kinnarps, Källemo and Storängen Design.
Read more here
Monocle: Time for change
Article published, Monocle, issue 138, November 2020
Change starts at home, so for the November issue, Monocle selected 20 pieces, people and studios creating products that will enhance your environment and improve with age.
For this directory, I interviewed one of Sweden’s most important interior architects, Åke Axelsson. Now 88, he has created a large array of public environments during an impressive career, which has spanned more than 60 years. With no sign of slowing down, Axelsson is actively working on museums, churches, town halls and restaurants, alongside a small crafts collection, handmade and sold from his studio on the island of Resarö in Stockholm. A new retrospective exhibition is currently open at A Petersen in Copenhagen, offering a personal journey through some of Sweden’s most significant interiors. apetersen.dk
Read the full interview and more
https://monocle.com/magazine/issues/138/finely-chiselled/
The Entrepreneurs: Window of opportunity
Article published, The Entrepreneurs, issue 03, 2020
When competition is rife and industries are slow to evolve, it takes a smart business leader with a strong vision to reposition their brand – or come up with an entirely new take on a ubiquitous product. We meet three brands that have come out on top thanks to their unique offering.
https://monocle.com/magazine/the-entrepreneurs/3/window-of-opportunity/
Doconomy: DO
Strategy and writing, Doconomy. Fall 2020
Climate action in your pocket.
The DO card tracks CO2 emissions generated from our transactions and displays those numbers in a simple app. Equipped with this knowledge we can play our part in saving the planet.
With DO we can choose to directly compensate for the emissions arising from our transactions, or save and act for positive impact, balancing the score.
The point is: we have the power. DO is us understanding the consequences of our actions. For the planet. For each other. And it’s this shared knowledge and then our collective action that’s going to make all the difference. Read more here
Sonat: the Journal
Strategy and writing, Sonat, Aug 2020.
Visibility to help saving lives.
Getinge is a global medical technology company that provides hospitals and life science institutions with products and solutions that aim to optimise workflows.
With the dramatic demand for ventilators from emergency rooms across the globe, margins of error had to be eliminated. Sonat took on the task at hand showing both knowledge and experience in komplex ramp-ups, working with supply chain during unprecedented pressure. Read more here
Monocle: Closed quarters
Article published, Monocle Magazine, July/August 2020.
Can apartment blocks really forge communal bonds and help tenants get closer to nature?
“We wanted to live in the city but be closer to nature,” says Paulina Pereaux, a resident of the cedar-wrapped, layered apartment building 79&Park, which sits on a hill by Gärdet heath on Stockholm’s outskirts. Pereaux and her family of four moved into the building a year and a half ago. “There’s an inner calm that’s grown in our family since moving in,” she says. “Living with nature has had a profound effect on us. It’s the perfect suburban-yet-urban combination.” Read more here
Stockholm Design Week: Epilouge
Moderated talk, Beckmans Design Collaboration, Feb 2020.
Talk with Beckmans College of Design, presenting six design collaborations at Stockholm Furniture Fair.
This year’s project is a meeting between the final-year students in Product Design and the six Swedish furniture producers Abstracta, Johanson Design, Kinnarps, Källemo, Mitab, and Storängen. The result is on display in the Greenhouse Hall together with the project’s visual concept designed by a group of students in Visual Communication, Epilogue – A Love Story.Read more here
Stockholm Design Week: Prototypa
Moderated talk, Prototypa, Feb 2020.
Appointed to design the sounds of the future, Renzo Vitale is tasked with leading the sound evolution at BMW. During Stockholm Design Week we joined him at Prototypa Studio Edition hosted by Form Us With Love, Richard Feigin and myself, to learn more about sound composing using an equally artistic and scientific process.
Photo by Jörgen Brennicke.
Zurich Insurance: Data story
Strategic narrative and script, Data Commitment, 2019.
Zurich Insurance needed help to define and bring to life their ‘data commitment’, the company’s approach to handling customer data. In a collborative effort with the team at Winkreative,the complex issues of data privacy and security was turned into something an audience could engage with and even care about.
Watch the film here
Henning Larsen: on Masterplanning
Article published, 60th Anniversary celebrations, Dec 2019.
Operating out of a purpose-planned top-lit indoor courtyard filled with daylight, the architects of Henning Larsen evade any other definition of architectural strategy other than their own. Described as ‘a master of light’ Henning Larsen himself was intrinsically open. Deriving from a celebration of light as a tool to ennoble citizens, the practice was set up in 1959 to design clearly and generously for better environments and cities. Larsen emerged out of late modernism in the 60s and 70s, with a revival of the 30s modernism as a theoretical fourth runner: studying under—among others—Arthur Korn, a Bauhaus architect and urban planner who gave several provocative proposals on democracy and transparency of glass buildings. Henning Larsen set a similar direction, building an architecture and urbanist practice on seeking clarity: curious, investigative and accessible.
