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This pavilion, designed by architecture firm Semester Studio for a furniture exhibition in Shanghai, was built entirely using materials that were separated and returned to their source after the show. More
Italian designer Martino Gamper has furnished an entire west London house with his eclectic designs for the exhibition Before, After and Beyond. More
Collector Rajan Bijlani has opened up his London residence for an exhibition featuring highlights from his 500-piece collection of furniture made for Le Corbusier’s master plan of Chandigarh in the 1950s and 60s. More
Dutch design duo Kiki & Joost has opened a public exhibition space attached to the pair’s Eindhoven studio, allowing them to showcase their work in a more “open and free” way than in a traditional gallery. More
Spooky puppets, original costumes and childhood drawings feature in The World of Tim Burton, an exhibition at London’s Design Museum charting 50 years of the American filmmaker’s work. More
Anhelina L Starkova explains how her experience of living through the Ukraine war has shaped her approach to curating the 2024 Tallinn Architecture Biennale in this interview.
Starkova, who was chief curator of this year’s biennale, is from Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine – a city that has suffered heavy bombardment since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, coming close to being captured early on in the conflict.
According to the curator, she experienced something close to an epiphany not long after the war began, while taking refuge in the bunker in her house as bombs fell around it
Anhelina L Starkova is chief curator of this year’s Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Photo by Helen Shets”I remember that planes were flying around, and the building was shaking, and it was really the moment when you understand that it’s probably your last minutes,” she recalled.
“I was standing with this wall, and I was thinking that this wall was a continuation of my body – this is me,” she continued.
“It was, for an architect, [a] very interesting feeling. Because I finished university, I had my 10 years in practice, and I still was not really immersed in architecture.”
“You always think it intellectually, but when I was in this bunker I started [to] think, ‘oh my god, this is the only one thing that can really save me – this wall is the only one thing that I need’. It was a very existential experience.”
Titled “Resources for a Future”, the exhibition explores innovative ways of using materials in architectureLater, while spending some time in Bucharest, visiting a shopping mall made her reconsider the value of architecture.
“There’s all this commercial architecture, and I feel such a disgust,” she told Dezeen. “Like it’s a cartoon, it’s not real. I felt it not with my brain but with all my body: we live in a world of complete illusion.”
In other words, Starkova said, the traumatic experience of the war has given her a new sense of clarity about what really matters in architecture.
“When the war started in the Ukraine, that was crucial for me as an architect,” she explained. “I didn’t expect that it would influence me so much personally.”
“Everything kind of started to be very clear: many, many things that we add to architecture – these addictive visions – are extra things, and they are not making buildings in a total way.”
“If I would like to continue [in architecture] then I would need to isolate myself from all this gallery of thinking, which I can’t stand anymore.”
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Instead, Starkova, who as well as running her own studio lectures at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons and Kharkiv School of Architecture, has become more interested in the bare essentials of architecture.
“Really great architecture, it’s about durability factors, the functionality, but also giving people a kind of stability and safety,” she said. “In the end, it’s mostly about our immersion.”
Starkova has applied this back-to-basics philosophy to her curation of the seventh Tallinn Architecture Biennale, which opened in the Estonian capital last week.
Pihlmann Architects presented a proposition for changing the function of a building by changing parts of its floorplates into rampsAt the centre of this year’s biennale is an exhibition exploring the theme of Resources for a Future, hosted by the Estonian Centre for Architecture.
Featuring 14 exhibits from studios including Gus Wüstemann Architects, KAMP Arhitektid, Déchelette Architecture and Pihlmann Architects, it examines different approaches to using local resources for creating new buildings and prolonging the life of existing ones.
“I had conversations with each architect that you have to look at the basics and the fundamental, real feel of what you are doing,” Starkova said.
“And even asked each architect, when you’re talking about resources, what really fosters you to do architecture, what supports you? And each installation showed the answers.”
For instance, Denmark-based Pihlmann Architects created a large model of a stripped-back building shell where part of each floor had been cut out and sloped downwards to form a ramp up from the floor below.
