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      Jane Withers picks five projects that don’t “take water for granted” from MK&G exhibition

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      An exhibition at Hamburg’s MK&G museum examines the global water crisis and what architects and designers can do to help. Here, curator Jane Withers selects five highlights from the show and explains the stories behind them.

      Water Pressure: Designing for the Future is the result of several years of research by Jane Withers Studio, which involved compiling a broad range of ideas on how to confront water scarcity from the fields of design, science and activism.
      “The current water crisis is largely the result of mismanagement and overconsumption, so there is potential to rethink the systems,” Withers told Dezeen. “A multidisciplinary approach is required and architecture and design are strong components within this.”
      A new exhibition at MK&G (top image) deals with issues of water scarcity (pictured above in Cape Town)The exhibition, on show at MK&G until 13 October, is organised around five themes: Water Stories, Bodily Waters, Invisible Water – Agriculture and Industry, Thirsty Cities, and Ecosystems – Land and Ocean.
      Each theme explores water as a life force and a common medium that unites humans, plants, animals and the landscape.

      “We take water for granted in every way and we need to rekindle our psychological, physiological and spiritual understanding of it,” Withers said.
      The projects on show range from the CloudFisher system, which harvests water from fog or clouds, to a proposal for low-cost floating schools by architecture studio NLÉ and a mural by Slovenian architect Marjetica Potrč calling for the recognition of water as a living being.

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      While some reflect on water’s poetic and mythical associations, others offer more scientifically-led solutions to specific problems associated with water scarcity, human-induced climate change and water justice.
      Withers said she hopes visitors to the exhibition will leave with a better understanding of water and the challenges we face, as well as recognising that there are things we can all do to help shape a different future.
      “We need policy change but also individual changes of mindset and a new water consciousness,” she added. “We’re very keen that the exhibition is a starting point for conversations and for campaigning about water culture.”
      Below, Withers outlines five key projects featured in Water Pressure:
      Graphic by Marjetica PotrčTime on the Lachlan River by Marjetica Potrč
      “The first room in the exhibition is framed by two wonderful works by artist and activist Marjetica Potrč. The mural Time on The Lachlan River illustrates the campaign by Australia’s Aboriginal Wijaduri people to prevent the enlargement of a damn that could have deprived the land downriver of water.
      “On the other side, the visual essay The Rights of a River tells the story of a water referendum in Slovenia in 2021, when an overwhelming majority of people voted against a law that would have allowed private businesses to exploit the country’s rivers for profit.
      “This shift in thinking about rivers and how we view them not as objects to be exploited but as subjects with their own rights is fundamental to creating a more equitable water culture and sets the tone for the exhibition.”
      Photo courtesy of NLÉMakoko Floating System by NLÉ
      “Architectural practice NLÉ has been researching the potential for floating architecture in African cities affected by rising sea levels for over a decade. Their prototype floating building was a low-cost school for the Makoko community in Lagos inspired by their vernacular floating structures.
      “The Makoko School became something of a poster project for floating architecture through photographer Iwan Baan’s alluring images of kids clambering over an ark-like wooden building. It could have stopped there but NLÉ has gone on to develop a scalable prefabricated floating building system for the development of waterfronts amid the challenges of climate resilience.
      “The studio is currently working on a regeneration plan for the Makoko area based on this technology, and recently published the book African Water Cities that examines the potential for waterborne living in other African cities.”
      Photo by Ugo CarmeniDeath to the Flushing Toilet by The Dry Collective
      “Death to the Flushing Toilet is a campaign by The Dry Collective that provokes a rethink of the waterborne sewage systems we take for granted. It’s madness that wealthier regions of the world use vast quantities of freshwater to flush away human waste, while two billion people still lack basic sanitation.
      “In urban areas, as much as 30 per cent of freshwater is used to flush toilets and often this is drinking quality water. The Dry Collective aims to persuade architects and designers to use alternative systems.
      “Taking the traditional Finnish huussi – a composting dry toilet used in rural areas – as a model, they produced a film set in 2043 that imagines a global shift where water is no longer wasted on flushing and human waste is recycled as fertiliser. The technology for circular sanitation systems already exists so the real issue is overcoming prejudices and the ‘yuck factor’.”
      Photo by Merdel RubensteinEden in Iraq
      “Eden in Iraq is an incredibly inspiring project that has gotten off the ground against the odds in Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes, where the discharge of untreated sewage has polluted the fragile marsh ecosystem and led to disease.
      “The wetland garden is designed to use plants to clean the local community’s wastewater. The garden’s ornate symmetrical design takes inspiration from the embroidered wedding blankets of Marsh Arab tribes and their tradition of reed construction for buildings.
      “The first construction phase, completed in 2023, demonstrates the potential for nature-based wastewater systems to work at a community level.”
      Drawing by OOZE ArchitectsRe-imagine Water Flows by Ooze Architects
      “Re-imagine Water Flows is a special commission for the Water Pressure exhibition using the MK&G Museum as a case study to understand the water challenges Hamburg faces and how the building’s water ecosystem could be made more resilient.
      “A mural by Ooze Architects shows two versions of the museum – one with its current situation marooned between massive roads and Hamburg’s main railway station and the other illustrating how it could be transformed into a shady green oasis.
      “In the studio’s proposal, rainwater and wastewater are recycled to be reused for non-drinking water use inside the building, as well as for irrigating the landscape and recharging the Hamburg aquifer.
      “The mural expands to show how Hamburg is threatened by drought and increased risk of flooding that could also affect the river Elbe watershed. It invites us to think about the importance of these common water flows linking countries and cities.”
      The top image is by Henning Rogge and the image of the Newlands municipal swimming pool in Cape Town is by Bloomberg via Getty Images.
      Water Pressure is on show at MK&G Hamburg from 15 March to 13 October 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Patrick Carroll presents knitted “paintings” at JW Anderson store

