DeTnk - Articles

In memory of Sir Terence Conran

Collecting Design — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 07:23:49 +0100

Innovative designer Sir Terence Conran and his groundbreaking Habitat stores were as much a part of the swinging 60s as mini-skirts, The Beatles and Mary Quant.

Later, he brought the same flair to restaurants and architecture, driven by what seemed to be an inexhaustible store of energy.

The Vulnerabilities of Our Cities and How to Build a Resilient Architecture - Lessons from 2020

Collecting Design — Wed, 20 May 2020 17:27:03 +0100

2020 has unveiled the vulnerability of our social interactions in cities.

How do you build a city for a pandemic?

Collecting Design — Mon, 18 May 2020 15:57:27 +0100

The new coronavirus has spread rapidly in cities around the globe. How might the virus make us think differently about urban design in the future?

The pandemic has turned the world outside our doorsteps into a newly formed wilderness. Public spaces are now areas to be ventured into sparingly, except by essential workers, so for most of us our worlds have shrunk to the size of our homes.

Milan Design Week - Fashion and Furniture

Collecting Design — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:34:52 +0100

Collaborations between the worlds of fashion and furniture have been increasingly visible at Milan Design Week and this year has been no exception. Big fashion houses and luxury car brands in partnership with established home-ware designers were making the big statements this year with an array of spectacular installations and eye-catching displays across the city.

A Gilded Age at Architectural Digest

Collecting Design — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 07:16:48 +0000

In the early 1980s, when I was an editor at Condé Nast’s House & Garden magazine, my colleagues and I were perturbed by an idée fixe of the company’s legendary editorial director, Alexander Liberman.

Ugliness Is Underrated: Ugly Design

Collecting Design — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 11:39:31 +0100

I covet a piece of technology that never existed and likely never will. I can’t stop thinking about it. I covet the seashell e-reader from the 2014 film It Follows. The movie is one of my all-time favorites because it so fluidly combines three of my main interests: awkward sex, sudden death, and timeless design.

Like something from Pompeii' – Battersea Arts Centre's scorching resurrection

Collecting Design — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 10:06:28 +0100

At Battersea Arts Centre it can be hard to tell where the audience stops and the acting begins. The rambling Victorian town hall in south London, home to experimental theatre since the 1970s, has long revelled in blurring the boundaries of stage and seat, mingling performers with guests and presenting plays on landings, in the bar and even in its offices.

"An Instrument for Greater Equity." More Guidance from a Leader on Creative Placemaking

Collecting Design — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 11:28:06 +0100

Earlier this year, the Kresge Foundation published the first in a series of white papers to help grantmakers and practitioners more successfully integrate arts and culture into community development. Given the foundation’s role as a leader in the field in creative placemaking and aligning the arts with social justice, inequality and urban development, the announcement was timely and important.

The inflatable ‘antepavilion’ by Thomas Randall-Page and Benedetta Rogers is afloat on the Regents Canal

Collecting Design — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 18:12:36 +0100

Moored alongside a collection of artists’ studios on Regents Canal in east London, the Architecture Foundation’s second annual ‘antepavilion’ comprises a bulbous yellow inflatable enclosure emerging out of the hull of a 1930s barge.

Enter the Matrix: An Interview with Ken Isaacs

Collecting Design — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 10:25:56 +0100

The highly individual practice of American architect and designer Ken Isaacs (born 1927, Peoria, Illinois) challenged conventional definitions of modernism through designs that sought radical solutions to the spatial and environmental challenges of modern life.