THE GREAT INDOORS
Nº127 MAR — APR 2019
What’s the next step for the LUXURY MALL?
How brand customers become brand MEMBERS
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Why LIBRARIES are now key to creating communities
Contents
3
Gerhardt Kellermann
FRAME 127
70
19 Michèle van Vliet
12 OBJECTS
In-home healthcare, social street furniture and networked products
32 THE CHALLENGE Five ideas for tomorrow’s classroom
44 PORTRAITS 46 MARCEL WANDERS ‘Diversity is the key to real innovation and change’ 52 DAISUKE MOTOGI Material rebel
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60 PAUL COCKSEDGE Combining a sense of force with a feeling of quietude 62 GWENAEL NICOLAS Pioneering experiential design
78 MOOOI
Doos Architects selects
Tomooki Kengaku
70 MARLEEN SLEEUWITS Alien and familiar
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FRAME 127
From branded clubs to a new mall typology
Owen Kolasinski / BFA
80 SPACES
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130 FRAME LAB Libraries 132 Enter the civic living room 142 Back to school with Johnson Favaro 148 Phone-based literature 152 What’s the shelf life of the shelf? 156 Three decades, four libraries, one firm
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Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA
162 REPORTS Institutions Courtesy of Caimi
165
New school furniture and worry-free waiting rooms
176 IN NUMBERS
Simone Post’s Stripped Down Stripes in facts and figures
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COLOPHON
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EDITORIAL For editorial inquiries, please e-mail frame@frameweb.com or call +31 20 4233 717 (ext 921). Editor in chief Robert Thiemann – RT Managing editor Floor Kuitert – FK Head of content Peter Maxwell – PM Editor Anouk Haegens – AH Web editor Rab Messina – RM Editor at large Tracey Ingram – TI Junior editor Lauren Grace Morris – LGM Copy editors InOtherWords (D’Laine Camp, Donna de Vries-Hermansader) Design director Barbara Iwanicka Graphic designers Zoe Bar-Pereg Shadi Ekman Graphic-design intern Paulius Daunys Translation InOtherWords (Donna de VriesHermansader) Contributors to this issue Will Georgi – WG John Jervis – JJ Gili Merin – GM Shonquis Moreno – SM Riya Patel – RP Anna Sansom – AS Jane Szita – JS Cover Demain, le vaisseau chimère exhibition by Studio GGSV at Galeries Lafayette’s Galerie des Galeries (see page 86) Photo Thibaut Voisin Lithography Edward de Nijs Printing Grafisch Bedrijf Tuijtel Hardinxveld-Giessendam
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EDITORIAL
Learn, Not Loan I MUST CONFESS that I haven’t been in a library for years. I do make use of Uber and occasionally Airbnb – evidence of my gradual participation in the sharing economy. When I want to read a book, however, I don't borrow it, I buy it. What’s more, libraries are usually humdrum and unexciting. Parents with children whisper their way through the stacks. Students hunch over laptops. Shelf after shelf full of books. No, libraries do not inspire me. But when we started making this issue’s Frame Lab, I realized that a silent revolution had nearly passed me by. A quick flip to page 131 will show you what I mean. Our section on libraries has very little to do with shelves filled with books. Not that today’s library isn’t a book depository. What we discovered is that the relationship between bookshelves and communal areas seems to have changed completely. The youngest generation of libraries is no longer all about books. It’s true that you can still find hundreds of thousands of them there, but more and more often they are efficiently amassed in underground storage rooms, where robots fill visitors’ orders, including those received online. The parallel with click-and-collect retail is remarkable. Librarians have fewer admin duties and more time to answer questions and to perform other relevant services. A second effect of fewer books at ground level is extra room for functions that the libraries of my youth didn’t offer. A selection of the facilities found in today’s better urban library reads like this: recording studios, maker spaces, movie theatres, exhibition zones (cultural centres and libraries are merging at an increasing rate), co-working opportunities and big comfy sitting areas. Not to mention a slew of hospitality venues.
