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    Wild Wonder named Colour of the Year 2023

    Paint brand Dulux has revealed Wild Wonder, a pale yellow paint colour that it described as “a soft gold with hints of green” as its Colour of the Year for 2023.

    Wild Wonder was selected for its close association with nature. The brand said this echoes the global shift toward sustainability, reconnecting with the outdoors and wanting to be more grounded, particularly following the recent period of uncertainty.
    Wild Wonder is a golden green paint colour”Our relationship with the natural world feels more precious and precarious than ever,” said Dulux UK.
    “Wild Wonder is a soft gold with hints of green inspired by fresh seed pods and harvest grain,” the brand added.
    The colour was selected for its association with natureAs well as its affiliation with nature and raw materials, Wild Wonder is also intended to capture the collective quest for better mental health, which has become increasingly important in light of global events such as the climate crisis and coronavirus lockdowns.

    “As people search for support, connection, inspiration and balance in the world today, they’re diving into the wonders of the natural world to find it,” said the brand.
    “Wild Wonder is a positive, natural tone that, by connecting us with the natural world, can help us feel better in our homes,” it continued.
    “As well as understanding the value of nature more keenly, with climate change becoming a reality for all of us, we also feel the urgency of reconnecting with nature and the necessity of working with rather than against it.”

    Bright Skies named Colour of the Year 2022

    According to the brand, the colour can be used to add colour to areas in the house, such as living rooms, that require warmth and light. The brand also said that the hue is suitable for commercial spaces across all sectors including schools and hospitals.
    “Wild Wonder and four complementary, versatile colour palettes can be used to create stunning spaces across all sectors,” explained Dulux.
    The paint colour is suitable for all commercial sectors as well as residential interiorsDulux’s parent company AkzoNobel decided on the shade, which is the 20th colour to be chosen as a Dulux Colour of the Year, after a three-day workshop with a panel of industry experts from across the globe and months of researching with the paint company.
    Wild Wonder is a slightly more upbeat hue than Brave Ground, an earthy beige that Dulux selected as its colour of the year for 2021 against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.
    The colour is a marked change from last year’s sky blue colour Bright Skies, which the brand said captured collective desires for a fresh start.
    The images are courtesy of Dulux.

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    Form Us With Love designs perforated steel furniture for its Stockholm studio

    As part of Stockholm Design Week, Swedish design firm Form Us With Love has opened the doors to its new studio space featuring modular furniture informed by pegboard walls.

    Perforated steel units are dotted throughout Form Us With Love’s (FUWL) Stockholm studio, which is housed in a former travel agency.
    Form Us With Love’s Stockholm studio has furniture made from perforated steel”We’ve been dealing with this space for a good year and a half, and thinking about it for a good ten years,” FUWL co-founder John Löfgren told Dezeen.
    “It’s definitely a place that is a catalyst for what we’re doing – and we’re doing quite a lot of different things, so we need a really flexible space and we need a mobile space,” he added. “We tried to be smart about how you store things and logistics in general, really being economical with each square metre.”
    Large hangar doors can be used to divide the interiorThe 200-square metre studio space, which was created in collaboration with architecture studio Förstberg Ling and branding studio Figur, was designed to suit the needs of the FUWL team.

    Large floor-to-ceiling hangar doors hide an office area, workshop and kitchen while allowing the front of the studio to be sectioned off from the remainder of the space.
    The studio is showcasing material experiments on wheeled cabinetsThis allows the area to be used as an exhibition space, where FUWL is displaying some of its ongoing projects during Stockholm Design Week.
    Among these is a project that explores how toxic glass – a waste material from the glass industry – can be treated to separate the toxins from the glass.
    Five low, wheeled cabinets made from perforated steel were used to display the projects.
    FUWL has created multiple different storage unitsThese are just some of the storage units and room dividers that FUWL has made for the studio, drawing on materials found in its own workshop.
    “We have these boxes that were derived from the workshop, like ones you would have in the garage,” Löfgren said.
    “We started wondering what would happen if we move these things out in the open,” he added. “It started off as dividers and walls, but add some wheels and all of a sudden we are in the open space.”