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      Artist Patrick Carroll has used recycled yarn to create hand-knitted painting-style pieces for the Days textile exhibition at JW Anderson’s Milan store during Milan design week.

      Carroll presented translucent artworks that look “as if they are paintings”, which were made using a 1970s flatbed domestic knitting machine and displayed on wooden stretcher bars – the skeleton of a traditional art canvas – in the store.
      Days is a textile exhibition by Patrick Carroll”My stuff is a little bit transparent – you can see the architecture of it all,” Carroll told Dezeen at the JW Anderson flagship store in Milan, where the work is exhibited in a show called Days.
      “I was making clothing initially,” he explained, donning one of his own pink creations.
      The pieces are on display at Milan’s JW Anderson storeCarroll decided to apply his practice to artworks, designing pieces made from yarn salvaged from remainder shops that liquidate the fashion industry’s leftover textiles rather than sourcing new materials.

      Recycled wool, linen, mohair, silk and cashmere all feature in the rectilinear works, which are finished in colours ranging from coral to aqua to ochre.
      They range from big to smallLike Carroll’s clothing, each piece was characterised by one or a handful of words lifted from sources including literature, existing artworks or the artist’s own writing.
      The smallest pieces in the collection were displayed on gridded shelving while larger pieces can be found on various walls throughout the store.
      When viewed together, the works were position to create a “modular chorus”, explained the artist, who encouraged viewers to form their own relationships with the words weaved into the textiles.

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      Days follows Carroll’s first collaboration with JW Anderson in 2022 when the artist designed seven knitted outfits for the brand. The clothes were worn by models posing on chunky blue plinths positioned outside the venue of JW Anderson’s Spring Summer 2023 menswear show in Milan.
      “I think what makes the works a little bit unique is that they have legs in all these disciplines – fashion, design and art,” added Carroll.
      Carroll’s artworks display a mix of single words and phrasesFounded by Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, JW Anderson previously created hoodies and tailored shorts moulded from plasticine for its Spring Summer 2024 womenswear show at London Fashion Week.
      Various other fashion brands have a presence at this year’s Milan design week. Hermès has created an installation that uses reclaimed bricks, slate, marble and terracotta to draw attention to the brand’s artisan roots while Marimekko has transformed a traditional Milanese bar into a flower-clad day-to-night cafe.
      The photography is courtesy of Patrick Carroll and JW Anderson. 
      Days is on display from 17 to 21 April 2024 at the JW Anderson store, Via Sant’Andrea 16, Milan. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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      Triennale Milano celebrates Alessandro Mendini at Milan design week

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      Cultural institutions Triennale Milano and Fondation Cartier are hosting a retrospective show of Italian designer Alessandro Mendini at this year’s Milan design week, showcased in this video produced by Dezeen for Triennale.

