This year as every year, there is something ever so slightly absurd about the Design Museum's Designs of the Year nominations and the companion exhibition at its London space. What does a recoiling mudguard really have to do with Zaha Hadid's cultural centre in Azerbaijan? A Chris Ware graphic novel with an ultra fuel-efficient and very nifty looking Volkswagen? Should student projects sit beside a new David Chipperfield building, years in the planning?
The breakdown into categories - architecture, digital, fashion, graphic, product and transport design - means you are not, nominally, comparing apples and pears of course but even the Design Museum would admit that a room full of designs drawn from all these disciplines can feel random and disorienting. But, all of the nominations have their own kind of merit, fascinating in their own ways, and the competition element to the display seems largely beside the point.
Where this kind of exhibition really works is spotting trends, within and across disciplines. This year there are, inevitably, a number of smart phones apps amongst the nominations, from a game designed to last for centuries, to an eye examination app that could revolutionise diagnosis and treatment of blindness in poor and remote areas. And a number of the nominations have depended on crowdfunding sites, particularly Kickstarter, to get off the ground.
The graphics category proves the counterintuitive health of independent magazine publishing. And across all categories, from the remarkable 'Silk Pavillion' to the 'Lego Calendar', designers are exploring new relationships between the digital and the 'real'. Amongst it all there are designs of startling ingenuity and real beauty, such as Barber Osgerby's 'Bodleian Library Chair'.
ADDRESS
Design Museum London
28 Shad Thames
London SE1 2YD
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Australian bathhouse ‘About Time’ bridges softness and brutalism‘About Time’, an Australian bathhouse designed by Goss Studio, balances brutalist architecture and the softness of natural patina in a Japanese-inspired wellness hub
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Marylebone restaurant Nina turns up the volume on Italian diningAt Nina, don’t expect a view of the Amalfi Coast. Do expect pasta, leopard print and industrial chic
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Tour the wonderful homes of ‘Casa Mexicana’, an ode to residential architecture in Mexico‘Casa Mexicana’ is a new book celebrating the country’s residential architecture, highlighting its influence across the world
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You’ll soon be able to get a sneak peek inside Peter Zumthor’s LACMA expansionBut you’ll still have to wait another year for the grand opening
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A ‘contemporary palazzo’ by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel rises in Munich‘Contemporary palazzo’ housing project in Munich is designed by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel
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2023 Pritzker Prize goes to David ChipperfieldThe 2023 Pritzker Prize, one of the architecture field’s most prestigious honours, has been awarded to David Chipperfield
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Store concept by David Chipperfield Architects for Akris is simply ‘selbstverständlich’An ethereal new store concept by David Chipperfield Architects for Akris is rolled out from Washington to Tokyo
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Step inside the dramatic Cava Arcari by David ChipperfieldCava Arcari by David Chipperfield reimagines a series of caves outside Vicenza as a multifunctional event space
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Mariam Issoufou Kamara to design Bët-bi museum in SenegalMariam Issoufou Kamara, founder of Atelier Masōmī in Niger, has been selected by a jury to lead the design of the new Bët-bi museum in the Senegambia region of West Africa
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The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego unveils a bigger and brighter new spaceSelldorf Architects has welcomed the elements in to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s new light-filled design
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Tehran’s Argo Factory complex reinvents brewery architecture for the artsThe Argo Factory Contemporary Art Museum & Cultural Centre by Ahmadreza Schricker Architecture North (ASA North), housed in a redesigned brewery, becomes Tehran's first new arts hub in decades
