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Design Museum London

One of the most important architects working today, David Chipperfield produces subtle and sophisticated buildings with an acute sensitivity for materials and a powerful awareness of their environment. This major exhibition celebrates his work for the first time in the UK and spans his entire career to date, including such acclaimed projects as the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, and the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, Germany, winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture 2007. The exhibition also illustrates important public commissions including the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin, and The Hepworth Wakefield gallery.

This detailed survey examines a range of projects through new and archive models, sketches, drawings, photographs and film. A major component of the exhibition focuses on Chipperfield’s most complex project to date, the ten year reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin, which was bombed during the Second World War and subjected to decades of neglect. The project is like nothing previously undertaken in its attitude to history, and its attempt to make something new out of the old has succeeded in producing a landmark building, not only for Berlin but for museum architecture as a whole.

After studying at Kingston University and the Architectural Association, and working at the practices of both Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, David Chipperfield established his own practice – David Chipperfield Architects – in 1984. Unprepared to compromise with the commercial developers of the 80s, Chipperfield looked beyond Britain to mainland Europe, where he could see himself as part of a group of architects who brought a seriousness and intellectual ambition to their work that went beyond stylistics or mannerism. David Chipperfield Architects is today a substantial international practice with projects across Europe, as well as in China, Japan, the USA and Mexico.

As David Chipperfield’s practice has grown and matured, he has developed his own distinctive voice. His buildings often combine a variety of materials to create beauty and meaning with appealing clarity. Buildings that subtly inspire without spectacle or fanfare.

DESIGN MUSEUM, SHAD THAMES, LONDON SE1 2YD
21 October 2009 – 31 January 2010

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Arup Associates has won the award for “Inspiring Design” for the Druk White Lotus School they have built in Ladakh Northern India. The award is granted by The British Council for School Environments.

The project was instigated by HH The Dalai Lama as a model school in The Himalayas. It is a non-denominational school working from a wholly sustainable campus that has succeeded in making the best of new environmental technology and local skills.

Arus Associates’ focus is an approach to design that sustains all components of humanity: in essence, development that concerns itself with ‘whole life’ sustainability.

They are not simply interested in reducing energy consumption. They believe the real issue is how human culture – tradition, religion, the intangible components of humanity – can be sustained in the face of modernity. They believe that it is essential for architects and engineers to work in ways that prioritize individuals, sustaining a sense of local identity both in terms of culture and the environment, through a reprioritization of the importance of human experience, including the senses and memory. The aim is a process of ‘whole life sustainability’ that places people first, and that enhances the existing value systems found within in different locations, rather than creating modernist models that expect people, cities and places around the world to behave in identical ways.

In contrast to conventional ways of working, the Druk White Lotus project is founded in traditional values and cultures and yet at the same time seeks to advance educational needs in the context of the 21^st century. The unusual collaborative approach defined by Arus Associates’ strategy of unified design allows each of the advocates to find their voice, and allows seamless integration of the parts into the whole, without fear of inappropriate influence by an externally imposed architectural vision. The project is a model of sustainability: not only in the obvious sense, but more importantly, in the sense that traditional cultural values, spirituality and materials are maintained.

The development naturally uses every available strategy to ensure a reduction of resource consumption. Yet the notion of ‘whole-life sustainability’, reaches far beyond issues of energy. Through the strategy of unified design, Arup Associates have demonstrated sensitivity to unique cultural and spiritual values, and have fostered them within a timeless design approach that respects and sustains their value indefinitely.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was moved by the outcome. “…The idea of having a modern school which lays equal emphasis on the importance of preserving the valuable aspects of a traditional culture is very encouraging,” he commented. “I have always believed in giving equal importance to both modern, scientific knowledge and traditional Buddhist Culture”.

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Self-cleaning surfaces, phase changing materials and built-in sensors that generate energy from the footsteps of the visitors. The 3XN pavilion ‘Learning from Nature’ unites the most advanced technologies and intelligent materials in a preview of the innovative architectural design of tomorrow.

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark invited the Danish architecture firm 3XN to design a pavilion demonstrating cutting edge possibilities within sustainable and intelligent materials. The result is a pavilion that is built of bio composites with integrated intelligence that creates a dynamic interaction with its physical surroundings and its users.

Everything about the pavilion is literally inspired by nature itself: The biological cycle of nature is the fundamental basis for the shape, the materials and the dynamic energy generation. The pavilion is shaped as a Moebius band to symbolize the biological cycle; and the properties of the construction are very like those of nature – for example, the pavilion has a coating of nanoparticles that helps clean the surfaces and clean the air. Additionally, the pavilion is built of biodegradable materials; and as for energy, the pavilion is 100 percent self-sufficient.

Kim Herforth Nielsen, Principal of 3XN, comments on the project: “The Pavilion has given us the opportunity to showcase the possibilities which exist in building with sustainable and intelligent materials. Our objective has been to show that Green Architecture can be dynamic and active. We often think that we need to minimize use of resources at all costs. Instead of focusing on consuming the least amount of energy, we need to focus on producing and using energy and materials in a more intelligent way than is the case today.”

‘Learning from Nature’ can be seen at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, until October 2009.

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Design Museum, London. 1 July – 1 November 2009

Jan Kaplický, who died earlier this year aged 71, was the Czech architect responsible for some of the most remarkable buildings that Britain has ever seen. This exhibition curated by Deyan Sudjic will celebrate Kaplický’s career, his influences and unique futuristic vision for building design.

Kaplický was the driving force behind a new school of architecture and his buildings continue to stimulate, amaze and inspire. Kaplický pushed against the status quo, offering a unique personal vision. This exhibition celebrates the work of a gifted architect and designer.

Arriving in London as a refugee after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Kaplický worked with Denys Lasdun, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. He established Future Systems with David Nixon in 1979 which worked initially as a kind of think tank. Astonishing drawings and plans for robot built structures spinning in earth’s orbit, weekend houses in the guise of space age survival pods and malleable interiors were just some of Kaplický’s visions.

Amanda Levete joined Future Systems in 1989, and together Kaplický and Levete began to build some of the practice’s best known work. In 1994 Future Systems designed the Stirling Prize winning media centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground and in 1999 designed the Selfridges department store in Birmingham, a sensuous iceberg like building that would win the 2004 RIBA Award for Architecture.

Deyan Sudjic comments “Jan was a remarkable architect, and a brilliant artist. We can only now begin to understand his impact on the shape of the contemporary world”.

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