    Form Us With Love launches Forgo soap brand in response to “extremely wasteful” cosmetics industry

    The studio is currently using the modular units as a material library, a tool wall and storage for personal and studio use, as well as experimenting with new functionalities.
    Produced by Tunnplåt – a company that normally supplies lockers to schools, gyms and other public-sector interiors – the containers have a pattern of symmetrical holes.
    A material library is housed in their drawersThis was designed to make the reference to pegboard walls immediately recognisable.
    “We definitely experimented with patterns,” Löfgren said. “We still wanted people to have a smile on their face like: I can see where it derives from.”
    The pegboard-style furniture was informed by tool wallsRealising that the perforated steel units could be used to create a flexible interior was just a coincidence, Löfgren said.
    “I think it’s definitely a tool that incorporates how we want to work in the interior,” he said. “And I think that’s just been a coincidence.”
    “We were always looking for something that would help us have this kind of full flexibility, and still be able to do something both fun and functional,” he added.
    The studio was designed to be both practical and flexibleIn the future, the studio said it might also create the units in other colours. For its own office, soft grey tones were chosen to aid concentration.
    “We worked with tones of grey as a backdrop throughout the space to put focus on the creative processes taking place within,” architecture studio Förstberg Ling said.
    Form Us With Love has previously launched products such as Forgo, a soap designed to minimise carbon emissions and an IKEA chair made from recycled wood.
    The photography is by Jonas Lindström Studio.
    Form Us With Love’s studio is open to the public between 5 September and 9 September 2022 as part of  Stockholm Design Week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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    Dezeen Agenda newsletter features Brad Pitt's foundation defective homes settlement

    The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the $20.5 million settlement that Brad Pitt’s foundation has agreed with the owners of defective New Orleans homes. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now!

    This week, actor Pitt reportedly agreed to a settlement of $20.5 million for the owners of homes built by his Make It Right Foundation housing charity.
    Homeowners brought legal action after numerous defects to their homes – such as water leaks, black mould and foundation issues – were discovered, according to a report by NOLA.com.
    “Hopefully this agreement will allow everyone to look ahead to other opportunities to continue to strengthen this proud community in the future,” Pitt said in a statement.
    Aerial render of planned Angels Landing skyscraper in Los Angeles by Handel ArchitectsOther stories in the latest newsletter include the Architectural Workers United organizer Andrew Daley writing about how “Architects must reject the ‘follow your passion’ narrative and see themselves as workers”, news broke that Adam Neumann is launching his “first venture since WeWork”, a housing startup called Flow and US studio Handel Architects revealed designs for the Angels Landing skyscraper in Los Angeles.

    Dezeen Agenda
    Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.
    You can also subscribe to Dezeen Debate, which is sent every Thursday and contains a curated selection of highlights from the week, as well as Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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    Get your event listed in Dezeen's London guide for London Design Festival 2022

    If you’re exhibiting during London Design Festival, there’s still time to get your event listed in our digital guide to the festival on Dezeen Events Guide.

    Our London guide will list the key events taking place during the week-long festival, which runs from 17 to 25 September 2022.
    London Design Festival hosts hundreds of events across its 12 districts, including the trade fair Design London and exhibitions, installations, talks and open studios.
    Dezeen will publish its London guide one week before the festival, which will include listings for all the key events.
    The digital guide will benefit from Dezeen’s high-ranking SEO and will sit on Dezeen Events Guide, which has received over 700,000 views since it launched in 2020.

    The London guide follows the success of our Milan design week 2022 guide, which received over 40,000 page views.
    If you want to be considered for the guide, please contact [email protected]. The Dezeen team will review the events to ensure the best are featured.
    Get listed in Dezeen’s digital London guide
    For only £100, you can feature your event in the guide, which includes up to 75 words of text, the date, location, a link to your website and an image.
    For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at [email protected].
    About Dezeen Events Guide
    Dezeen Events Guide lists events across the globe, which can be filtered by location and type.
    Events taking place later in the year include Helsinki Design Week 2022, France Design Week 2022 and Copenhagen Architecture Festival 2022.
    The illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.

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    Cooking Sections and Sakiya explore importance of non-human species in joint exhibition

    Turner Prize-nominated art duo Cooking Sections and Palestinian research collective Sakiya have created an exhibition in Edinburgh called In the Eddy of the Stream, which reevaluates the significance of plants and other organisms in our ecosystems.

    The multimedia show is on display at the Inverleith House of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as part of the science centre’s three-year Climate House exhibition programme.
    In the Eddy of the Stream includes installations, performances and sculpturesSpread across six galleries, the exhibition presents a range of work from research-heavy installations to live performances, developed by Sakiya and UK-based Cooking Sections.
    The show aims to “draw attention to the breakdown of ecosystems through the removal of plants and the ensuing long-term harm to people, communities and other species,” according to Cooking Sections.
    In particular, In the Eddy of the Stream intends to highlight how certain plants and non-sentient animals like oysters have been threatened by the complex histories of land ownership in Scotland and Palestine.

