123: 六月 2015

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself. I realized how modern architecture built upon the break-through achieved by abstract art as the conquest of a previously unimaginable realm of creative freedom. The idea that space itself might be warped and distorted to gain in dynamism and complexity without losing its coherence and continuity. The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful. Gehry found a creative outlet in rebuilding his own home, converting what he called "a dumb little house with charm" into a showplace for a radically new style of domestic building. His Santa Monica neighbors were scandalized, but Gehry's house attracted serious critical attention and he began to employ more imaginative elements in his commercial work.

1. Dieter Rams: ten principles for good design
The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.

Back to purity, back to simplicity.

https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design

2. Zaha Hadid Retrospective Opens at Russia’s State Heritage Museum

Tomorrow, the State Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, will open a retrospective exhibition on Zaha Hadid’ Hon. FAIA's built works. Dubbed Zaha Hadid at the State Hermitage Museum, made in collaboration with the architect’s eponymous firm, is part of the "Hermitage 20/21" project launched in 2007 to collect, exhibit, and study 20th and 21st century art. The exhibition is arranged by Ksenia Malich, curator of contemporary art department of the State Hermitage Museum, and Patrick Schumacher, director of Hadid’s firm.

Chronicled up until the most recent works of her prolific career, the entire show exemplifies how the 64-year-old tapped into the aesthetics of Russian Avant-garde at the inception of her career. Located in the historic Nicolaevsky Hall, attendees will find paintings, drawings, models, and design objects conveying how these methods were used over time. Highlights include The Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati; Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany; BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany; MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Art in Rome; London Aquatics Centre; and Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In 2004, Hadid was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize—the first woman to do so—in the theatre of the State Hermitage Museum. When she accepted the prize, she said: “The spirit of adventure to embrace the new and the incredible belief in the power of invention attracted me to the Russian Avant-garde. I realized how modern architecture built upon the break-through achieved by abstract art as the conquest of a previously unimaginable realm of creative freedom. The idea that space itself might be warped and distorted to gain in dynamism and complexity without losing its coherence and continuity,” according to her firm’s press release.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/exhibits-books-etc/zaha-hadid-retrospective-opens-at-russias-state-heritage-museum_o

3. Frank Gehry Biography

Frank Gehry was born Ephraim Owen Goldberg in Toronto, Canada. He moved with his family to Los Angeles as a teenager in 1947 and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. His father changed the family's name to Gehry when the family immigrated. Ephraim adopted the first name Frank in his 20s; since then he has signed his name Frank O. Gehry.

Uncertain of his career direction, the teenage Gehry drove a delivery truck to support himself while taking a variety of courses at Los Angeles City College. He took his first architecture courses on a hunch, and became enthralled with the possibilities of the art, although at first he found himself hampered by his relative lack of skill as a draftsman. Sympathetic teachers and an early encounter with modernist architect Raphael Soriano confirmed his career choice. He won scholarships to the University of Southern California and graduated in 1954 with a degree in architecture.

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Gehry found a creative outlet in rebuilding his own home, converting what he called "a dumb little house with charm" into a showplace for a radically new style of domestic building. He took common, unlovely elements of American homebuilding, such as chain link fencing, corrugated aluminum and unfinished plywood, and used them as flamboyant expressive elements, while stripping the interior walls of the house to reveal the structural elements. His Santa Monica neighbors were scandalized, but Gehry's house attracted serious critical attention and he began to employ more imaginative elements in his commercial work. A series of public structures in and around Los Angeles marked his evolution away from orthodox modernist practice, including the Frances Goldwyn Branch Library in Hollywood, the California Aerospace Museum and the Loyola University Law School. A number of his works in this period featured the unusual decorative motif of a Formica fish, and he designed a number of lamps and other objects in the form of snakes and fishes.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/geh0bio-1