The result is a building that’s evolving from a lending library into a hub for study, practice, making, work and cultural experience. In short: a spot for personal development in its broadest sense – cognitive, social and cultural. A possible next step could be the addition of physical activities; think of yoga and fitness. I can imagine a time when even mental wellbeing – from psychotherapy to group counselling – becomes part of the mix. Together, all these things would give rise to the transformation of hardware (books) supplier to software and service centre. With an offering that’s built around people, aimed at helping both individuals and communities to function better. Picture an old-fashioned library that ultimately becomes a noncommercial counterpart of the shopping mall. A community mecca that resembles a village green, surrounded by places for learning and making, for practising and working on yourself, for singing with others and studying in groups. Books would always be part of the medley, but they would no longer prevail. The library would be free of racks, and architects and interior designers would be free of the yoke that required them to create spaces filled with aisles of shelving. Such a destination sounds so much more inspiring than the libraries of my past. ROBERT THIEMANN Editor in chief
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CONTRIBUTORS
Amandine Alessandra
RIYA PATEL is curator of London’s Aram Gallery, an independent venue dedicated to new and experimental design. Since earning her master’s degree in architecture and beginning her journalism career at the Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review, she has been an editor at Frame, as well as a senior editor at Icon, for which she now serves as a contributing editor. Patel writes for publications such as Disegno, Wallpaper* and The Independent. On page 152, she reviews the evolving role of the shelf. As an editor and author specializing in 20th-century architecture and design, JOHN JERVIS has filled the roles of deputy editor at Icon magazine and managing editor at ArtAsiaPacific. He has written for numerous publications in the creative sector and edited catalogues for leading institutions, including Tate and the National Gallery. Nowadays, Jervis can be found procrastinating in London, weighed down by an unfinished manuscript on welfarestate architecture. His piece about the restoration of Le Corbusier’s Paris penthouse is on page 124.
The work of Finnish photographer TUOMAS UUSHEIMO captures the unspoken stories of architecture, built environments, interiors and objects. His images have been featured in international publications such as The New York Times, Monocle and Architectural Digest. He teaches architectural photography at the Lahti Institute of Design and Fine Arts in Helsinki and at KS Koolitus in Tallinn. For this issue, he photographed three buildings in Helsinki: the Scandic Hotel (see p. 78), Oodi Central Library (see p. 132) and the Amos Rex museum (see p. 172).
Based in Los Angeles and New York City, photographer MOLLY CRANNA prefers shooting portraits, fashions and still lifes, with an emphasis on interesting faces and interesting things. She uses colour to solve problems and finds visual catharsis in straight lines and unexpected moments. Her client list includes Puma, Target, Wired, Paper magazine and Playboy. Cranna’s portraits of the architects behind Johnson Favaro are on page 142.
Photo Andrea Ferrari
LAZE DESIGN GORDON GUILLAUMIER
www.rodaonline.com
Courtesy of Frolic Studio
HEALTHCARE enters the home. E-COMMERCE targets co-workers. URBAN ARCHITECTURE encourages interaction. Objects up their DIGITAL IQ. Discover new directions in the world of products.
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OBJECTS
Tabletop device Pria, from Stanley Black & Decker, is designed to augment the work of human carers, giving them the ability to monitor and support patients remotely. Pria’s core purpose is to make sure medication is dispensed accurately. It has the ability to deliver 28 medication doses and feedback to the carer if a dose is missed. The unit has a video phone for direct communication, a voice-enabled AI feature that operates and interacts with the patient, a round screen, a shoulderlike stand and animated eyes and mouth, which anthropomorphize the device. The humanization of telemedicine is a key design tactic of many major tech companies, which use it to get people accustomed to the elimination of visiting the doctor for treatment. stanleyblackanddecker.com
IN-HOME HEALTHCARE
Matt Canham’s Hplus concept collection is a suite of six personal health-monitoring devices that gather data on nine chronic conditions. Sensors include a spirometer, a urine-analyser and a finger-prick blood tester. Data accessible to both clinicians and patients is meant to improve the overall accuracy of current treatments. Canham’s prototypes show a departure from the market in their emphasis on materiality. Ceramic and wood create a sense of warmth and approachability. By entirely foregoing digital elements such as screens and LED indicators, the UK designer grounds his devices in a domestic context. mattcanham.uk
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Courtesy of Jiyoun Kim Studio
THE
FUTURE OF LEARNING In the lead-up to each issue, Frame challenges emerging designers to answer a topical question with a future-forward concept. Today’s educational landscape is defined by instability – how do you prepare students for a career that may see them doing many jobs and working for various companies, even industries, often at the same time? Add to that scenario the threat of automation, precarious labour practices and political upheaval, and it’s clear that school is not a place that ends the day you graduate, but a permanent state of affairs. We asked five makers to share their ideas on tackling this uncertain future.
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THE CHALLENGE
FUTURE OF LEARNING
Nº 1
Lifelong Learning Acknowledging the effects of automation and ageing, Shamiso Oneka imagines a course of study for a POST-WORK SOCIETY.