Read full story here
Shaw Contract: 2 Degrees
Article published, in 2 Degrees, Questions on Sustainability, Nov 2019.
Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.
“John Löfgren, Creative Director at Form Us With Love is pleased with the goings of the morning session. “This is a typical, ‘empty your pockets for ideas’ session, where we talk about all the options possible and then we funnel them down,” he says. The atmosphere is energetic and people are keen to show what they have in store. It is impressive to see the energy sustained. “Our culture comes down to two things, firstly we don’t believe in the lonely genius, instead, one plus one is three. Secondly, it is important that all projects are democratic, we always see the benefit of bringing more people into the conversation.”
Read full story here
+Halle: 3rd Annual Briefing
Strategist, writer and moderator of +Halle the Annual Briefing held in Copenhagen, Nov 2019.
“Instead of working with designers individually, we are working in a collaborative and focused way. More specifically, around one theme at a time with different groups of designers—handpicked because of their competences, personalities, and backgrounds.
In this way, the participants will use each other and leverage the synergies that occur. Every designer ends up with their own products —but the fact that they are working on the same theme and get to inspire, crit, and influence each other’s processes adds an important assessment to the final product.”
Read more on http://www.plushalle.com/highlights/annual-briefing-a-new-methodology/
Monocle: Diplomatic Design
Article published, in Monocle, Aug 2019.
The pinewood-and-concrete Swiss embassy in Seoul is a contemporary take on the traditional Korean courtyard house, a beloved typology that is finally being preserved and celebrated throughout the country.
“We need more immediate face-to-face contact with each other to achieve something in today’s world,” says ambassador Linus von Castelmur who, since opening the embassy in May, has already arranged a concert and a mini festival here for the neighbourhood. “The new building is helping by creating real communions between people.”
Buy a copy of the magazine here
Deutsche Telekom: The Digital Shift
Editorial strategy, in collaboration with Winkreative for Deutsche Telekom, spring 2019.
The Digital Shift is a book that explores how organisations and business leaders can positively employ AI by taking a human approach. Working with authors Christian von Reventlow and Phillip Thesen, valuable insights from their time at Deutsche Telekom was added to the design discourse.
“Artificial Intelligence must become a tool for everyone – a technology that helps, not hinders humans from becoming sovereign agents”. Christian Von Reventlow and Philipp Thesen, The Digital Shift
http://www.digital-shift.io/
Monocle: Exploring New Frontiers.
Articles published, in Monocle, April 2019.
Steps to success in emerging design markets, featuring dialogues with Emeco, Henning Larsen, Christophe Pillet, Hyatt and Flexform.
Buy a copy of the magazine here
https://monocle.com/film/edits/monocle-the-salone-weekly/
Fuorisalone Milan: Home Gone Wild
Moderating talks with Beckmans School of Design, 2019.
“Swedish Design Moves returns to Milan Design Week this year with HEMMA gone wild – a sequel to the 2018 exhibition, HEMMA – Stories of Home. Curated and designed by Joyn Studio, HEMMA gone wild invites visitors to experience an abstract and playful vision of home, from hallway to living room and onwards through an unfolding scenography that showcases the best of Swedish design, drawn by curiosity and a mood of mystery”
Date: April 9 - 14
Opening hours: 9:30-19:00
Opening cocktail: April 9, 19:00-22:00
Address: Brera Design District, Via Solferino, 15, Milan, Italy
https://www.instagram.com/hemmagonewild/
ING Media: Design stream of consciousness
Essay published in ING Media’s publication, Blurred Edges of the Built Environment, 2019.
From Colour to parking lots, parking lots to sound, sound to waves, waves to groves, groves to play, play to concrete, concrete to heat, heat to street.
If you would like a copy of Inspiration | Provocation: Essays on the Blurred Edges of the Built Environment please email publication@ing-media.com
+Halle: 2nd Annual Briefing
Strategist, writer and moderator of +Halle the Annual Briefing held in Copenhagen , 2019.
“Instead of working with designers individually, we are working in a collaborative and focused way. More specifically, around one theme at a time with different groups of designers—handpicked because of their competences, personalities, and backgrounds.
In this way, the participants will use each other and leverage the synergies that occur. Every designer ends up with their own products —but the fact that they are working on the same theme and get to inspire, crit, and influence each other’s processes adds an important assessment to the final product.”
In February we kicked off the second Annual Briefing- this time with a group including @snohetta and @formuswithlove
Read more on http://www.plushalle.com/highlights/annual-briefing-a-new-methodology/
Madrid Design Festival: Prototypa
Writer and Moderator of Workshops and Master Class with Form Us With Love, during Madrid Design Festival, 2019.