“It was really about this idea of purification,” said Starkova. “You see an old building and you just do not add anything. You see the nature of the building and you’re trying to heal it or to reformulate its elements.”
Déchelette Architecture’s exhibit showcased rammed-earth pillars using material dug locally to TallinnThat, she said, is a lesson she learned while working on repairs to damaged buildings in Kharkiv during the war.
“You’re trying to compose it again, to heal it, and then it gets another conceptual environment – another feeling, and it’s already architecture.”
“Architecture is the constant process of thinking of your relation to materials, different elements, and assemblage of them in a holistic way.”
At the centre of the exhibition are a series of pillars erected by rammed-earth specialist Emmanuelle Déchelette of Paris studio Déchelette Architecture, with the material dug locally to Tallinn.
“It’s about doing a lot with nothing, that complete purification,” said Starkova. “To avoid this ideological or even social architecture.”
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The participating architects were given a deliberately open brief, because Starkova felt the exhibition was “not about dogmas”. As a result, the exhibits are highly varied in form and approach.
They range from a huge chunk of a restored traditional Estonian log house by Apex Arhitektuuribüroo (pictured top) to an abstract proposal for a public space created only by digging by Romanian architect Laura Cristea and Swiss architect Raphael Zuber.
In another, Estonian studio KAMP Arhitektid presented research on the surprising breadth of potential building materials that can be found on one specific 15 square-kilometre piece of land in the country.
“Each project was a surprise because I didn’t know them personally before the exhibition, none of them,” said Starkova.
A research project by KAMP Arhitektid demonstrated potential building materials found on a single plot of landThat effect was only heightened by the fact that Starkova managed the whole project remotely, only arriving in Tallinn a few days before the exhibition opened.
She began with a list of more than 500 architects whose work she admires, eventually selecting those who she felt “were the most radical in their thinking”.
The Ukraine war is referenced in one installation, produced by Elina Liiva and Helena Manna in collaboration with PAKK, composed of a series of images of apartment living rooms printed on translucent fabric and placed in a line, with chunk of concrete lying nearby that corresponds with a hole cut into the scene.
But beyond that, Starkova deliberately avoided making the conflict a direct focus of the exhibition, believing that it may detract from a sense of immediacy.
“During the war, it’s not a place for architecture – mostly a place for thinking,” she said.
“And yes, architects are trying to think, with the support of international world architecture, what could be done [after the war]. But I just wanted to stay honest and not be futuristic.”
The only exhibit to directly reference the Ukraine war looked at approaches to changing buildings damaged in the conflictOverall, Starkova hopes the exhibition will enable visitors “to learn from architects that architecture is simple to do, and that the formulas are quite simple”.
As well as leading curation of the exhibition, Starkova was also head judge for the biennale’s customary pavilion commission competition, this time for a bus shelter at Tallinn’s Balti Jaam transit hub.
Out of more than 80 entries, the winner was No Time to Waste by Belgian architecture duo Brasebin Terrisse.
The central concept of the pavilion, which is still completing construction, was that the design would be led by whatever construction off-cut materials could be sourced in Tallinn.
“This was the only project who said that we have an open end – we do not propose [a] form of the installation, we prepare that we come to Tallinn, we test a local situation and after we will develop a form given when doing the work on it,” said Starkova.
A competition to design a pavilion for the biennale was won by Brasebin Terrisse’s project No Time to Waste (front)”So the rendering of the project itself is just a library of technology that they would like to use, but the form must be made later during the working process,” she added. “It followed the course of the biennale.”
With the biennale’s opening-week programme complete, Starkova has now returned to Kharkiv, where many buildings lie in ruins in a city that was previously celebrated for its rich and varied architectural heritage.
“It’s all so difficult,” she reflected. “Kharkiv is changing, it is in constant change.”
“It’s absolutely impossible to live, because you live in that mode of always existential crisis – on the edge, always. You go to bed, you don’t know you’re going to wake up. You go outside, you don’t know you’re coming back.”