You want education to embrace the future? SHAMISO ONEKA: It’s currently designed to prepare young people for the workforce, but by 2030 half the world’s jobs are expected to disappear owing to automation. Therefore education should be preparing young people for a world beyond work: a post-work society. But that’s not the only problem you’re addressing? If we take London as an example, its population is set to increase by 37 per cent to more than 11 million by 2050, with 16 per cent over 65 years of age. The context of automation, urbanization and ageing is the backdrop of the Greenbelt Institute, a suburban proposal for the education system of the future. Why is it called the Greenbelt Institute? It would occupy the boundary territory that keeps London from sprawling into the countryside and small towns beyond. The city’s long-contested Greenbelt would host a network of intergenerational learning environments that also provide recreational space and ecosystem benefits. Can you elaborate on these environments? Informal work and play spaces nestled in the landscape would replace traditional classrooms and make learning an ongoing process that takes place in harmony with nature. Coeducational spaces would address the need for lifelong learning in intellectual, emotional and social skills.
London-based Central Saint Martins M Arch graduate SHAMISO ONEKA was selected for ‘The Challenge’ because of her alternative views on urban living.
How and what would people learn? As well as technology, subjects would include emotional development, citizenship, culture and creativity, thus giving structure and purpose to leisure time. Take food production as an example. There are opportunities within this subject to learn about soil and geology, biology, and the cultivation of different plants for different ecologies. There would be lessons with a focus on sustainable growing environments, ecosystems and seasonality, nutrition, cooking, shared food cultures and more. A little structure could make every process or action a learning moment. In this way, work and learning become one and the same. And the intellectual, emotional and social skills? At present such skills come predominantly by circumstance from the home environment and the school system. As the Greenbelt Institute blurs the boundaries between home and school, it has the potential
to create social equality by levelling the playing fields of social background and family circumstance. If these skills are included in the curriculum, they can be factored into our collective intelligence and can be developed with guidance and awareness. How would you integrate the intergenerational aspect of your proposal? Surrounding the educational environment for the young with dwellings for the old would result in a space of inclusion and exchange. For example, young people could participate in the design and fabrication of the spaces as a method of project-based learning, before older people take up residence in them. This would allow young people to benefit from the experience of older people who can act as mentors by sharing their skills and stories. What would be the educational advantages of this approach? All forms of learning and work would be accessible to everyone. This makes space for personal development that values people as more than just part of a production line for society. Young people would learn to understand the overarching processes of production, including planning, design, infrastructure and the inner workings of an undertaking. They would learn how to think critically and creatively – and have opportunities to apply their ideas to projects within the community. Finally, they would learn the skills of citizenship that involve being a leader, a negotiator and a participant. – WG shamiso.design
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In Oneka’s suburban proposal for the education system of the future, London’s Greenbelt hosts a network of intergenerational learning environments that also provide recreational space.
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FUTURE OF LEARNING
Nº 4
On Closer Inspection Jiyoun Kim Studio’s communication system promotes INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING.
Both graduates of Seoul’s Hongik University, SEWON CHUNG and JIYOUN KIM were asked to contribute to ‘The Challenge’ because of their expertise in technology and communication.
THE CHALLENGE
Why do you believe better education comes from better communication? JIYOUN KIM: Traditionally, school was the place to learn, but now we can access the information we want anytime, anywhere. Our ability to find and apply new technologies is more important than the actual knowledge or information we discover. For example, few people memorize public-transport routes. When the time comes, we just need to know how to reach our destination. What impact do your ideas have on education? SEWON CHUNG: We believe that a better form of education would be to inspire a life attitude that has no resistance to learning new knowledge and skills. If curiosity or doubt arises, a student should be stimulated to find information independently – to be an ‘adventure explorer’. Please explain your proposal. SC: The Curious Service Network is an active communication system that allows students to explore new information on their own, to share the data with fellow students and to share their own feedback with both the class and the teacher. How does it work? JK: Teachers identify learning targets and use a built-in camera on the device stick to put information about these targets on a display. The students are invited to find and physically contact the targets to access the relevant data before sharing it, along with their feedback. Do you have an example? SC: Say a class wants to learn about leaves. The teacher asks the students to take five pictures of every leaf they find. Students scan tree leaves in the classroom, in the playground and on their way home. The next day, the data on each tree is collected and any new trees are classified. Students can view all the data and leave feedback on each other’s finds. It’s a way to discover information and to learn more about the new leaves and trees that most interest them.
How does the device enable better communication? JK: In the process of sharing data and feedback on the information collected, anyone can use the device to present a new topic. When the students’ questioning shots are shared on the Curious Service Network, teachers can find new insights and data on familiar topics that they might not have expected, and students can share how they feel about the same topics with classmates. What is the main advantage of your concept compared with traditional education? JK: Unlike an online search, students are encouraged to go out in the ‘real’ world to see and touch objects. But ultimately, the CSN makes it possible to develop dynamic explorations of new information. Furthermore, it narrows the gap between real objects and electronic information to provide a new channel of digital communication. – WG jiyounkim.com
Students could use the Curious Service Network – a device consisting of a pen-shaped scanning tool and a tablet – to collect and share information with classmates and teachers.