The festival days will be focused on exhibiting and resolving large current challenges, viewed through the prism of design. Madrid Design Festival is committed to design that can transform society, create initiatives and businesses involved in changing economic and social relations. The impact of this design focus will become clear during the festival, which will offer an ambitious programme divided into several segments and formats.
Join the Prototypa MINI urban living master class on Thursday the 14th at COAM 7 pm during MadridDesignPRO professional days.
Projects We Love Magazine: Celebrate Design for Conviviality
Article published in Bolon’s Projects We Love, Issue 2019.
“How do we breathe new social life into our designed environments? In seeking answers to that question, we could do worse than look to Ivan Illich, author of the 1970s books Tools for Conviviality and Deschooling Society, who painted a vision of a world in which “social arrangements[…] guarantee for each member the most ample and free access to the tools of the community”.
Content & Editorial Direction; Bolon and Disegno Works.
For a copy of the magazine, go to:https://www.bolon.com/en/projects-we-love.
Projects We Love Magazine: A Family Affair
Article published in Bolon’s Projects We Love, Issue 2019.
“Lars Eklund – a member of the second generation of the Eklund family to run Bolon, and the father of its current leaders, Annica and Marie – welcomes us to the company’s factory in Ulricehamn. In his makeshift laboratory – complete with a workshop, club chairs, cigarillos and chocolate truffles – Lasse, as he’s known, tells us about love, parties, failed experiments and Bolon’s passion for recycling.“
More...
Content & Editorial Direction; Bolon and Disegno Works.
For a copy of the magazine, go to:https://www.bolon.com/en/projects-we-love.
+Halle: From objects to purpose
Panel discussion with +Halle, moderated during Stockholm Design Week 2019.
A panel discussion exploring ethical questions related to design and architecture today. The panel of experts included Co-owner & Creative Director, Martin Halle at plusHALLE, Founders of Form Us With Love, and Marius Myking, Director of Product Design at Snøhetta who discussed what it means to experiment without aiming at making a product and making more than what we have - looking at purpose, meaning, improvement, and constructive thinking within the design process.
Stockholm Design Week: In Transit
Design Talks at the exhibition In Transit with Beckmans College of Design, Feb 2019
Interviews with 15 final-year students from the Product Design program discussing how seven companies approached the students with a brief and how the students analysed the companies, twisted and turned issues, explored materials and constructions.
The talks took place at Greenhouse section during the fair. Read more about the project at beckmans.se/intransit.
Participating Product Design students
Anne Obel, Asta Florestedt, Ellinor Sixtensdotter, Elsa Ericsson Ekdahl, Isabel Wagner, Jone Skarbøvik, Josefin Zachrisson, Julia Jondell, Kaori Agematsu, Matilda Ström Ellow, Mattias Rothman, Mira Bergh Edenborg, Molly Malmer, Olivia Tognelli Brontén, and Sizar Alexis.
Monocle: Get to the Ponti
Articles published, in Monocle, fall 2018.
Over four weeks, Monocle delivered the latest news and opinion across current affairs, business, culture and design through four issues of The Monocle Winter Weekly.
Buy the four magazine bundle here
Tom Chung: Local Source
Interview published, Tom Chung, fall 2018.
It did not take long before my friendship with Tom Chung was established. When we met at an exhibition opening, we arranged to meet in his studio the next day and I felt completely at ease—so much so that I felt I had known him for a long time. I was new to the city and Tom Chung was the perfect welcoming ambassador.
It was not strange that our friendship developed so quickly. Chung is part of a generational shift, fostering a young network of creative people in Toronto that utilize the cities tapestry to cross-pollinate and create new constellations of collaborative designers, photographers and artists. Another reason is that Chung is enormously convivial. As a designer, he is practical and economic, however, it is within his contextual sensitivity that makes his work both distinct and rooted...
tomchung.net/projects/local-source
London Design Biennale: Jesper Eriksson’s Coal: Post-Fuel
Design strategy and writing, Swedish Pavilion, Somerset House 2018.
Coal: Post-Fuel presents Jesper Eriksson’s showcase for future alternative use of coal, with the aim to introduce a disruptive re-evaluation of the material. This exhibition presents a speculative future of coal, and a proposed value shift in the perception of the material—beyond mere energy extraction.
Displays of imaginative, plausible objects, extrapolates coal as an organic building material. The discourse aims to give the material a different image, known not for releasing carbon dioxide, but for enclosing it. The demonstration is led by London based artist and designer, Jesper Eriksson, who will present a body of work, including floors, objects and hand carved sculptures in solid coal—Britain’s most iconic material.
www.designboom.com/design/jesper-eriksson-post-fuel-coal-design-09-27-2018
ICON: Icon of the Month
Article published in Icon #138 Aug 2018.