“Maybe it brings some beauty, because we actually live in this way, all of us – right on the edge.”
The photography is by Tõnu Tunnel unless stated otherwise.
Resources For A Future will run until 1 December 2024 at the Museum of Estonian Architecture, Ahtri tn 2, 10151 Tallinn, Estonia. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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Models, sketches and photos of works by architects and designers including Neri&Hu, Büro Ole Scheeren, Paul Priestman and FOG Architecture feature in Dezeen’s Global China: Connecting The World Through Design exhibition in Shanghai.
Taking place during the World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) in Shanghai last month, Global China: Connecting The World Through Design showcased work by both Chinese and international architects and designers that bridge east and western ideologies.
The exhibition space is designed by FOG ArchitectureThe exhibition features the work of six architecture and design studios, which were selected by Dezeen to demonstrate the breadth and depth of interesting work being completed in China.
Featuring models, sketches, photography and films, the exhibition aims to demonstrate how international collaboration and cultural exchange can foster innovation while showcasing China’s influence as a growing design power.
FOG Architecture presented a model of To Summer flagship store in BeijingThe exhibition space, designed by FOG Architecture, featured a series of architecture models on a central table, with hanging graphic boards hanging from a curved rail for visitors to look through.
Three models from Chinese architecture studio Neri&Hu occupied the centre of the table, including Waterhouse at South Bund, Tsingpu Yangzhou Retreat and Nantou City Guesthouse, that focus on adaptive-reuse and historic preservation.
Neri&Hu presented three of their most well-known projects”We believe that urban fabric and architectural memory should be preserved with a critical approach that exemplifies the zeitgeist within the specificity of context,” said the Shanghai-based studio.
“Our built works show the possibility of creating unexpected spatial experiences in historic buildings, giving them new life.”
The twisted Tencent Helix is one of Ole Scheeren’s highlighted projectsBüro Ole Scheeren also presented three models, the Axiom, Tencent Helix and Shenzhen Wave, that best represent the studio’s futuristic vision for China’s urban landscape.
AIM Architecture created AIM City, a curated collection of the studio’s projects that form an experimental city concept for renewal and innovation.
AIM Architecture created an utopia urban city focused on renewal and innovation”Every street and building are reimagined, offering unexpected moments and fresh possibilities, embodying our vision of continuous urban evolution,” said the studio.
“Past, present, and future merge in a dynamic landscape of regeneration and sustainability.”
Paul Priestman showcased his latest Viewpoint conceptBritish transport designer Priestman presented his latest work Viewpoint, a sightseeing ship where all passengers would have undisrupted views of cityscapes. Also on display are hydrogen powered locomotives concept Inter-Freight as well as his previous designs for China high-speed trains.
Chinese furniture designer Min Chen presented a bench called A Piece of Wood, that used Chinese traditional kite frame made of bamboo with the shape informed by airplane wings. His work is known for its modern expression in traditional materials and craftsmanship.
Min Chen presented a bench that utilises Chinese craftsmanshipFOG Architecture presented ToSummer Flagship in Beijing Guozijian, which was crowned Interior Project of the Year at Dezeen Awards China last year. Others on display are HCH Showroom for Shanghai Fashion Week and Cycle Cycle Portable Bakehouse, which was longlisted at this year’s Dezeen Awards.
The photography is by Xiaobin Lyu.
Global China: Connecting The World Through Design exhibition ran from 27 to 30 September on the third floor of Dingbo Building as part of World Design Cities Conference 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Media partnership
Dezeen curated the Global China: Connecting The World Through Design exhibition for WDCC as part of a media partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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Gleaming sushi and an “earthquake-proof burger” are among the hyperrealistic food models on display at Japan House London as part of the exhibition Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture.
Opening today, the show documents Japan’s history of food replicas, known as food samples or shokuhin sampuru in Japanese, which dates back to 1923 and continues as a contemporary trend.
Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture opens today at Japan House LondonThe bespoke replicas are scale models of dishes from the country’s 1.4 million restaurants, produced by craftspeople for eateries wishing to advertise hyperrealistic versions of their menu items to prospective diners.
Simon Wright, director of programming at Japan House London, explained that the meticulous detailing and bright colours synonymous with the world-famous replicas intend to “stimulate how delicious the food actually is”.
The exhibition explores the country’s many food replicas”There’s a slight exaggeration to trigger your memory and stimulate your appetite,” he told Dezeen at the gallery.
Among the works is a dedicated section revealing how the replicas are made, including moulds and stencils such as a screenprint stencil used to create fish scales, arranged in a factory-style layout atop colourful crates.
Early replicas were cast from coloured candle waxThe display examines the shift from early replicas cast from coloured candle wax, which was historically poured into a box of agar jelly, to the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) replicas cast in silicon moulds that emerged in the 1970s and continue to be used today.
“Even though the materials are different, ultimately, it hasn’t really changed,” said Wright.
A contemporary “earthquake-proof burger” is included in the show”The process is exactly the same,” he continued, explaining that real food has always been used to create the moulds. “It’s quite analogue. It’s all handcrafted – there are no conveyor belts and automation.”
“That means that there’s a versatility to making food replicas,” he continued. “Any restaurant or food establishment can have what it wants. So maybe your hamburger is just a little bit fatter than the one next door – you can give the craftspeople your fat hamburger, and they will make an exact replica of that.”
Each of Japan’s 47 prefectures is represented by a replica of a local dish”Colours are also made according to actual food substances,” acknowledged Wright, referring to the selection of paints on display that are used to finish each replica, featuring names including pumpkin peel and croissant.
Another section explores the evolution of food displays, highlighting how the introduction of heat-resistant materials allowed for more dynamic compositions – such as noodles being lifted from a handless fork or cheese oozing from a piece of airborne toast.
The exhibition features a range of replicas displayed in myriad waysA playful, “earthquake-proof burger” formed from towering piles of artificial meat, relish and onions stands tall on one of the plinths.
“When you display wax, it has to be flat, because it either melts in the heat or fades in the sunlight, which isn’t very effective as a marketing tool,” said Wright.
“When PVC was introduced, you were able to tilt the dish by 45 to 60 degrees, therefore giving more exposure and more visibility to the outside of the model.”
Applications of replicas beyond restaurant settings are also included in the exhibitionIn the centre of the gallery, a banquette-style table presents 47 models commissioned for the exhibition, created by leading food replica manufacturer Iwasaki.
Arranged like a map, each model represents a dish from one of Japan’s 47 prefectures. There is zuwai-gani, shimmering orange snow crab served in the winter in Tottori, and “scattered sushi” from Okayama known as bara-zushi, arranged in a circular timber box.
“We chose them for their variety, size, colour and shape,” said Wright, who explained that they consulted people across Japan when selecting the delicacies.
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Elsewhere, the first known food replica created for commercial purposes is on display. Completed in 1931 by Iwasaki Group founder Iwasaki Takizō, the model is a wrinkly yellow omelette topped with a dollop of red sauce and a replica of a dish that Iwasaki’s wife had just prepared in the kitchen at home.
Applications of replicas beyond restaurant settings are also included in the exhibition, highlighting the expanding ways that people are using food models.
Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture runs until 16 February 2025Mounted to one wall is a 3D chart produced for the Japan Diabetes Society classifying food groups according to their primary nutrients, while a “carrot preparation guide” for family caregivers and nursing home staff features a gradient of consistency – from finely cut vegetable rounds to a smooth paste.
Visitors can also create their own bento box of replica food on a dedicated food assembly table covered with a red and white gingham tablecloth.
Wright explained that wax food models were originally created in the early 20th century to introduce Japanese diners to less familiar cuisines imported from China and Europe, before restaurants began to commission replicas of local dishes.