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Tada (Yukai)
MARCEL WANDERS reveals the fundaments of his work. MARLEEN SLEEUWITS tricks the eye. DAISUKE MOTOGI redefines luxury. GWENAEL NICOLAS makes retail mediagenic. Meet the people. Get their perspectives.
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PORTRAITS
Role Reversal
DAISUKE MOTOGI’s material rebellion challenges traditional notions of luxury. Words
TRACEY INGRAM
Portraits
TADA (YUKAI)
INTRODUCING
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PORTRAITS
Tomooki Kengaku
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DAISUKE
INTRODUCING
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DDAA’s projects for Nike employ one main material to great effect. In the S/S 2018 presentation of the Nikelab x Undercover Gyakusou line, a wavy mirrored surface suggests the motion of running.
TODAY’S ARCHITECTS are expected to be the ultimate all-rounders. Over the years, their lists of expertise have accumulated anything and everything, from a natural progression into interiors to the less-butstill-related specialities of typography and web design. As more in the field head down the jack-of-all-trades route, how can the new generation set itself apart? For Tokyo-based studio DDAA, the answer lies in defining a leitmotif, one that speaks to the zeitgeist. The firm offers an ‘architectural perspective on multidisciplinary projects’, says founder Daisuke Motogi, who established DDAA in 2010 after majoring in architecture at Musashino Art University, where he now teaches. ‘Although my thoughts are rooted in architecture, I don’t consider different genres separately when I design.’ Those designs could be city plans, landscapes, interiors, products or branding – or all of the above – and their shared intention is to challenge traditional notions of luxury. DDAA wants its designs to satisfy the spectrum – ‘from Michelin-starred restaurants to small bistros’ – and to mirror each client’s values. ‘I wouldn’t say we’re fascinated by luxury, but we do see the potential of what we call “speculative luxury” as a way to connect to these values.’ So what exactly is speculative luxury? Motogi looks to DDAA’S back catalogue for examples. One way to explore the concept, he says, is to invert the relationship between hardware and decorative finishes in an interior. The designers might plate cheap screws, bolts and scaf folding pipes – elements that are often hidden – with 18-carat gold, for example, or present LAN cables as if they’re sacred objects in an art gallery, protected behind a layer of glass. Such material rebellion has »
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PORTRAITS
captured the attention of the likes of Nike, for which Motogi and team dressed the walls of the Nike Ateliair exhibition in Tokyo with ordinary bubble wrap. DDAA has played with the boundary between revealing and concealing in a cross-disciplinary context from the outset. Although he trained as an architect, Motogi launched his studio with the release of two products: seats, to be specific. ‘I was thinking about space and architecture while designing products,’ he says. ‘My early projects were important training that allowed me to consider product design and architecture equally, without borders in between.’ Lost in Sofa celebrates an armchair’s ability to inadvertently consume the contents of its user’s pockets. The product’s playful surface doubles as storage for ‘books, a vase – whatever you like’. While Motogi’s initial products did fulfil a function, he saw them as pieces of puzzles that only the users could complete. Designs that leave room for personal intervention – a bit like architecture, you might say. Motogi is not alone in his thinking, especially when it comes to those trying to push architectural conventionality by
dabbling in atypical activities. The words of Kjetil Thorsen, cofounder of famed multidisciplinary firm Snøhetta (Frame 116, p. 89), spring to mind: ‘Architecture is really about people and not architecture.’ Perhaps the focus on a personal scale is something Motogi picked up during the six-year stint at Schemata Architects that followed his graduation. It’s a sentiment Schemata founder Jo Nagasaka has long propounded, whether the studio’s output be a piece of furniture, an interior or a large-scale building. Like Nagasaka, DDAA’s definition of luxury is about reducing excess, not creating it. Motogi ‘finds pleasure in every aspect of design’ while trying to improve the environment. Materials, production methods – sometimes less is more, he says. ‘The world is already full of stuff.’ That’s one reason why DDAA decided to keep its architectural interventions to a minimum for Dappled House, a renovation project in Tokyo. The building was constructed during the height of Japan’s ‘bubble economy’ and bore explicit signs of the seemingly unlimited wealth that marked the period. In 2017, DDAA tackled the build ing’s 100-m2 first floor, complete with »
Kenta Hasegawa
‘Luxury is about reducing excess, not creating it’
Details at Avex Dance Studio in Aoyama offer a fresh take on luxury. Bright-blue LAN cables are glorified behind a layer of glass (above), and furniture features goldplated scaffolding pipes (below).