Wilton C. Dinges, engineer and factory owner, arrived early, yet the room was already filled with generals and military officials. Dinges and the military buyers were meeting for the first time in a hotel in downtown Chicago. Introduced as the owner of the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company, or Emeco, a metal workshop from Pennsylvania, Dinges stood before these figures of federal power with only an aluminium chair in his hand.
The year was 1944, and the men remarked on the lightness of the chair. ‘It would be perfect for the new submarine we’ve just acquired, but will it last on a navy ship?’ Dinges guaranteed that it would be impossible to break the chair, adding that it would indeed be non-corrosive and torpedo-proof. The men laughed and looked at the lightweight chair before them. ‘Let me demonstrate,’ said Dignes, ‘I will throw this chair out of the window, only to return it to you in perfect condition.’ The men could not believe what they saw. The chair fell eight floors before hitting the concrete pavement. It was brought back without a scratch. The government contract for the 1006 Navy chairs was signed that same day, specified as being for a chair capable of withstanding fire, weather, war and sailors...
www.iconeye.com/opinion/icon-of-the-month
+Halle: Workspace Furniture
Article published at +Halle, May 2018
There is no doubt that we could collectively learn more from individual end-user responses to furniture installed in the office. In the case of Henning Larsen’s new architecture office, +Halle has placed furniture on trial, in a collaborative quest to use furniture as vehicle for a better performing and more democratic working environment.
In the 1950s, Eberhard & Wolfgang Schnelle came up with the concept of Bürolandschaft or the open office landscape. The purpose was to create a social-democratic environment with organic groupings of desks, designed to encourage conversations, using potted plants and filing cabinets as informal dividers.
Its subject was egalitarianism. ‘It's quite simple’ Sarah Müllertz, Partner and Head of Interior at Henning Larsen, says; ‘The open office is dead, today's workspaces are about people and how they can perform their best. Yet you cannot design anything anymore without asking people how they work and why they work as they do.’
More...
Disegno: Data Faking
Article published in Disegno #18 April 2018.
The past year has brought with it a series of bizarre ethical violations centred around the car industry: manipulated emission reports; fabricated specs on steel quality; and, finally, revelations of exhaust tests that involved pumping diesel fumes into airtight containers filled with crab-eating macaques...
Order a copy of Disegno #18
or read the full story here
Clerkenwell Design Week: Relay Design
Moderator, a conversation on Investigative Design, May 2018.
A discussion held at Relay Design Agency’s exhibition during Clerkenwell Design Week as part of the +Halle and Baux program.
The conversation was focused on what an investigative design process entails, hearing Jonas Pettersson, CEO and co-founder of Form Us With Love thoughts on where critical design iterations begin.
‘Today, we live in a research economy and it really comes down to the questions you ask and your ability to listen,’ Pettersson said.
Manerba: Apollo Collection
Interview and catalouge text published in April 2018.
Shane Schneck was spring-cleaning his Design studio on the Southern island of Stockholm, a retail space built in the 1920’s with large windows facing the street. He de-cluttered, trying to hide the cables of the grouped desks alongside the legs of the tables. Shane wanted the workspace to be functional and tidy, yet work in cohesion, creating an atmosphere at ease. The next morning, not satisfied with the improvised arrangements, Shane began drawing a desk that would solve the infamous problem of cables tangles being visible. It was a punk piece, Shane said: but it was just a prototype...
www.manerbaspa.com
Clerkenwell Design Week: Prototypa
Three exhibitions and talks, May 2018.
A new edition of Prototypa in London during Clerkenwell Design Week as a part of Shaw Contract week long series Design Sense. Prototypa is an articulation of where design is headed, knowledge shared through an informal and participatory dialogue.
The program included sessions with Stephen Miller at Design Council, discussing healthy placemaking, Thijs Marteens at Cradle to Cradle sharing insights on circular economy and Vicky Lockhart at Well Building Institute discussing how to evaluate for a sound community.
Three dialogues with thought leading industry practitioners, allowing for a deep-dive, behind the refined outcome of designed things and places, to reveal the iterative methodologies that define rationales in better design.
Manerba: Flowered Office
Catalogue text published in April 2018.
Today, working environments have become fluid, acting as mirrors of our process as opposed to a given output. People use desk spaces like canvases in their own right, mobile and versatile, serving as hubs for the activities around them. The Litta collection is a comfortable table and desk series that embraces Manerba’s commitment to belonging, always providing a welcoming place to sit and a gathering place, whether placed in an office, a dining room or a lounge....
www.manerbaspa.com
Fuorisalone Milan: New Way Home
Design Talks at the exhibition Hemma–Stories of Home with Beckmans College of Design, April 2018.
