London Design Museum to relocate with new ambitions

The Design Museum has announced it will open in its new home in west London on 24 November 2016. The building in Kensington overlooks Holland Park and is the result of a £83m transformation of the 1960s listed former Commonwealth Institute building. The new space is three times the size of the current Bermondsey site. The three floors will house three galleries, a library and learning centre, two events spaces, an auditorium for talks and seminars,... Read More

Mobility examined at Milan Design Week

Up until a few years ago the automotive world came to Salone del Mobile Milano as spectators. The week is dedicated to product and industrial design; the venue acts as a platform for discourse on design and speculative debate. It isn’t meant to be a stage for showcasing new cars. With more and more car companies participating now, what is the right way, the correct etiquette, when it comes to exhibiting in Milan? Unveiling a car is definitely... Read More

Notes from Salone del Mobile Milan

Design lovers flocked to Milan earlier this month for Salone del Mobile, the world’s most significant design fair that also marks the unofficial start of the design season. The main event at Fiera Milano is definitely worth a visit, but it is away from the crowded exhibition hall that some of the more exciting events take place. Pockets of Milan come alive during the week with designers and artists from all around the world exhibiting... Read More

Designed in China

How do you change the perception of ‘made in China’ to ‘designed in China’? Chinese contemporary art is currently the focus of intense interest in western Europe, so why not Chinese design? Two exhibitions in London aim to rectify this. Unfolding Landscape, at Sotheby’s in London, which finished last week, exhibited work for sale by graduates from Beijing’s prestigious design school, The China Central Academy of Fine... Read More

Designer Talks: Tom Dixon

Tom Dixon discusses the parallels between nationality and creativity at the 2012 Milan Furniture Fair. In the latest video from Nowness experts Carlo Lavagna and Roberto De Paolis the British industrial designer talks of his likes of Lee Broom, La Chance, and Noé Duchaufour Lawrence. Watch the video here. Design Talks | 5 – 25 Scrutton Street | Old Street | Shoreditch | London | EC2A 4HJ?W | www.d-talks.com |Bookshop | Published by Banksthomas All... Read More

Salone del Mobile 2012 highlights

The design world congregated on Milan last week for Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Europe’s leading design fair in Milan. To mark its 51st year, the fair set its focus on technology and its influence on design. This is a vast show, spanning most of Milan with its hub at the exhibition centre in Rho. Read the report published in Wallpaper*. #gallery-8 { margin: auto; } #gallery-8 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top:... Read More

London Design Festival: Clerkenwell, Bloomsbury, Shoreditch

Designersblock this year moved to the Farmiloe building on St John Street in Clerkenwell for more space to curate the show as part of the London Design Festival. From the outside, large white inflatable spheres and upside down furniture suspended from the rafters gave the warehouses the appearance of an inverted mad hatters tea party, but inside the designs were more down to earth. John Galvin‘s handcrafted furniture is warm and tactile.... Read More

London Design Festival 2011 higlights

At the Grand Entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum sits a giant installation cascading down the steps – the dramatic and soaring Timber Wave responding to the museum’s vast, ornamental and multilayered façade. This is the work of London firm Amanda Levete Architects who, with the help of structural engineer Arup, has created this complex three-dimensional latticework spiral from American red oak, using lamination techniques normally... Read More

Brit Insurance Design Awards

From an original concept for a cookery book and iPhone app, to an open air library, an organically-shaped chair and the world’s first designer lightbulb, the winners of this years Brit Insurance Design Awards at London’s Design Museum were an inspired collection from the world of architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The seven winners, selected by a jury chaired by former chief executive of the... Read More

Mercedes-Benz product design sub-brand

Mercedes-Benz has created Style, a new sub-brand dedicated to the design of luxury good outside automotive design. ‘We will create very selective luxury products in order to underline our image as a luxury maker and as a leading company in design,’ global design boss Gorden Wagener told us at the launch of Style. The marque’s images has arguably suffered in recent years – no longer seen to be at the forefront of high-end... Read More