    Recalling Recollection investigates the history of Palestinian plant species”The installations, performances and materials in this exhibition challenge how botany has been used as a mechanism of control and how it might identify new horizons,” Cooking Sections said.
    “We want visitors to look again at the impact of our relationship with nature and non-human species and imagine new ways, in which to develop that vital relationship to the benefit of all parties.”
    From the Shores that Found their Sea is a group of mosaics made from waste shellsOne installation, named Recalling Recollection, showcases 33 botanical specimens of edible and medicinal plants, which the British Empire classified as a threat to its wheat monocultures during the country’s occuption of Palestine in the wake of the first world war.
    Sakiya has presented the specimens alongside postcards from Palestine in both Arabic and English that share stories, anecdotes and relevant folklore attempting to reclassify the plants as vital organisms.
    “In the same gallery, an oak baseboard depicting the 33 plants lines the space in reflection and opposition to the room’s ornate cornicing,” Cooking Sections founders Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe told Dezeen.
    Intertidal Polyculture includes ropes and nets made from biomaterialsAnother piece, From the Shores that Found their Sea, features a collection of wall mosaics formed from terrazzo-style tiles that are made out of waste mussel and oyster shells rather than traditional carbon-intensive cement.
    The shells were sourced from restaurants on the Scottish islands of Skye and Raasay that have adopted Cooking Sections’ Climavore menu – a regenerative approach to food sourcing developed by the art duo, which is also used by eateries at the Tate and V&A museums in London.

    “Food is one of the main drivers that is shaping the ecology of the planet” says art duo Cooking Sections

    A room with electric blue walls houses Cooking Sections’ Intertidal Polyculture project, a group of nets and ropes crafted from heather, kelp and purple moor grass instead of sterile plastics.
    When placed underwater, these natural nets and ropes encourage intertidal species to attach to them and grow.
    “All of this builds up towards a new framework for collective usership of the coast, a working process to advocate for the establishment of the tidal commons in Scotland,” explained Fernández Pascual and Schwabe.
    Oyster Readings is an installation and performance pieceOyster Readings is both an experimental installation and a playful performance piece that must be booked in advance.
    Here, visitors are invited to sit on organically shaped stools arranged around a matching table, both formed from a material made from crushed oyster shells in place of concrete.
    The piece is a play on traditional palm readingsEnveloped by a green fringe curtain, this space hosts palmistry-style readings where experts reveal information about the state of Scotland’s seas by analysing the patterns of local oyster shells, in a practice similar to studying tree rings.
    “Oyster Readings foresee the future of the coast through the ridged surface of an oyster shell, allowing you to read into our common oyster futures,” said Fernández Pascual and Schwabe.
    In the Eddy of the Stream presents various multimedia installationsIn the Eddy of the Stream gets its name from the concept of an eddy, which describes “a sheltered area where water flows back upstream against the current” and, according to Fernández Pascual and Schwabe, embodies the work they created with Sakiya.
    Similar projects by Cooking Sections, which is known for its focus on climate change, include an installation in Sharjah highlighting desert plants as an alternative to water-hungry greenery in arid cities.
    In the Eddy of the Stream is on show at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival from 2 July to 18 September 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
    The photography is by Shannon Tofts. 

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    Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the Dezeen Awards 2022 longlists

    The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the longlists for this year’s Dezeen Awards. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now!

    This week, Dezeen revealed the longlists for Dezeen Awards 2022, which feature over 1,000 of the world’s best projects and practitioners across more than 40 categories.
    The architecture longlist highlights the best recently completed buildings from around the globe, designed by studios from 48 different countries including Peru, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico, Belgium and Japan.
    Grimshaw’s Victorian Tunnelling Centre (above) and LUO Studio’s Timber Bridge in Gulou Waterfront (above) feature in the Dezeen Awards 2022 architecture longlistDezeen also revealed this year’s studio longlist, as well as dedicated longlists for design, interiors, sustainability and media.
    Other stories in the latest newsletter include a roundup of seven innovative projects by Japanese designer Issey Miyake following the news of his death last week and an interview with the developer behind Saudi Arabia’s controversial megacity The Line, who says the development will “revolutionise our current way of life”.

    Dezeen Agenda
    Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.
    You can also subscribe to Dezeen Debate, which is sent every Thursday and contains a curated selection of highlights from the week, as well as Dezeen Daily, our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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    Formafantasma and Artek's Cambio exhibition explores Finnish design's link to forestry

    Design duo Formafantasma has collaborated with furniture brand Artek to explore the relationship between the timber and design industries in Finland through an exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum.