‘Emerging Swedish design stories—future homemakers.’
What makes a home? Blurred lifestyles, emerging dynamics and new mobility, have changed our relationship with the notion of a home forever. The next generation designers from Beckmans College of Design, have approached a sensory idea of a home, depicted as an original place with identity and character that not only exists as brick-and-mortar but in our minds and hearts. Together we introduce an opportunity to reinterpret, redesign and evaluate, what constitutes as livable space.
Participating designers, Hanna Wik, Jennie Adén, Jonathan Nilsson and Lisa Lindh.
Advisory: Placemaking Strategies
Strategy and writing, 2016–2018
Strategic consultant for independent mix-used urban developments in Toronto, Dubai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Tokyo. As part of a series of on-going projects, in collaboration with creative agency Winkreative, developing brand strategy, naming, master plans, and editorial strategies, for neighbourhoods, quarters and buildings.
Interwoven: Arne Hendriks and The Incredible Shrinking Man
Article published in Interwoven March 2018.
‘The Dutch artist and exhibition maker Arne Hendriks believes humans have been brainwashed into worshipping abundance. With his long-running art project The Incredible Shrinking Man, he is combining research, ethics and social engagement to find a way to culturally reverse the human desire for more.‘
Link to the article...
Bolon: Projects We Love
Article published in Projects We Love, Issue 2018.
A feature on Swedish Design brand Bolon’s Triannial Review, and the ideal balance between new ideas and critical evaluation of the old. Including a discussion with Bolon Designer Klara Persson on the opportunity for the team to formally meet to discuss Bolon’s existing collections and find which they might be improved.
Content & Editorial Direction; Bolon and Disegno Works.
For a copy of the magazine, go to: www.bolon.com/en/projects-we-love/2018
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Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Prototypa
Three exhibtions and talks, February 2018.
A series of talks held at A House co-working space, during Stockholm Design Week for Prototypa. A critical forum that began exactly a year ago, invented to shed light on the most telling part of the design process—prototyping.
After exhibitions and talks in Stockholm, Milan, London, and Toronto, Prototypa returned for a fifth edition, including MDD Testing Grounds, BAUX and an industrially designed City Jacket.
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Hear Us Out
Design Talks with Beckmans, February 2018.
Beckmans College of Design shows design collaborations with six of Sweden's most renowned furniture producers – Blå Station, Gärsnäs, Johanson Design, Källemo, Massproductions and Materia at Stockholm Furniture Fair, February 6–10.
12 final-year students in Product Design have collaborated with one industrial partner each, to produce a prototype. The result of the collaboration is shown in the exhibition Hear Us Out in the Greenhouse at Stockholm Furniture Fair.
Two Design Talks were arranged during Stockholm Furniture Fair in which students and representatives from the companies are included in the panel. The first talk discusses the relationship between industry and designer, and the second talk is about prototyping. The talks are moderated by design strategist Lia Forslund.
Spritmuseum Stockholm: Champagne Exhibition
Writing, December 2017
Form Us With Love designs Champagne, an exhibition at Spritmuseum in Stockholm, portraying the bubbly drink in a gridded system. Made of birch wood, pink plinths and tailor-made modular light fixtures, this grid is all about the ushering of a personalised mental engagement. Prototyped using VR, the exhibition is an industrially designed platform, allowing the audience to recognise where to skim through and where best to take a deep dive.
‘The entire interior is made of white stained timber, lit by a sequential white pendant; a pared-down architecture, used as a neutralizer. We did not want to use the stereotype of Champagne as neither “traditional craft” nor “glitz and bling”, but rather something dry and industrial,’ John Löfgren, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Form Us With Love, explains.
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IIDEX Toronto: Prototypa
Four exhibitions and talks, November 2017.
After successfully hosting design forum Prototypa in Stockholm, Milan, and London, Form Us With Love is invited to IIDEX in Toronto during the two-day long fair hosting the fourth edition of Prototypa, curated and hosted by Form Us With Love and moderated by Lia Forslund, in collaboration with IIDEX Canada and Shaw Contract Group.
Jamie Wolfond from Good Thing, reflected on his dual designer-manufacturer mindset, followed by Tom Chung founder of Tom Chung Studio, who discussed material-economic ways to explore an idea. Thomas Fougere of Thom Fougere Studio talked about prototyping through an investigative perspective, this followed by a session with designer Brian Richer from Studio Castor, who revealed the bridge between sculpture and design.
Advisory: Loews Hotels & Co
Strategy and Writing, 2016–2017.