      [embedded content]The exhibition takes place at Trienalle Milano
      Triennale Milano partnered with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain to host the exhibition, which explores Mendini’s work across the fields of architecture, art, design and theory.
      Titled Io Sono Un Drago (I am a dragon), the show brings together over 400 different works and intends to explore Mendini’s philosophical approach to the world around him.

      Mendini was an Italian architect and designer known for his role as a key figure in the radical design and postmodernist movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
      Through his 60-year career he created some of the most iconic design pieces of the 20th century, such as the Proust armchair, which combined baroque references with pointillist patterns. Mendini passed away at the age of 87 in February 2019.
      The exhibition is named after a self-portrait Mendini drew depicting himself as a dragonSplit into six thematic sections, the show looks back on Mendini’s life and work, with the first section, titled Identikit, showcasing a series of self-portraits Mendini created over the course of his life.
      The following sections explore aspects of his work including his firm Atelier Mendini, which designed buildings such as the Groninger Museum and the Arts metro stations in Naples, as well as exploring his research in radical design theory.
      The last section of the exhibition consists of three immersive installations that Mendini created towards the end of his life, which play with the concepts of dreams and nightmares.
      The exhibition covers Mendini’s contribution to the postmodernist design movementAs part of the wider exhibition, French designer Phillipe Starck will also debut an immersive installation created in homage to Mendini during the run of the design week.
      Titled What? A homage to Alessandro Mendini, the installation aims to take visitors into a sensory journey through Mendini’s subconscious.
      Speaking on the installation, Starck said “before being a human, [Mendini] was an idea, a sensation, an osmotic vibration that I wanted to recapture through the installation, conceived as an immersive experience in Alessandro Mendini’s brain”.
      Starck’s installation will be located in Triennale Milano’s Impluvium space.

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      Io Sono Un Drago is open to the public at the Trienalle Milano 13 April to 13 October. What? A homage to Alessandro Mendini runs from the 16 April- 13 October. See our Milan design week 2024 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
      Partnership content
      This video was produced by Dezeen for Triennale as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here. 

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      Barbican’s Unravel exhibition explores the subversive power of textiles

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      Curator Lotte Johnson discusses the transformative power of textiles in this video produced by Dezeen for the Barbican’s latest exhibition.

      Titled Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, the exhibition examines how textiles have been employed to explore themes spanning power, oppression, gender and belonging.
      It features over 100 works that make use of textile, fibre and thread from over 50 artists from across the globe, spanning from the 1960s to the present day.
      The exhibition explores how artists have used textiles to express their lived experienceThe exhibition is designed to challenge the perception of textiles being solely domestic or craft practices and instead features textile works that relate a story of resistance and rebellion as well as pieces that present narratives of emancipation and joy.
      Johnson explained that textiles offer a meaningful medium to express personal and political issues due to their tactile nature and intimate connection to daily life.