INTRODUCING
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Following his graduation from Musashino Art University, Daisuke Motogi worked at Schemata Architects for six years before starting his own office: DDAA.
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PORTRAITS
Centre of Attraction
A pioneer of experiential design, CURIOSITY’s Gwenael Nicolas explains how filmic fascinations animate his retail-rich portfolio. Words
TRACEY INGRAM
Gwenael Nicolas cofounded Curiosity with Reiko Miyamoto in 1998. At present, the studio’s 28-strong multicultural team is based in Tokyo.
Portraits
TADA (YUKAI)
MILESTONES
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PORTRAITS
GWENAEL
FRENCHMAN GWENAEL NICOLAS has lived in Japan for some 27 years. ‘I came here to escape history,’ he says. ‘When you explain a project in France, you need to explain why you’re doing it. In Japan, history begins now – from this moment on. That liberates the imagination.’ In 1998 he cofounded Curiosity with Reiko Miyamoto, whose experience at an advertising agency grants her the ‘sense of reality I don’t have’, says Nicolas. ‘We’re a good mix.’ Currently, the duo synthesizes the ideas of its 28-strong multicultural team in Tokyo into everything from interiors and furniture to graphics and cosmetics. Nicolas walks us through the five standout spaces that shaped the studio.
MILESTONES
Issey Miyake gave Nicolas a chance to find his own signature through the design of a store in New York City. The early experiential retail environment connected commerce with the conceptual.
1999
PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE NYC ‘I’d always wanted to work with Issey Miyake for one reason,’ says Nicolas. ‘I’m interested in different aspects of design: products, perfume, architecture. Miyake unites these elements in an incredible way. I wondered how one person could have so much imagination. When you leave design school you think you know everything, but I realized I knew nothing. I thought if I could work with Miyake, I could really start to learn about design.’ Nicolas’s aspirations materialized when his design of a Japanese temple caught the eye of Miyake, who was surprised it was the work of a foreigner. First came a small project for Miyake in Paris – an opportunity for the designers to feel each other out – before the big catch: Pleats Please Issey Miyake in New York City. Not Nicolas’s first retail project – ‘but the first good one’ – the store gave the designer a chance to find his own signature. Obsessed with film for its ability to teeter on the edge between reality and fiction, Nicolas had first considered a career in art direction
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before deciding it would be ‘more fun’ to work with physical spaces. Pleats Please Issey Miyake straddles both worlds. A green cube sits at the heart of the minimalist yet cinematic boutique, whose glass shell is treated with a material that makes it appear translucent from the front yet opaque when viewed laterally. ‘People playfully interact with the building,’ says Nicolas. ‘It was a way of connecting commerce with the conceptual.’ ‘Experiential retail’ is now a buzz term, making Curiosity’s 20-year-old project seem as fresh today as it was back then. Nicolas has been running with the theme ever since, constantly researching how responses to certain stimuli can influence his commercial interiors. By pursuing new ways to convey the emotional aspects of shopping – ‘a task that can otherwise become boring’ – he says he’s able to show clients something they won’t expect. ‘I learned that from working with Mr Miyake.’ »
Thibaut Voisin
S PA CE S CHINESE CO-WORKING enters a new era. Luxury retailers go CLUBBING. Artists take THE STAGE. The FUTURE PHARMACY combines technology with tactility. Step inside the great indoors.
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SPACES
RETAIL
China makes a grand retail entrance into the prestige skincare market
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Peter Zhang
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The lab was intelligently set inside the campuses of science and engineering universities, within reach of research-savvy young women.