Strategic consultant for the brand strategy overhaul of Loews Hotels & Co, designed by Winkreative. This resulted in the renaming of the parent company, a robust visual identity system and tone of voice guidelines.
With half a century in the business and an diverse portfolio of properties across the US, Loews Hotels have a proven heritage, but lacked a unifying brand vision. The given strategy helped to crystallise a brand positioning and purpose for the next chapter.
Read more at Winkreative ...
London Design Festival: Prototypa
Seven exhibitions and talks, September, 2017.
As part of Design Frontiers held at Somerset House during London Design Festival, Swedish design studio, Form Us With Love and Lia Forslund hosted Prototypa; a seven-day series of talks, workshops and exhibitions, in collaboration with Swedish Design Moves, The Grand Award of Design, Formex Nova, Visit Sweden and the Swedish Embassy London.
Acting as a forum for physical ideations—as opposed to finished products—Prototypa is an articulation of where design is heading, involving chance, accidents and intuition as well as, quality control, systems and methods of future advancement.
The clash between the craft and machine become a central theme, as the works on display illustrate a significant shift towards an almost artful intersection.
Read full summary by Tim Spears editor of Designboom ...
Disegno: A Milanese Marble
Article published in Disegno #15, Summer 2017.
A featuring on the forgotten history of Silipol, postwar Italy’s suggestion for resolving the porous boundary between industrial product and artisan craft.
Images by Teresa Giannico
Disegno #15 is available at Disegno's online store
Fuorisalone Milan: Prototypa
Four talks held During Fuorisalone, April 2017.
During Milan design week this April, Prototypa hosted by Form Us With Love temporary inhabited a Milanese architecture practice, to engage in the second round of Prototypa—a four-day series of talks on the act of prototyping. Four conversations in an honest setting, delivering actual and speculative design assessments to a keen and curious audience.
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Disegno: Risk Assessment
Article published in Disegno #14, Spring 2017.
The article covers the case of the Ikea Odger chair from a quality control perspective, unveiling what it means to risk assess a design from both a social and a scientific rationale.
‘A quality controller stands in a test lab, speculating on the weaknesses of a new chair. “What if the customer sits on the backrest?” he wonders. “Adding a bit of curve, using the shape properties as opposed to adding more material, is a way to play it smart,” he resolves.’
Buy Disegno #14 here
TID Canvas: Creative Platform
Strategy and writing, 2017.
This spring, Swedish watch brand TID is launching a new collaborative platform, TID Canvas, inviting a selection of artists and designers to interpret the brand's iconic TID No.1 watch, resulting in a limited annual production.
TID Canvas 001 designed by Form Us With Love was launched in April, along with the annual handover or Italian ‘Staffetta’, a perfect interception by Clara von Zweigbergk, selected designer of TID Canvas 002.
‘We want to embark on a creative programme of temporary collections. The goal is to make TID a natural platform for experimentation. Each watch is completed within twelve months and launched in the spring, for collectors as well as new customers to explore and enjoy,’ says Ola E. Bernestål, CEO of TID.
+Halle: Creating Human Spaces
Strategy and writing, March 2017.
‘It is time to challenge the composition of office environments and public spaces. A day at work might have become less physical; yet, greater demands are made on surroundings to be evocative. Dwell time in public may have increased, and yet a range of diverse—both lively and quieter— areas are needed at all hours of the day. At +Halle we research, analyse and think carefully about how we put together, facilitate and create furniture that helps people get the most out of the environment they are in.’
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Svensk Bokkonst: Award
Award received for the I—X book, March 2017.
The I—X publication edited by Lia Forslund was this March awarded by the Swedish Book Art Association, 'to serve as a model of emulation.' This chronological compilation of design studio Form Us With Love’s ten years of practice, designed by Hendrik Nygren Design, is a monograph filled with design process, insights and reflective thinking.
'The act to present extensive material across many pages, in a large pocket format, is clever. Form, function and attention to the economy of production are cohesive and gives the book the chance to reach a large audience. The cover creates a unity with the appendix that complements the main publication,' the Swedish Book Art Jury's formal statement read.
The annual selection of awardees are currently on display at the Swedish National Library, and at other libraries and institutions in Sweden and abroad.
Link to the awards page ...
Interwoven: In the mind of the quality controller.
Article published in Interwoven March 2017.
‘The quality controller gazed at the grey plastic chair. Sporadically, he scribbled on a note pad. He’d spent the morning imagining catastrophic possibilities: legs breaking, back rests snapping, seats cracking—things he had seen happening to chairs just like this one. The thoughts were haunting...‘
Link to the article...
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Prototypa X Shane Schneck
Talk held at Form Us With Love February 2017.
