Table of contents for August 2021 in Wallpaper

NARI WARD Artist The Jamaican-American artist is famed for large-scale installations that confront social and political issues head-on, such as Peace Keeper (1995), a rusted, burnt-out hearse decorated with feathers that recently featured in the ‘Grief and Grievance’ show at New York’s New Museum. For our Artist’s Palate series, he chose ackee and saltfish patties (page 130). ‘The tasty combination is quite rare, and makes this humble meal even more special,’ he says. VIVEK VADOLIYA Photographer The British-Indian, London-based director and photographer uses documentary techniques to create fashion stories and portraiture. For us this month, he shot the designer Asif Khan in his east London workshop (page 030). ‘It was great to connect with Asif, as our families shared a similar migration story from East Africa to the UK, plus…

The arrotino, or knife grinder, has been travelling around Italy for centuries, sharpening blades in the streets, and it was this tradition that sparked an idea for Wallpaper* Re-Made. Last year, we tasked Norway-based designers Jenkins & Uhnger and Swiss knife expert Victorinox with modernising the concept. Since the onset of the pandemic, the flexibility of this direct-to-customer service has become even more pertinent. But at the time of the project’s inception, our main aim was to encourage repair over buying new, with the portable element offering added convenience. Repair is still at the forefront of our minds today, due to recent legislation in the EU and the UK requiring manufacturers of household electrical products to make spare parts available. The aim is to tackle premature obsolescence – when a…

For many of us, the last year has involved long stretches of domestic confinement. We now crave gardens, fresh air, horizons afforded by wide open spaces. As if predicting this collective ache, a new Vitra commission has flowered this June: a lush 4,000 sq m perennial garden, designed by renowned Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf for the company’s headquarters in the southern German town of Weil am Rhein. The Vitra Campus is a stone’s throw from the Dreiländereck, where the borders of Germany, France and Switzerland meet. It’s a corner of Europe rich with art and design institutional muscle, with Fondation Beyeler, Museum Tinguely and Art Basel (when in session) all less than a 15-minute drive away. Buildings on the campus include a fire station by Zaha Hadid, a Jasper Morrison…

The Dutch designer has created projects that open up the museum world for blind and visually-impaired visitors. He speaks to art historian and disability activist Amanda Cachia about access technologies, inspirational personal experiences and the virtues of physical spaces When Simon Dogger became blind in 2010, the museum world became inaccessible to him. While many museums offer monthly audio and tactile tours for its visually-impaired and blind visitors, Dogger found these lacking in providing choice and independence, given the tours were offered according to a specific and limited schedule, and were led by museum educators. Dogger, who was the first-ever blind designer to graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2017, asked himself, how would I like to have self-empowered access to art? This led to Dogger’s Feelscape concept, which…

For last year’s Re-Made issue, Wallpaper* issued London-based industrial design agency PriestmanGoode a challenge: to tackle the mass of excess waste produced by food packaging. Its solution was ‘Zero’, a holistic reimagining of the takeaway food delivery system – convenience with a conscience. ‘Zero’ comprised a range of reusable, planet-friendly food containers and a delivery rider bag. It also involved a rewards system, such as discounts on future orders, devised to encourage a circular economy mindset. The concept proved an instant hit, with start-ups, restaurant chains, food producers and global brands identifying its potential as a game-changer. ‘The project seems to resonate with people across all markets. It’s shown there are other ways you can approach food delivery and presentation that address sustainability, aesthetics, customer experience and business needs,’ says…

Mushrooms are currently enjoying a cultural renaissance beyond the kitchen. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic ‘shrooms’, is being touted for use in the treatment of anxiety and depression, while Japanese snow fungus and fungi-derived kojic acid are believed to encourage a dewy, blemish-free complexion. Meanwhile, in science labs across the globe, start-ups are cultivating fungal innovations not only for the wellness and beauty industries, but for the fashion and sportswear sectors, too. Mycelium, the thread-like root structures of fungi, has the ability to be transformed into sheets of biomaterial, remarkably similar in composition to durable, strong and softly patinated leather, piquing the interest of the fashion world. A kilogram of leather requires 17,000 litres of water to produce, farming livestock makes up approximately 14 per cent of global greenhouse…

In the early 16th century, the aristocratic family of Thurn und Taxis bought a 45-hectare parcel of marshy land on the then-outskirts of Brussels. They had been appointed postmasters by Philip the Fair, the Duke of Burgundy, and held a similar position for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Their acquisition would become the centre of Europe’s first international postal service, a Thurn und Taxis enterprise connecting the Spanish Netherlands, Burgundy and Spain with the rest of Europe. The road that crossed the site’s collection of industrial buildings and horse-feeding pastures took the family name, translated into French as Tour et Taxis, giving birth to the district of Tour & Taxis. By the beginning of the 20th century, it had evolved into a busy logistical ecosystem; goods arrived via train…