      “Textiles are one of the most under-examined mediums in art history and in fact history itself,” Johnson said. “They are an intrinsic part of our everyday lives. When we’re born, we’re shrouded in a piece of fabric. Everyday we wrap ourselves in textiles,” she continued.
      “They’re really this very intimate, tactile part of our lives and therefore perhaps the most intrinsic, meaningful way to express ourselves.”
      Feminist artist Judy Chicago’s Birth Project depicts birth as a mystical and confrontational processThe exhibition is structured into six thematic sections. The first, called Subversive Stitch, presents works that challenge binary conceptions of gender and sexuality.
      The section includes feminist artist Judy Chicago’s Birth Project, which vividly depicts the glory, pain and mysticism of giving birth, as well as a piece from South African artist Nicholas Hlobo, which, despite initially appearing as a painting, is made using ribbon and leather stitched into a canvas.
      Another section of the exhibition is titled Bearing Witness, which brings together artists who employ textiles to confront and protest political injustices and systems of violent oppression.
      Artist Teresa Margolles creates collective tapestries that trigger conversations on police brutalityIncluded in this section are tapestries by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles that commemorate the lives of individuals including Eric Garner and Jadeth Rosano López.
      Garner was an African-American man killed in 2014 by NYPD police officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put Garner into a chokehold during arrest. López was a seventeen-year old-girl assassinated in Panama City.
      Margolles used fabric that had been placed in contact with the victims’ deceased bodies and collaborated with embroiderers from their respective local communities to create the tapestries.
      The Wound and Repair sections includes work from American artist and activist Harmony Hammond’s Bandaged Grid series, in which layered fabric is used to evoke imagery reminiscent of an injured body.
      Tau Lewis’ fabric assemblages offer new narratives of black historiesWhile violence and brutality are key themes examined in the exhibition, it also showcases how textiles can be used to create narratives of hope. The final, most expansive section of the exhibition is titled Ancestral Threads, which encompasses works created to inspire a sense of optimism and reconnect with ancestral practices.
      “This section not only explores artists processing exploitative and violent colonial and imperialist histories, but also celebrates the artists who are re-summoning and relearning ancient knowledge systems to imagine a different kind of future,” Johnson explained.
      Canadian multimedia artist Tau Lewis’s work titled The Coral Reef Preservation Society is a patchwork assemblage of recycled fabrics and seashells including fragments of textured denim.
      The work pays homage to the enslaved women and children thrown overboard in the Middle Passage, the historical transportation route used during the Atlantic slave trade. These women and children have been reimagined as underwater sea creatures to transform the narrative into one of regeneration.
      Vicuña revives the art of the quipu in her installation Quipu AustralA large installation by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña titled Quipu Austral is situated towards the end of the exhibition. The installation takes the form of billowing ribbons hanging from the ceiling.
      Vicuña references quipu, a form of recording used by a number cultures in Andean South America. Quipu was a ancient writing system which used knotted textile cords to communicate information.

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      Other sections in the exhibition include Fabric of Everyday, which explores the daily uses of textiles, as well as Borderlands, which examines how textiles have been used to challenge ideas around belonging.
      These sections feature works such as Shelia Hicks’ colourful woven bundles and Margarita Cabrera’s soft sculpture cacti crafted from reclaimed US border patrol uniforms.
      Mexican-American artist Margarita Cabrera uses reclaimed border patrol uniforms in her work”We hope that people might come out of this exhibition feeling invigorated and moved by the stories of resilience and rebellion embedded in the work but also hope and emancipation,” Johnson said.
      “I hope that the show might inspire people to pick up a needle and thread themselves and use it to express their own lived experience.”
      The show is a partnership between the Barbican and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and was co-curated by Barbican curators Johnson, Wells Fray-Smith and Diego Chocano, in collaboration with Amanda Pinatih from the Stedelijk.
      Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art is at the Barbican Centre until 26 May 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
      Partnership content
      This video was produced by Dezeen for the Barbican Centre as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.

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      Galerie Patrick Seguin blends VR with physical installation to recreate Jean Prouvé house

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      An exhibition at Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris allows visitors to experience the Jean Prouvé-designed Maison Les Jours Meilleurs in both real life and virtual reality.

      The gallery is exhibiting the most significant element of the demountable prefabricated house, its load-bearing service core, in a full-scale installation that doubles as a virtual reality (VR) experience.
      The load-bearing service core is key to the design of the original Maison Les Jours Meilleurs (above and top image)Prouvé, the French architect best known for applying mass-production principles to both buildings and furniture, developed the design for the 57-square-metre house in 1956.
      Known as Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, or “better days house”, the house was designed to tackle a homelessness crisis in the French capital.
      This core is the centrepiece of the exhibition at Galerie Patrick SeguinIn the winter of 1954, temperatures dropped so low that a woman and child died from the cold.

      After being denied a request for funding to provide emergency housing, Abbé Pierre – a Catholic priest who was the founder of the Emmaüs movement against poverty – put out a plea on the radio for aid.