This February, Form Us With Love opened their studio in central Stockholm to the public, introducing Prototypa, a mini-series of exhibitions, dialogues, and workshops under the theme of prototyping.
First out, was an exhibition and dialogue with industrial designer, Shane Schneck, the man behind the celebrated studio Office for Design. In an informal talk, moderated by Lia Forslund, insights were found, including ways in which materials are used in prototyping to inform the outcome, and how a quick prototype differs from a slow one.
‘I always make analogue prototypes, using paper for instance, before I start 3D printing or creating a digital design file. It is important for me to start with something where I can reach quick conclusions before I get too tied up in a particular form,’ Shane Schneck explains.
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Prototypa X BIG-GAME
Talk held at Form Us With Love February 2017.
Day two, welcomed the design challenge ‘Q&A with BIG-GAME’ curated by Form Us With Love. A travelling interpretation exercise initiated by Swiss design studio BIG-GAME. Within the realm of prototyping, the result became an exhibition of ten ideations by Form Us With Love mirroring ten objects designed by BIG-GAME, moderated by Lia Forslund with an emphasis on the shared commonalities of a process, as well as some interesting iterations or ‘hacks’ of the Swiss designs.
‘This is the eight time we do the Q&A, and it is interesting to see how this particular challenge became entirely about discovering the ideation process, as oppose to the interpretations of the finished product,’ Augustin Scott de Martinville, Elric Petit and Grégoire Jeanmonod, founders of BIG-GAME reflects.
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Prototypa X Workshop
Workshop held at Form Us With Love, February 2017.
The mini-series then culminated in a final assessment, a prototype workshop hosted by Lia Forslund and Form Us With Love, including a push pin, eggs, paper, and scissors. In ten multidisciplinary teams of three, seventeen different nationalities collaborated to create an impressive array of paper engineering—woven belts, interlocked containers and perpendicular wrapping techniques.
‘I was so proud to see the studio filled with creative people from all over the world coming together in craftsmanship, using very few means. Within just two hours we had incredible design results,’ John Löfgren, Creative Director at Form Us With Love recalls.
Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair: Swedish Design Moves
Writing for installation, February 2017.
On a mission set by the governmental body, Visit Sweden, Form us With Love was asked to curate an installation at the baroque town house of Tessin Palace, showing a selection of architecture, design, and fashion that would answer the question, ‘where?’ is Swedish design moving.
‘Swedish Design Moves’ at Tessin Palace, is a peek into the yet to be finished—the midst process and the raw. Introducing a selection of prototypes, placed in a baroque setting. A staged contrast, curated by Swedish design studio, Form Us With Love.
Providing physical ideations from Swedish architects and designers—as opposed to products—reveals a gathered sense of where Swedish Design is heading but it also displays methods of future advancement. The clash between the crafted now and the polished past becomes a central theme in the exhibition, as many works on display illustrate a significant shift towards an almost artful curiosity.
As mankind’s increasing social and economic behaviour threatens the quality of our environment, ‘Design Moves’ becomes a tool to reconsider what progress might mean, incorporating learning from each other’s future realities.
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+Halle: For Now
Writing for +Halle, June 2016.
In a world of constant occasions, where a sense of waiting is a minute lost not found, Chris Liljenberg Hallstrøm has designed For Now, an anticipated collection of sofas, chairs and coffee tables for Danish design brand +Halle.
Debuting at Orgatec 2016, the For Now collection mirrors the industry wide attitudinal shift to a more humane office interior, emphasising cultures and individuals, in an ambidextrous take on the work place.
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ÉC A L: Cross Lecture
Lecture held at Ec a l, November 2016.
Invited by ec a l’s theory unit to talk about Quality Control, as part of the cross lectures, enabling students to build a critical and personal discourse to support, strengthen and foster their artistic practice.
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Advisory: Macro Advisory Partners
Strategy and audit, presented August 2016.
Strategic consultant for the rebrand of Macro Advisory Partners, a boutique consulting firm that offers long-term strategic counsel, helping key decision-makers in business, finance and government navigate the complex intersection of global markets, geopolitics and policy.
A new brand was designed by Winkreative setting MAP apart from their competitors yet still conveying the right level of gravitas. This balance carries through to their website, where select case stories provide a discrete and coherent overview of their intricate global assignments.
Form Us With Love: The I—X Exhibition
Writing for installation, February 2016.
In a first major retrospective at Konstakademien, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Sweden, design studio Form Us With Love presents a number of early pieces, celebrated classics and new work—exploring a decade of industrial design consultancy, business ventures and civic projects. In the short film by Jonas Lindström, we get the chance to explore the space and ideas behind the exhibition.
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Form Us With Love: The I—X Book
Book published, February 2016.
