Author: Chris Earl
-
Making and Design: two perspectives
Hand and Eye A couple of recent events both link making and design. First a conference on Mathematics and Architecture rather at the edge of this blog and second an exhibition of Lucie Rie pots, perhaps closer to its centre. The Nexus Conference on Mathematics and Architecture takes place 12-14 June, 2023 in Turin. This […]
-
Tom Karen
Letchworth Garden City Museum has been hosting an exhibition of the work of designer Tom Karen over the past year. It is still on show and worth a visit. Sadly, Tom Karen died recently, aged 96. This exhibition is a chance to catch up on a lifetime of designing. Many iconic contributions came from his […]
-
Shifting the design curriculum
First, a note on the accompanying pictures of constructions by two distinguished woman artists, Mary Martin and Gillian Wise. Sadly Gillian succumbed to C19 in April this year. Mary Martin belonged to the previous generation. Gillian’s public artwork at the Barbican, on the staircase down to the cinema, may be familiar from OU London […]
-
Design and Culture
Design and Culture This journal Design and Culture might we worth a look. There are a multitude of questions about how Design plays out in topical issues of Culture and cultures. Art is sometimes enshrined as the embodiment of Culture; reposing timeless and universal. Another ‘culture’ relative to time, place and people, fights for space […]
-
A swiss excursion in minimal design
Visited a couple of Swiss buildings recently which motivated some thoughts on minimal Design. Corbusier designed a lovely lakeside ‘Petite Maison’ for his parents near Vevey, Switzerland. It was built in 1923, to minimal principles (although its appearance is complexified by later cladding). The architectural composition is linear along the lake shore with views to the […]
-
Fashion UK – sustainability and ethics
High profile leaders from the Fashion Industry meet with politicians and academics in Westminster on 20 November 2019 to discuss sustainability and ethics in fashion. This conference follows a report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee in February 2019. Design is central to meeting industry sustainability goals. It is tremendous that these issues […]
-
Models
Something on models caught my eye at a conference inspired by the work of Lionel March Professor of Design at the OU 1976-1981. Several people from the OU past and present, Phil Steadman (UCL), George Stiny (MIT), Ramesh Krishnamurthi (CMU) and Iestyn Jowers, joined colleagues from around the world including his former students Helen Couclelis (UC Santa […]
-
Diagrams and design – soft thoughts.
Here is a diagram taken from a recent article in Journal of Cleaner Production which will be familiar with some readers. Are such diagrams useful in designing? Ehsan N et al 2017 Boundary matters: the potential of system dynamics to support sustainability? Journal of Cleaner Production, 140(1) 312-323 I am not talking about sketches of […]
-
Concrete hippos
Milton Keynes eat your heart out – New Town artworks at Killingworth (North Tyneside). Great buildings still – Gas Research Lab and Lion Brush Works (Ryder and Yates) as well as Ralph Erskine houses by the lake.