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      Prouvé responded immediately and, in a few weeks, had developed a design he felt could offer the solution.
      The design centres around the service core, a steel cylinder painted olive green. This provides all the kitchen and bathroom services and carries the weight of the building’s roof.
      It is installed on a full-scale sketch floor planProuvé first exhibited a prototype of the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs on Quai Alexandre-III in February 1956.
      This was described by fellow architect Le Corbusier as “the handsomest house I know of, the most perfect object for living in, the most sparkling thing ever constructed”.
      However, the model never made it to production and only a handful were ever built.
      A VR headset transforms the scene into a 3D visualisation of the houseGalerie Patrick Seguin owns the world’s largest collection of Prouvé houses, which it has installed in exhibitions around the world. In 2015, it commissioned architect Richard Rogers to put a new spin on one.
      This exhibition marks the first time the gallery has allowed a Prouvé house to be experienced in virtual reality.
      It shows the house installed on the banks of the Seine in ParisThe installation places the service core inside a full-scale sketch floor plan that reveals the house’s layout.
      A VR headset transforms the scene into a visualisation of the house, placing it back on the spot where it was installed in 1956, on the banks of the Seine.
      The photography is courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin.
      Jean Prouvé, Maison Les Jours Meilleurs is on show at Galerie Patrick Seguin from 14 March to 20 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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      Gallery Collectional exhibition spotlights contemporary Asian craftsmanship

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      Gallery Collectional, a collectible design gallery in Dubai, has presented its inaugural exhibition featuring furniture and lighting crafted by seven Asian designers.

      For Urban Fabric Series 001, Gallery Collectional invited seven designers to create designs informed by the urban settings from which they hail, including Tokyo, Seoul and Hangzhou.
      The Urban Fabric exhibition included recycled plastic seats by Kuo Duo. Photo by Mario Tsai StudioCurated by Yoko Choy, the collectible design exhibition features 28 pieces that showcase the diverse range of crafts honed by the designers.
      It includes 3D-printed chairs, woven sculptures, metal light sculptures and furniture made from reclaimed architectural elements.
      Teo Yang repurposed remnants of traditional Korean houses. Photo by Mario Tsai Studio”Since the inception of Gallery Collectional, its desire has always been to create a multicultural, cross-functional platform that fosters disruptive and worldly conversations across design and art,” the gallery said.

      “The 28 artworks commissioned and created for this inaugural series epitomise the juxtaposition between industrial precision and artisanal finesse, the nuanced interplay between vulnerability and resilience, and the seamless fusion of rationality and emotion,” Gallery Collectional continued.
      “They delve into the dynamic interplay of light and shadow, the relentless passage of time, and the subtle balance between ruggedness and sophistication, encapsulating the essence of contemporary urban life and inspiring our collective vision for the future.”
      Cutting Lines is a collection of 3D-printed chairsKorean designer Teo Yang used remnants of traditional Korean houses known as hanoks – including glass, rubble, marble and veneer – to create a series of furniture pieces.
      The collection, named Remaining Things, includes a room divider made from hanok panels and a table made from a repurposed column with a metal base and glass tabletop.

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      Koren design studio Kuo Duo, founded by Hwachan Lee and Yoomin Maeng, is showcasing a pair of chairs with a matching ottoman made from recycled plastic.
      The Kerf Plastic seats were designed to showcase the “untapped potential” of the material to form three-dimensional objects, according to the duo.
      The Sparks pendant light moves from side to sideThe exhibition also featured the 3D-printed Cutting Lines chair by Korean designer Kwangho Lee, with textured surfaces inspired by the act of tying knots.
      Sparks is a pendant light created by Chinese designer Mario Tsai, comprising brass chimes that sway and collide.
      A woven sculpture by Tiffany Loy hangs from the ceiling”Within this kinetic light installation, the transformative power of collision becomes palpable,” said Gallery Collectional. “It is as if the energy from each collision is harnessed and channelled, manifesting as both visible light and audible sound.”
      Also in the Urban Fabric series were tables made from white, green and pink onyx by Japanese designer Kensaku Oshiro, neon light artworks by Tokyo-based Studio Swine and a pair of woven silk and cotton sculptures by Singaporean artist Tiffany Loy.
      Gallery Collectional is located in Dubai. Photo by Mario Tsai StudioOther furniture showcases that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a furniture exhibition in a converted Bogotá townhouse and StudioTwentySeven’s newly opened flagship gallery in Tribeca.
      The photography is courtesy of Gallery Collectional.
      Urban Fabric is on show at Gallery Collectional in Dubai from 2 to 31 March 2024. For more events, talks and exhibitions in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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      Crosby Studios creates office-themed installation in LA for The Frankie Shop

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      New York-based Crosby Studios has piled office equipment around a long metallic table as part of a pop-up installation for fashion brand The Frankie Shop in Los Angeles.