SHANGHAI – In Asia, skincare is mostly the domain of Japan and South Korea – Shiseido and Amorepacific are two veritable global giants. But there is a new entrant to the game: China. The country claims the world’s third-largest consumer market for prestige skincare, topped only by Japan and the United States. Beyond size – numbers one and two are each twice as large as the Chinese market – the main difference separating the three is that the US and Japan are both native consumers and exporters, while China almost always assumes the role of importer. And yet, as the Made in China 2.0 wave expands to include new manufacturing categories, it’s also reached the beauty industry. Here’s where things get really smart, really quick: instead of competing with wellknown brands under their rules, local players are using spatial design to target newly formed niches. Take, for example, Junping. Founded by a male beauty blogger, the brand offers products that feature traditional natural ingredients backed by intensive R&D. It’s a formula made famously digestible by South Korea’s beauty industry, where cute fruit-shaped containers hide an astounding amount of scientific development. And so, Junping’s is sending a different message: this is a brand aimed specifically at consumers who appreciate knowing the precise formulation behind each product. Enter the Junping Lab shipping container. Conceived by XU Studio, the 28-m2 pop-up store is made of stainless steel and Corian in pristine white. Its central element is a bar equipped with three magic mirrors, which allows visitors to detect skin issues and receive highly personalized, directly
customizable product recommendations. Throughout, a luminous lamp-film setup simulates the effect of a skylight, turning the inside of the container into a transparent surface. For those outside the space, a blur of transparent acrylic tubes positioned vertically provides a window into the lab. ‘We intended to demonstrate the magic behind [these high-tech] beauty products,’ says XU Studio partner Sabrina Xu. But beyond the visual and functional feast it is, one of the smartest choices in the pop-up strategy is where it is located: the campuses of science and engineering universities in Shanghai, the turf of research-savvy young women. A long queue forms outside Tongji Jiading one week, followed by troves of curious Jiao Tong students the next. Junping’s roving laboratory targets an audience that already has a positive relationship with that environment – so go right ahead and connect the marketing dots. Although the brand was previously available on the Alibaba online platform, this is Junping’s first foray into physical retail. The targeted bet seems to have paid off, as the company reported record sales for last November’s Singles’ Day. ‘After the Junping Lab tour, it achieved a revenue of 25 million RMB [€3.2 million] in one day,’ says Xu. ‘This shows the growing recognition of local brands. I think that in the near future Chinese brands will become strong players in the skincare market.’ – RM xustudio.cn As Junping takes pride in its high-tech approach, XU Studio realized this type of space would be an effective way to transmit the brand concept and foster consumer trust in the product.
SPACES
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Thibaut Voisin
SPACES
A virtual fountain in the main space appealed to young visitors, who ‘tried to catch the changing forms as if it were a game’, says Studio GGSV’s Stéphane Villard.
SHOW
Galeries Lafayette adds culture to commerce PARIS – As increased pressure from e-commerce forces retailers across all sectors to emphasize the experiential appeal of bricksand-mortar stores, consumer expectations for in-store experiences rise as well. To meet these expectations, stores are forging a stronger link between culture and commerce by marrying commercial imperative with cultural relevance. In doing so, they devote their resources – and floor space – to exhibitions and events that function as foottraffic drivers. A prime example appeared at Galerie des Galeries, a cultural space on the first floor of Galeries Lafayette. For the holiday season, the Parisian department
store asked Studio GGSV to come up with a contemporary fairy-tale-themed exhibition for the space. Responding to the call, the French duo fused the physical and the digital in a multisensory installation that appealed to both children and adults. For Demain, le vaisseau chimère (Tomorrow, the chimerical vessel), Gaëlle Gabillet and Stéphane Villard produced a metamorphic sci-fi mound of garish rocks, psychedelic plants and inflatable objects printed with images of plastic waste that alluded to an ecological dystopia. Small doors connecting Demain’s rooms required adults to bend over as they passed through. »
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SPACES
WORK
An Amsterdam workspace got 601 architects involved in its design Jannes Linders, courtesy of Benthem Crouwel Architects
AMSTERDAM – They used to call it the Widow of the Zuidas. The plain-looking building, located in the budding business district on the south side of Amsterdam, had been vacant and forgotten for nearly a decade. That was until Boudewijn Poelmann, a man known for his visionary endeavours, saw beyond the rough concrete columns, the grey walls and the uninspired atrium. Poelmann is the founder of the Goede Doelen Loterijen, a multi-lottery organization that has turned the Dutch love of random numbers into donations for charity programmes in developing countries – since 1990, its contributions total more than seven billion euros, making it one of the largest private donors in the world. He also came up
with the then-preposterous concept of the now crazily successful Postcode Lottery: bet on your neighbourhood and split any winnings with your neighbours. Poelmann has built a small empire based on creative thinking, collaboration and an ethos of sharing with others. So, when he used a company-wide breakfast in 2014 to announce that the 600 employees dispersed throughout 11 houses along the lush Vondelpark would be moving to a single location, the staff were ready to follow his lead. And, oh, did they ask for as many as 600 impossible things after that breakfast. There was a rainwater-collection system for the toilets. An energy-positive building. Solar panels everywhere. An
auditorium they could share with the neighbours. A proper restaurant open to the public. Studios and newsrooms for Koffietijd and 5 Uur Live, the TV shows they sponsor. An Italian piazza. A yoga studio with a view of the city. Oh, and they wanted to take the Vondelpark with them. ‘And we gave them almost everything they asked for,’ laughs Saartje van der Made, the partner at Benthem Crouwel Architects who oversaw the renovation. Benthem Crouwel is better known for its massive public projects, such as the celebrated Rotterdam Central Station and the giant bathtub on Amsterdam’s Museumplein – a building officially known as the Stedelijk Museum. The Zuidas project was the first time Van der Made worked with a client »
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Tom Roe, courtesy of Stewart Hollenstein Pty Ltd.