The self-styled ‘creative technologist’ and director at design studio Takram on the power of speculative design to make ideas tangible, humanise big data, and encourage healthier behaviours I remember first seeing Yosuke Ushigome, now director at Takram’s London office, in 2014 at an exhibition at Tokyo’s 21_21 Design Sight. In a video titled Professional Sharing, Ushigome wears a homemade jacket with solar panels and pockets for various digital devices. He walks around Shibuya, as per requests from real-time clients, and gets paid for taking specific pictures at specific locations. Sometime during the video, he takes an online break while lending his devices’ processing powers to someone mining a digital currency. Later he queues up at a popular restaurant on someone else’s behalf, and likewise gets paid for his time. It…

When London-based designer Asif Khan and American cement industry innovator Biomason joined forces to collaborate on a Re-Made project for 2020, their explorations led them to ‘Coral Reef’, a shelving unit built from ingots of biocement. The design was partially inspired by one of Khan’s ongoing architecture projects in the UAE, the new Museum of Manuscripts in Sharjah, which is due to be completed in 2022. It also addressed issues around locality, sustainability and functionality, drawing on Biomason’s bioLITH tile format and the company’s technique of ‘growing’ eco-friendly cement using microorganisms – just as coral reefs are formed in marine environments (hence the product’s name). The tiles developed for ‘Coral Reef’ would be made using sand from Sharjah, leading to a design that is conceptual but also pragmatic, and intrinsically…

It will be a bit like an installation within nature, a folly of an urban square inserted into the forest Jan Christian Vestre is on a quest. He wants to create the world’s most sustainable furniture factory – and he is taking his goal suitably seriously. The young CEO of Vestre, a Norwegian outdoor furniture specialist, has been leading this relatively small, family-owned business since 2012, after his father’s passing (Jan Christian is the third generation at the helm), and he has clear plans for it. They include being recognised as the greenest furniture maker on the planet, starting with an exemplary flagship production facility in the middle of a Norwegian forest, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). ‘It’s a tool to change the world,’ says Jan Christian. ‘We don’t…

On a sizzling April afternoon, a rainstorm pummels Ho Chi Minh City. Despite the deafening downpour, temperatures stay miserably high in the megacity’s concrete and glass-laden central districts. Urbanites remain sheltered in offices and cafés, which are sealed and air-conditioned. After the outburst, which lasts for an hour or so, the clouds crack and the sun resumes its offensive, turning the city’s soggy centre into a steam bath. About 15km north-west of the vaporous centre, one building experienced the same storm differently. From above, Concrete Waves appears as a singular stack of giant white rings that encircle a lush jungle courtyard. While the breeze that accompanied the cloudburst was blocked from entering the airtight buildings in the city centre, here it swept through and cooled the space. Water lashed the…

Faber Futures, the pioneering London-based studio founded by Chieza, doesn’t just think about new approaches to form and material, but rather how to reshape the world of things from the ground up We are a society consumed by consumption, driven to preserve the economic status quo at all costs. Natsai Audrey Chieza and her studio Faber Futures are advocates for a different approach. As designers, researchers, strategists and storytellers, Faber Futures believes design has the power to make things better. And not just by making things, but by helping restructure our social and economic systems from the ground up. Born in Harare in Zimbabwe, Chieza arrived in the UK at the age of 17. After studying architecture at the University of Edinburgh, she took an MA in Material Futures at…

The Danish artist leverages virtual reality technologies to reorient our relationship with the natural world. We take a deep dive into Berl-Berl, his ode to wetland ecosystems, now on view at Berlin’s Halle am Berghain On the day of our video call, Jakob Kudsk Steensen is in the midst of an expedition in the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve, a wetland area in the German state of Brandenburg. It is teeming with life and removed from civilisation (he’s had to drive to a nearby small town to get reception). He and his team are at the reserve for a few weeks to study the landscape, paddling around in canoes and wielding underwater cameras, microphones and hydrophones ‘to document all this life that lives between the soil and the forest’. The work is…

Led by Herman Miller, 20 American design organisations are joining forces to level the playing field for under-represented communities. Their first step: enabling more Black youth to pursue careers in design. We take a first look at this ambitious initiative that promises to change our industry for the better Of all the wake-up calls of 2020, the racial awakening that surged in the United States following the murder of George Floyd was unequivocally overdue. Rippling across the world, a wave of social media support prompted individual reckonings, a shared sense of urgency, and a general commitment to do better. But the question of how to achieve long-lasting change remained, for the most part, unanswered. Racial imbalance, particularly the under-representation of the Black community in the American workforce, is staggering. According…