      The month-long installation titled The Office was launched to coincide with LA Art Week and the Sag-Aftra film festival and marked the New York label The Frankie Shop’s first presence in the Californian city.
      A long, metallic conference table formed part of The Office installation created by Crosby StudiosThe brand’s founder Gaëlle Drevet and Crosby Studios creative director Harry Nuriev met at his studio, talked for 2.5 hours and decided to work together.
      The resulting installation occupies a trapezoidal building on Sunset Boulevard wrapped in metallic film on all sides.
      Equipment like printers, office chairs and water coolers were arranged around the perimeter of the spaceInside, the warehouse-like space features a long table also covered in a reflective material, with matching cube-shaped stools set along either side.

      Articulated desk lamps, microphones and bottles of water were arranged on the table as if set up for delegates at a convention.
      The central table featured microphones and water bottles as if set up for a meetingAround the perimeter, Nuriev placed recycled office equipment, such as a large printer, a stack of binders and a pile of plastic-wrapped office chairs.
      A row of water coolers was lined up along one end of the room, encircled with glowing light boxes to create sharp silhouettes of the equipment in front.
      Light boxes that encircle the space create sharp silhouettes of the office furniture placed in front”It’s not really about the office, it’s more about what happens after the office,” Nuriev told Dezeen. “I was thinking it’s time to officially move on from the office and consider the future. However, in this project, we’re uncertain about what the future holds exactly.”
      A selection of apparel by The Frankie Shop is interspersed among the vignettes, while a “storage” area in the back serves as a fitting room.
      Some of the furniture is plastic-wrapped, appearing as though just installed or ready to be shipped awayTogether, the industrial style of the building, the silvery materials, the lighting and the equipment served to highlight the brand’s reinterpretation of businesswear.
      “The pop-up design blends a dynamic combination of fashion and nostalgia, where the power suits of the past seamlessly align with the modern attitude of The Frankie Shop,” said the team.

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      Metallics are commonplace in Nuriev’s interior projects, appearing prominently in a Berlin jewellery store, a Moscow restaurant and his own New York apartment amongst others.
      However, he is vague about the reasons or intentionality behind this recurring theme.
      The exterior of the building on Sunset Boulevard is also covered in reflective film”I don’t really think about ‘why’; it’s just my instincts, and I prefer to follow my feelings,” said Nuriev. “For this project, I had a vision of silver, and I think it works perfectly.”
      Originally from Russia, the designer founded Crosby Studios in 2014 and is now based between New York and Paris.
      The month-long installation marks The Frankie Shop’s first presence in LA and was timed to coincide with the city’s art weekHe recently completed the interiors for New York nightclub Silencio, based on the original location in Paris designed by film director David Lynch.
      Nuriev frequently collaborates with fashion brands, on projects ranging from a virtual sofa upholstered with green Nike jackets to a transparent vinyl couch filled with old Balenciaga clothing.
      The photography is by Josh Cho.
      The Office is on show in Los Angeles from 23 February to 24 March. For more events, talks and exhibitions in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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      V&A’s Tropical Modernism exhibition explores “the politics behind the concrete”

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      London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has launched its Tropical Modernism exhibition, which highlights the architectural movement’s evolution from colonial import to a “tool of nation building”.

      According to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition aims to examine the complex context, power dynamics and post-colonial legacy of tropical modernism – an architectural style that developed in South Asia and West Africa in the late 1940s – while also centralising and celebrating its hidden figures.
      London’s V&A museum has opened a major exhibition exploring tropical modernism”Tropical modernism is experiencing something of a modish revival as an exotic and escapist style popular in verdant luxury hotels, bars and concrete jungle houses,” the exhibition’s lead curator Christopher Turner told Dezeen.
      “But it has a problematic history and, through an examination of the context of British imperialism and the de-colonial struggle, the exhibition seeks to look at the history of tropical modernism before and after Independence, and show something of the politics behind the concrete,” he continued.
      The exhibition traces the evolution of tropical modernism within a South Asian and West African contextThe exhibition follows the V&A’s Tropical Modernism exhibition at the 2023 Venice Biennale, which revealed the team’s precursory research on tropical modernism in a West African setting.