Libraries
Does the bricks-and-mortar library have a place in contemporary life? Many people still believe so, and statistics show that the younger they are the more frequent their library visits. What today’s innovative library concepts share is a programme that treats literary provision as merely one pillar among a plethora that includes teaching, making, chatting and playing, activities enabled by cutting-edge technology. If you recall your last visit to the library as hours spent silently searching the stacks for that missing title, we strongly suggest you seek out one of these new institutions. You’ll be checking out a lot more than books.
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LIBRARIES
A Living Room for the City
Tuomas Uusheimo
FRAME LAB
Far from being relics from the age of tangible media, libraries are fast becoming a key tool for creating a sense of community. Words
TRACEY INGRAM
OODI CENTRAL LIBRARY, HELSINKI The architects at ALA call their design of Helsinki’s Oodi Central Library ‘an indoor extension of public space’. Besides books, the ‘civic living room’ offers a movie theatre, recording studios, maker space, exhibitions and community events. ala.fi
THE LIBRARY IS EXPERIENCING a renaissance. It’s no wonder, really, since the institution may represent the original example of the now flourishing sharing economy. In the US alone, 44.8 million adults used online sharing-economy services such as Airbnb and Uber in 2016, a figure that’s expected to nearly double by 2021. Millennials are the biggest growth drivers in this area – hardly shocking, since they’re the first generation of digital natives. Somewhat surprising, though, is that despite concerns that the emergence of e-books and other digital media would render physical libraries redundant, millennials are outnumbering other demographics when it comes to library usage. Analysis of new Pew Research Center data on US library attendance, for example, found that over half of survey respondents aged 18 to 35 had visited a public library or book mobile within the previous year. The movement seems at odds with data published by USA Today. The daily referenced a 2012 study that found millennials to be ‘more civically and politically disengaged, more focused on materialistic values, and less concerned about helping the larger community than were GenX (born 1962-1981) and Baby Boomers (born 1946 to about 1961) at the same ages’. But this was seven years ago, and the last three-quarters of a decade has seen a growing concern for the environment and the need to use fewer natural resources, thus adding to the sharing economy’s appeal. Some authors are promoting the cause: waste-free advocate Sarah Wilson, for instance, donated a stack of her recent book on anxiety to Australian libraries, encouraging readers to lend, not buy. Even if they’re (reportedly) not communitydriven by nature, millennials have other reasons to visit a book repository. According to Pew Research Center, it’s an age bracket more burdened by financial hardships than previous generations. What’s more, about 88 per cent of millennials currently live in metropolitan areas, where space is at a premium. Perhaps the lack of complementary large open spaces for gathering and socializing, particularly during winter in cooler parts of the world, is part of the reason that today’s libraries are beginning to resemble civic squares. ‘Younger adults may . . . be more likely to live in small or shared spaces they long to escape,’ writes Ephrat Livni in »
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LIBRARIES
Beyond Books-and-Mortar
Developed by advertising agency Mother, Insta Novels offers followers of the New York Public Library’s Instagram account an in-app means of reading classics.
FRAME LAB
In the age of screen-first media, libraries understand that elevating their digital offer can only help their mission to promote the page. Words
PETER MAXWELL
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LIBRARIES
OUR POWERS OF ATTENTION are failing, or so the headline reports keep reiterating. The span decreases decade to decade: 12 seconds, 10 seconds, 8 . . . . If you’ve failed to read that far, let me sum up the essentials. Unable to consume a full intellectual meal, today’s consumers merely snack on bite-sized pieces of information, served screen-first. Particularly for millennials and the Gen Zers following behind them, weightier fare apparently equals indigestion. It’s hardly surprising. Social feeds and streaming services offer a festival of rich, interactive and interrelated media at pace. If you liked that, you’ll love this – and this, and this, and this. While reports that we're increasingly unwilling or unable to consume long-form media have largely proved false, what is certain is that this new content landscape is more competitive than any we’ve seen before. If your job is to advocate for older formats (postmodernists excused) – say those that start at the beginning, finish at the end and have several hundred pages flipped in between – how are you to compete? That was the challenge advertising agency Mother tackled as it approached the New York Public Library – custodian of 43 million items across its core collection – to suggest a new means of inspiring readers. Together they co-opted what many might consider enemy terri-
tory, producing a new literary format that lives right at the heart of the social-media vacuum. The resultant Insta Novels take Instagram Stories at face value, offering the NYPL’s followers an in-app means of reading classics of the canon, complete with bespoke animations, illustrations and sound work that activate as you tap through the text. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol features a candle that gradually burns down to the holder as you progress. Highlighting Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a beetle that bumbles around the bottom of the page. Viewing ‘The Raven’ by Poe, you are instructed to cover an eye with your thumb, amid intermittent full-screen refrains of ‘nevermore’. Phone-based literature has rarely looked better, and this not from some fresh-faced tech start-up, but from something as apparently unmodern as a nonprofit public institution. Truth be told, the assumption that ‘library’ necessarily means ‘analogue’ is long outdated. Many libraries already give users the ability to borrow e-books direct from their devices; NYPL hopes those enthused by its Insta Novels will register to become members and then download the SimplyE app, allowing them to read the full breadth of its digital collection. For older generations, the public library was often the first place they could gain access to a computer and, latterly, the inter-
Bespoke animations and sound work appear as users tap through the texts uploaded to Instagram Stories.
