Architecture / Design

Where does design ended and art begins ?

This ambivalent sofa has been created by Lila Jang. Four legs resting on the floor and four other legs leaning on a wall corner, like a strange caterpillar which would begin its slow procession. It reinvents a self-proclaimed “meridian” by a metaphor of the instability, the precaution in motion. This works soberly named “’sofa” has been selected to be a part of the Saint-Germain round, an exhibition taking place in Paris. All dressed in white and elegance, it corresponds to this fantastic vision of the organic piece of furniture, the living object.

London metamorphoses. Pneumatic drills, cranes, backhoes, the city is slowly allowed invade by electric hard-working ants. Of what to make him a beauty. What to accommodate the Olympic Games of 2012 with magnificence and brightness. Among these transformations, one of them can pass more unperceived. It is about the lift of the station King’s Cross, technical jewel of the victorian era. And the architect John McAslan in charge of this construction site, did not make a mistake there. To re-use the existing buildings all while restoring them belonged to its plans. So that the facade the South realized by Lewis Cubitt in 1852 and hidden from the public for 50 years is going to be again visible by all. In the same way, sheds, platforms and central kernel of the station must be refreshed and adapted to the new strategic situation of King’s Cross, point of departure for the regions of the North of England and almost Siamese neighbor of St Pancras where arrives the Eurostar. On the west wall, it is the modernity which overrides the XIXth century.

The architect Jürgen Mayer H. wanted to offer a cathedral in Seville Democratic open to all. Do wear by the dogma of the architecture, a monumental structure on 11,000 square meters flourishing, he succeeded. The Metropol Parasol is out of the ground in seven years, taking its course toward the heavens to 28 meters high. Because it is also sky in this story: six petals protect the citizens of the scorching sun that falls on Seville while providing an aerial tour over the skyline of the city.

This word might sound like absurd teenager text messaging, but it could in fact be this year’s most brilliant concept. Laurent Lebot and Victor Massip, designers for Faltazi and creators of EKOKOOK, helped us decipher this eco-sounding word.

Last year a story about a block of flats in East London made the jump from specialist architectural journals into the mainstream press. Several broadsheets and tabloids, even the non-local New York Times carried stories about the uncertain future of Robin Hood Gardens, a council estate completed in 1972 by the acclaimed English architects Alison and Peter Smithson. An emotional debate had developed in response to the local council’s intention to demolish this estate to make way for new social housing. An energetic campaign to get the buildings listed and restored was led by the architectural community. ‘It’s a leaking monstrosity, it’s a concrete hell, tear it down, 80% of the residents agree’ cried the council and the tabloids – ‘It’s a beautifully designed, finely detailed building that reinvented social housing, 80% of residents want their homes restoring’ the architects cried back.