      For the in-house iteration of the exhibition, additional architectural models, drawings and archival imagery have been introduced to interrogate tropical modernism in India alongside the African perspective.
      Exhibition materials line a series of rooms within the V&A’s Porter Gallery, divided by brightly coloured partitions and louvred walls referencing tropical modernist motifs.
      Archival imagery, architectural drawings and physical models line the gallery roomsThe exhibition begins by tracing tropical modernism back to its early development by British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Stationed together in Ghana from 1944, Drew and Fry adapted international modernism to the African climate, proposing functional over ornamental design.
      Drew and Fry would also become part of the Department of Tropical Studies at the Architectural Association (AA), which exported British architects to the colonies from 1954 in a bid to neutralise calls for independence.
      The exhibition aims to centralise local professionals who have gone widely unrecognised for their contributions to the movementThe exhibition continues by spotlighting local Ghanaian figures who worked with Fry and Drew, noting the power shifts that were taking place behind the scenes to reappropriate the architectural style for an emerging era of colonial freedom.
      Influential political leaders Jawaharlal Nehru in India and Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana are the exhibition’s key personas, framing the evolution of tropical modernism from conception to regionalisation.
      Gallery rooms are divided by brightly coloured partitions informed by tropical modernist motifs”The heroes of our exhibition are Nehru and Nkrumah, the first prime ministers of India and Ghana,” Turner explained. “Tropical modernism, a colonial invention, survived the transition to Independence and was appropriated and adapted by Nehru and Nkrumah as a tool of nation building.”
      “Nkrumah, who sometimes sketched designs for the buildings he wanted on napkins, created the first architecture school in sub-Saharan Africa to train a new generation of African architects, and this institution has partnered with us on a five-year research project into tropical modernism.”
      According to the V&A’s research, tropical modernism shifted from its western Bauhaus roots towards a localised vernacular stylesThrough a host of physical models and artefacts, the city of Chandigarh becomes the exhibition’s narrative focal point for tropical modernism in India.
      Under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Chandigarh was the first large-scale modernist project, recruiting Drew and Fry along with French architect Le Corbusier to plan the ideal utopian urban centre.
      As with Nkrumah – who saw how the Africanisation of architecture could become a symbol of progress and change – the exhibition also aims to highlight Nehru’s ambitions for a localised modernism drawing from the Indian vernacular, rather than the Western Bauhaus style.

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      The display culminates in a video featuring 16 key tropical modernist structures, interspersed with interviews and footage explaining the social and political context behind each building’s realisation.
      “We made a three-screen 28-minute film, shot in Ghana and featuring panoramic portraits of over a dozen buildings, cut with archive footage from the time and interviews with architects like John Owusu Addo and Henry Wellington, and Nkrumah’s daughter, the politician Samia Nkrumah,” said Turner.
      The exhibition aims to address gaps in the museum’s African and South Asian studiesAccording to Turner, the exhibition begins to address gaps in the V&A’s collections and archives pertaining to architecture and design in the global south.
      “Archives are themselves instruments of power, and West African and Indian architects are not as prominent in established archives, which many institutions have now realised and are working to address,” Turner explained.
      “Tropical modernism was very much a co-creation with local architects who we have sought to name – all of whom should be much better known, but are excluded from established canons.”
      The display will inhabit the V&A’s Porter Gallery until 22 September 2024Bringing tropical modernism back into contemporary discourse was also important to the V&A as a timely investigation of low-tech and passive design strategies.
      “Tropical modernism was a climate responsive architecture – it sought to work with rather than against climate,” Turner said.
      “As we face an era of climate change, it is important that tropical modernism’s scientifically informed principles of passive cooling are reexamined and reinvented for our age,” he added.
      “I hope that people will be interested to learn more about these moments of post-colonial excitement and opportunity, and the struggle by which these hard-earned freedoms were won.”
      A 28-minute video captures footage of remaining tropical modernist structures at the end of the exhibitionThe V&A museum in South Kensington houses permanent national collections alongside a series of temporary activations and exhibitions.
      As part of London Design Festival 2023, the museum hosted a furniture display crafted from an Alfa Romeo car by Andu Masebo and earlier in the year, architect Shahed Saleem created a pavilion in the shape of a mosque at the V&A as part of 2023’s Ramadan Festival.
      The photography is courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
      Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence will run from 2 March to 22 September 2024 at the V&A Museum in London. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit the Dezeen Events Guide.

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