Courtesy of Mother and The New York Public Library
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Courtesy of MPL and Milwaukee Public Library
FRAME LAB
In its campaign for the Milwaukee Public Library, MPL reconstituted the term ‘library’ in the style of big internet-brand logos, thus eliciting younger readers’ love of online culture.
net. To disenfranchised citizens, libraries are still a vital conduit to many of the web-based services needed to conduct modern life, such as setting up a bank account, searching for a job, applying for housing or just feeling part of the conversation. The lesson for any business reticent to invest in a digital offer for fear of damaging its bricks-andmortar presence is that the relationship between the two can be symbiotic – as long as everything you do, irrespective of channel, shares a clear mission statement. ‘Driving traffic to our locations wasn’t the primary goal,’ says Richert Schnorr, the NYPL’s director of digital media. ‘We were more interested in inspiring people to read more, though we have seen an increase in visitors to our main branch on 42nd street.’ Schnorr hopes projects like this one will bring the joy of books and libraries to new audiences, while demonstrating how they continue to be a vital force in so many people’s lives. Combining entertainment, education and community under one roof, the library could even be seen as the original embodiment of many of today’s most popular online platforms, a point recently outlined by the Milwaukee Public Library in another youth-focused campaign. Again appealing to younger readers’ love of
The assumption that ‘library’ necessarily means ‘analogue’ is long outdated internet culture (as well as of appropriative memes), MPL reconstituted the term in the style of the logos of various net unicorns: ‘library’ in Amazon’s chubby semi-serif with smiling arrow, ‘library’ in Netflix’s too-tall red capitals, ‘library’ in LinkedIn’s blue-boxed glyphs. The message landed: new card registration went up 53 per cent as a result and e-book checkouts by half. You often ‘see this tension between books versus digital’, Brian Ganther, co-executive creative director at BVK, the agency behind the work, told Adweek. ‘The world isn’t that way anymore. A library is simply about access to knowledge and the most modern access to knowledge today is through these digital platforms.’ ● motherusa.com nypl.org
Suryan//Dang
Institutions
Healthcare brands make WAITING less worrisome. Design for LEARNING is no longer desk-bound. Institutions adapt to HEAVY TRAFFIC. Discover what’s driving the business of design.
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REPORTS
ALTERNATIVE ACADEMICS Cramped desks, squeaky chairs and sleepy lighting are problems that have plagued many a learning environment, but their time is coming to a close. As educational curriculums adapt to bolster creative thinking, shouldn’t spaces follow suit? Unconventional classrooms and products embolden the imagination, drive curiosity and foster connection for pupils and teachers alike. – LGM
Julia Luka Lila Nitzschke
Challenging the constrictive squeeze so common to school furniture is German designer Julian Ribler’s Cléo, a table and chair pairing. Light metal tubing and plywood offer a more supportive, less prescriptive alternative to the conventional desk, giving youngsters freedom of movement. julianribler.com
Suryan//Dang
INSTITUTIONS
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In its plan for SIS Preschool in the northern part of India, Hong Kong-based PAL Design started with a noble idea: that every space, indoor and out, could be for learning. The innovative school employs explorative ‘edutainment’ to stir imagination and stimulate engagement. paldesign.cn
Sándor Fövényi
The future of learning will be social, personalized and supported by teachers and technology
Courtesy of Fakro
MICROSOFT AND MCKINSEY & COMPANY’S EDUCATION PRACTICE
Natural light is crucial to all learning spaces. Inside the building for the Faculty of Radio and Television at Poland’s University of Silesia, soundproof Fakro windows usher in a flood of sunshine, ensuring positive energy and a comfortable interior experience. Long study days? No problem. fakro.nl
Enikő Barbarics’ Taligáló encourages children to learn while standing. To avoid unnecessary sitting time, the toylike wooden desk allows a variety of postures, is fully mobile and can be adjusted in accordance with kids’ growth.