Today, the Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture is the first UK exhibition of its kind, and offers London audiences the chance to see handcrafted Japanese models up close.
“In Japan, you’ll see exhibitions of competition pieces, but they only exist within a context of what people understand food replicates to be,” said Wright. “Whereas this kind of thing doesn’t really exist, and has never been shown before.”
Elsewhere in London, social enterprise POOR Collective exhibited a collection of work by emerging local designers. Design studio Wax Atelier also presented an exhibition revealing how living trees can provide materials for design objects.
The photography is courtesy of Japan House London.
Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture takes place from 2 October 2024 to 16 February 2025 at Japan House London, 101-111 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA.Visit Dezeen Events Guide for a guide to the festival and other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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Andu Masebo and Rio Kobayashi are among 23 designers who have created birdhouses for an exhibition held at South London Gallery that aimed to unpack “what it means to build a house for a bird”.
Conceived by design studio Computer Room and birdwatching collective Flock Together, the Dwellings project focused on shared themes of sanctuary and exploring our relationship with nature.
The Dwellings exhibition was held at the South London GalleryThe exhibition held in the Orozco Garden and Clore Studio at South London Gallery from 31 August to 1 September 2024 comprised an eclectic series of 22 objects and images, ranging from practical solutions to expressive conceptual responses.
The varied contributions encapsulated the unique thought processes and skills of makers including ceramicists, glassmakers, architects and photographers.
It aimed to unpack “what it means to build a house for a bird”Many of the designers created their own takes on conventional birdhouses, which are typically made from wood and feature a hole just large enough to provide an entrance for the nesting birds.
Other participants opted for a more abstract approach, such as artist and designer Moe Asari’s site-specific project exploring the attempts to reintroduce black kites to a Dutch nature reserve.
Various materials were usedThe show’s co-curator Masebo, who runs the Computer Room design collective alongside Jesse Butterfield and Charlie Humble-Thomas, developed a birdhouse via a remote collaboration with his uncle Dan O’Conell – a trained carpenter based in Ireland.
Without conversing throughout the process, Masebo and O’Connell sent materials back and forth between London and Ireland, each making their own alterations until an object with the form of a birdhouse emerged.
Each design was “chosen to be good for birds”Butterfield’s contribution to the exhibition is a wooden structure informed by skyscrapers and modernist architecture. Bird Metropolis provides space for eight nesting house sparrow couples within a tower carved into organic, tree-like forms.
London and Copenhagen-based designer Daniel Schofield’s birdhouse uses renewable cork bark as an alternative to wood, which he suggested is an odd choice of material as it requires cutting down a bird’s natural home to create an artificial one.
“The form and proportions were chosen to be good for birds,” said Schofield, “but also simple to produce industrially and locally, hopefully giving more chance of these being made en-masse, and giving the best opportunity of making more homes for birds in our urban landscape.”
Timber featured throughoutKobayashi’s playful response to the brief called The Guest House For An Ostrich is elevated to an appropriate height so an ostrich could hide its head inside rather than burying it in the ground.
The birdhouse features an aerodynamic form and details that reflect the ostrich’s ability to run at great speeds. Its front surface is scorched to give the impression that aerodynamic friction has set the wood alight.
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Ceramicist George Baggaley created a birdhouse in his signature organic style, which is embellished with glazes that accentuate its undulating surfaces.
Ovulo by Jaclyn Pappalardo features a welded form reminiscent of shapes found in nature. The curved profile with a hook at one end for suspending it from a tree branch was produced using a process that involves inflating metal using water.
Dwellings focussed on shared themes of sanctuary and exploring our relationship with natureOliver Hawkes worked with a charity called Global Generation to build birdhouses using material offcuts donated by eyewear brand Cubitts. The project aimed to engage young people in the making process and educate them about issues relating to the environment and bird cohabitation.
Many of the pieces created for the exhibition were available to purchase, with all proceeds helping to support South London Gallery’s communities and learning programmes.
The photography is courtesy of Computer Room and South London Gallery.
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