The I—X book is a featured design dialogue. Turning ten, Design Studio Form Us With Love figured it was time to stop, evaluate and discuss what really made all that difference. Days of conversation about design, process, people and value turned out to be priceless information looking ahead. The studio decided to distribute these conversations, so that others might learn from it. The book, edited by Lia Forslund and designed by Henrik Nygren Design is available at Konst-ig from February 2016.
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Balance Sheets: R.M.B.S.
Balance Sheets, Edouard Malingue Gallery in Hong Kong, June 2015.
We begin at the end with a receipt printer, a critical text machine that operates at the press of a button. Out comes a short dark tale of the investments made in the years before the financial crisis. The story is shot through with the jargon of the financial industries—‘credit-default-swaps made on subprime-mortgage bonds’—and inspired by the dusky light of Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1797). Work made in collaboration with Franek Wardynski.
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Royal College of Art: Albertopolis
Book published, May 2015.
Voices of fifteen writers, as they rewrite, renegotiate and perhaps even reinvigorate a familiar constellation of institutions. Albertopolis—17 essays, 117 pages and 1 podcast–aerial overviews and urban critiques, unexpected encounters with Mormon elders, sparring scientists, tea room spies and cursed stones.
The term ‘Albertopolis’ was coined in the 1850s as a facetious nickname for London’s new quarter of art, design and innovation. Today, Albertopolis remains a network of venerable museums and institutions sprawling south of Hyde Park, under the watchful gaze of its instigator, Prince Albert.
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Royal College of Art:
The Ecologies of Publishing Futures
Invited to talk at symposium, November 2015.
Invited to this one-day international symposium bringing together academics, designers, storytellers, publishers and students, in order to explore the book and its lifecycle, speculating on publishing futures including the role of writing, designing and the processes of mediating, distributing and reading.
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Spritmuseum Stockholm: Beer Exhibtion
Writing for installation, February 2015
Form Us With Love designs and curates Beer exhibition at Spritmuseum in Stockholm, celebrating the science and art of beer making. In responds to the growing number of connoisseurs, passionate brewers and beer fans, Form Us With Love has designed a beer exhibition based on the culture of craft and experimentation.
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Hyperstore
Writing for installation, April 2015
Hyperstore is an artist collective that investigates the precarious future of mass consumption. It calls into question the authenticity of online retail experience, how our perception of reality is shaped through the layers of trade we consume. Hyperstore collapses the distance between the online and the IRL.
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Tunica Magazine: The Order of Things and All That
Article published in Tunica magazine, S/S 2014.
‘Anna Sorenson is a conceptual artist, a child of the 80’s, a constant traveller and nomad. When I was invited to her current home in Brussels, I envisioned archival desks and shelves filled with objects from her escapades around the globe. Surprisingly, her working space is quite the opposite of what I expected. Four meters ceilings and emptiness, apart from two plants, a computer and a few sketches neatly lined up on the floor. Her work reflects her travels. She is a serious collector, but she is not collecting memorabilia—she collects to understand; articulating politics, philosophies and values.
Link to the article...
Emeco: Broom chair
Strategy and writing, April 2012
An innovative creator and an environmentally pioneering manufacturer have joined efforts to work towards zero waste. A design collaboration that both avoids and eliminates waste, the Broom chair combines intelligent materiality with beautiful form. In the industrial age, most products live only in the present. They have no past and no future. Factories plunder raw materials from the earth to make products that soon end up on the trash heap. This process is still happening every day, all over the world.
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Essay: Of and For Turner Contemporary
Writing for installation, May 2015
Part of ‘Of and For Turner Contemporary: Writings on a Building’ a collection of texts written by Critical Writing in Art and Design students at the Royal College of Art in relation to Sir David Chipperfield’s architecture, capturing aspects and impressions of Turner Contemporary.
Link to Essay...
2064
If the museum intendant looked worried, she had every reason: a squall was brewing just outside of Margate. As soon as she saw the white caps popping over the waves of the North falls she felt the bots communicating in her bloodstream, telling her that the humidity on the second floor could exceed its limits tonight. "I have to get someone to evacuate the Turner paintings before closing," she muttered as she walked through the concrete frames. In the past years, the number of floods along the coast had tripled. High tides and storms were now the biggest threat to Margate. Sea defenders were put up along the bay, but the waves had a tendency to slip over them and were now resting on the seafront promenade.
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Emeco: Parrish Chair
Strategy and writing, April 2013.
Emeco and Konstantin Grcic collaborate on interior installation at the New Parrish Art Museum in South Hampton, NYC.
“The location on Long Island brings a feeling of countryside and the design process was always defined by finding the most straightforward solution fitting the surrounding - the specific needs for this specific museum in this specific region”, Konstantin Grcic reflects.
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