    Called Cambio: On Finnish Forestry, the exhibition is part of Formafantasma’s wider Cambio project – an ongoing investigation into the global impact of the extraction, production and distribution of wood.
    The exhibition takes place at Helsinki Design MuseumThe duo teamed up with Finnish company Artek to create the show, which features a mixture of work shown in previous Cambio exhibitions in the UK, Italy and Switzerland, as well as new works specific to Finland.
    Featuring original films and installations as well as supporting archival material, On Finnish Forestry examines how the country’s timber industry has evolved over time, with a focus on design.
    Formafantasma created an installation of interlocked Stool 60s”This exhibition clearly links furniture design to a specific biome: forests,” Formafantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin told Dezeen.

    “At the end of the day, it isn’t about products but about ideas.”
    An installation made up of stacked 1933 Stool 60 models by the late Artek co-founder Alvar Aalto intends to communicate the iconic product’s lasting legacy by mixing both vintage and recently produced pieces.
    One installation features aerial images capturing tree canopy density over OrivesiThe stools are crafted from silver birch, a tree species commonly found in Finland. Trimarchi and Farresin explained that Artek’s local production habits influenced their desire to collaborate with the furniture brand.
    “The majority of trees used in the production of Artek furniture are from Finnish forests, specifically from an area within a 200-kilometre radius from a sawmill close to Jyväskylä,” explained the designers.
    “We don’t see Artek just as a design company producing beautiful furniture, but as a case study on how to relate production to a specific ecosystem.”
    Under the Yoke includes a postcard of artwork by Eero JärnefeltAnother installation presents wooden boards featuring infrared aerial images of Finland’s Orivesi municipality, which document recent tree canopy cover in its peatlands area.
    Formafantasma overlaid the large-scale images with smaller, historical black-and-white snapshots comparing the habitat in previous years.
    A contemporary model of Aalto’s Screen 100 is also on showUnder the Yoke is an installation comprising a postcard of an 1893 artwork of the same name by Finnish painter Eero Järnefelt that depicts a traditional scene of slash-and-burn agriculture, which is framed by chunky pinewood sourced from contemporary clearcutting.
    Among the work presented in the exhibition, other pieces by Aalto include a 2022 version of his 1936 flexible room divider Screen 100 and deconstructed chair legs featured in an investigation into the designer’s renowned L-leg design for furniture.
    The specific qualities of birch wood was a significant influence on Aalto’s desire to create an alternative to the then-popular metal tubular legs, according to Helsinki Design Museum.

    “It’s not enough to ask designers to be sustainable” says Formafantasma

    Trimarchi and Farresin explained that the exhibition attempts to use different media to unite audiences over the same ideas about the impact of the timber industry.
    “It might sound banal, but what we want is to shift the focus from ‘things’ to ‘context’,” concluded the designers.
    “We would like people to see chairs like pieces of forests and design as the outcome of political decision-making and not exclusively as the fruit of the creativity of a designer.”
    The exhibition also explores Aalto’s renowned L-leg designKnown for an interest in climate change, Formafantasma has completed a number of other projects that explore the environmental impact of design.
    These include the first Cambio show in London, which was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery. Last year, the duo also redesigned its website to try and reduce “pollution connected to the internet”.
    The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen Photography.

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    Get listed in Dezeen's digital guide for London Design Festival 2022

    Are you exhibiting at this year’s London Design Festival? Get your event listed in our digital guide to the week on Dezeen Events Guide, which will feature the festival’s key events.

    Taking place from 17 to 25 September 2022, London Design Festival features hundreds of events across the city, including the trade fair Design London and a programme of must-see events, exhibitions, talks and installations.
    Dezeen’s guide will go live one week before the London Design Festival. It will provide visitors with all the information they need to know about the festival.
    The digital guide will benefit from Dezeen’s high-ranking SEO and will sit on Dezeen Events Guide, which has received over 700,000 views since it launched in 2020.
    It follows the success of our digital guide for Milan design week 2022, which received over 40,000 page views.

    To be considered for inclusion in the guide, email [email protected]. Events will be selected by the Dezeen team to ensure that the best events are included.
    Get listed in Dezeen’s digital London guide
    For only £100, you can include your event in the list, which includes up to 75 words of text, the date, location, a link to your website and an image.
    For more information about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at [email protected].
    About Dezeen Events Guide
    Dezeen Events Guide lists events across the globe, which can be filtered by location and type.
    Events taking place later in the year include Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022, Design Miami 2022 and Top Drawer S/S 2023.
    The illustration is by Rima Sabina Aouf.

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