5 New Design Exhibitions for July 2015

It being July, there is an obvious temptation to search for new design and architecture exhibitions opening near the coast, maybe in interesting seaside holiday locations. That four of our five tips for July 2015 are indeed being staged a flip-flops throw from the beach is genuinely more by chance than design.

Is however very, very welcome.

“Rygalik: The Heart of Things” at Gdynia City Museum, Gdynia, Poland

The first time we met Tomek and Gosia Rygalik they were making tables out of old bread. It was a project in context of Vienna Design Week, not an act of desperation. And although through their regular installations and events exploring the connection between design, food and dining, edibles remain a central feature of the studio’s work, recent years have seen Studio Rygalik quietly establish themselves as one of the most interesting and intelligent furniture design studios in Poland. If not Europe. Projects such as the Bull bar stool for Moroso, Hover collection for PROFIm or Gnu chair for Comforty neatly underscoring the uncomplicated coherence of the studio’s design approach. Beyond food and furniture, Studio Rygalik have realised diverse interior design and exhibition design projects and have produced numerous films, including the ever charming cinematic celebration of the Vitra miniatures released to mark the collection’s 20th anniversary.
In context of their “Polish Designs Polish Designers” series the Gdynia City Museum are celebrating the work of Studio Rygalik with a solo exhibition that promises to explore all aspects of the studio’s output and thus provide a detailed, and hopefully informative, insight into this, still young, studio.

Rygalik: The Heart of Things opens at Gdynia City Museum, ul. Zawiszy Czarnego 1, 81-374 Gdynia on Saturday July 4th and runs until Sunday October 4th

Furniture by Studio Rygalik, as seen at the Polnisches Institut Berlin during Berlin Design Week 2014

“TAP – Portugal in the air” at the MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda, Lisbon, Portugal

Long before flying became as everyday as catching the bus it was without question one of life’s more elegant mysteries; today only the prices charged by airport restaurants and bars remind us of the days when flying was a privilege for the stupidly rich. An important contribution to the sense of luxury that surrounded flying in what we suppose one must retrospectively refer to as the “golden years” was that made by the designers who, uninhibited by questions of cost, created the perfect backdrop to that short escape from reality. Alexander Girard‘s work with Braniff in America or Robin and Lucienne Day for BOAC in the UK being perhaps the best known collaborations in terms of aircraft interiors; outwith the aircraft Eero Saarinen‘s 1962 TWA Flight Center at New York’s JFK airport graphically captured America’s buoyant spirit on its way to the brave new future, Otl Aicher’s graphic and corporate identity work for Lufthansa set new standards for a new age, while from Angola to New York Maria Keil’s azulejos brought the spirit of Portugal to the global offices and lounges of the state airline TAP. And it is to the history of design at TAP, and the role that design played in establishing ideas about contemporary Portugal overseas, that the Museu do Design e da Moda in Lisbon are dedicating a special exhibition. Focussing on aspects such as, for example, uniforms, posters, corporative identity cutlery and other objects found on board, the exhibition promises an exploration of the development of design at TAP since its establishment in 1945 and by extrapolation an exploration of how TAP has presented Portugal to the rest of the world since 1945. If you don’t happen to be in Portugal, getting there will invariably involve a flying plastic bus. We recommend taking sandwiches.

TAP – Portugal in the air opens at the MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda, Rua Augusta, nº 24, 1100-053 Lisbon on Wednesday July 15th and runs until Saturday October 24th

TAP – Portugal in the air at the MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda, Lisbon, Portugal

“Secret Compartments” at the Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

We all have things we want to hide. And no not just bad things. Sometimes its good things – a surprise present for a loved one or unexpected twist in an unhappy tale; sometimes innocuous things – a guest bed in the living room or a clothes drier in the kitchen; and sometimes bad, bad things. But let’s not go there.

By way of exploring the concept of “hiding” in design, and simultaneously exploring some of the less frequently visited corners of their collection, the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main asked 30 international experts to each select one item from the museum’s collection which for them embodies something about the nature and condition of hiding, the ways by which we hide, the motivations for hiding and how designers and architects have aided and abetted us and thus made an otherwise mundane process aesthetically pleasing or functionally simple.

Secret Compartments opens at the Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17, 60594 Frankfurt am Main on Thursday July 23rd and runs until Sunday March 6th

We had a really good photo, hid it for safety, and now can’t find it………

“ECAL at Appartement 50”, Cité Radieuse, Marseille, France

In 1952 Le Corbusier completed Cité Radieuse in Marseille; the first of his so-called Unité d’habitation apartment blocks and unquestionably one of the clearest expressions of Le Corbusier’s vision of architecture built for humans according to human proportions. In 2008 Jean-Marc Drut and Patrick Blauwart, owners of Appartement 50, Cité Radieuse, invited Jasper Morrison to create an interior design inspired by and reflective of the space, the building and Le Corbusier. Intervening years have seen the likes of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Konstantin Grcic tackle the challenge and this year it is the turn of students from the ECAL Lausanne. Presenting a range of products for both interior and exterior ECAL at Appartement 50 is as much a chance to get to know one of the more interesting moments of modernist architecture as it a chance to see some new student works. Albeit some very interesting student works to judge by the press photos……

ECAL at Appartement 50 opens at Unité d’habitation Le Corbusier, Appartement 50 / 5ème rue, 280 Boulevard Michelet 13008 Marseille on Saturday July 4th and runs until Sunday July 19th

ECAL at Appartement 50. Overview (Photo © ECAL/ Michel Bonvin)

“Urban Shade in Israel” at the Design Museum Holon, Israel

Vernacularly, casting a shadow is rarely considered good.

Yet shadow provides respite from the sun. Which is inherently good.

But is the provision of shadow optimally considered in urban planning? What role does the subsequent shadow play for architects and planners? How can shade best be provided?

Presenting the results of a three year research project by the Design Museum Holon and Beracha Foundation, Urban Shade in Israel explores such and similar questions in context of Israel. A land with more need than most for urban shadow.

In addition to exhibitions exploring the “history” of urban shade in Israel, its role and the implications of shadow, and its absence, on daily life in Israel, the exhibition also promises an interactive element to explain how individuals can affect the amount of shade available while public installations at five sites in Holon aim to make the theory visible.
Although clearly focussed on the situation in Israel, the topics explored and the conclusions reached are, we would imagine, universally applicable and therefore of interest and relevance to all.

Unless that is you live in ……… (we’ll leave you to complete the joke as you feel appropriate)

Urban Shade in Israel opens at the Design Museum Holon, Pinhas Eilon St. 8 Holon on Saturday July 4th and runs until Saturday October 31st

Shade, and lack of, in Tel Aviv