Miles Gould
Design Journal

@MilesGould
www.milesgould.com
hello@milesgould.com

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  MVRDV’s New Library

  A lower-middle class suburb of Rotterdam sees Book Mountain, a new library and town center by MVRDV. Spijkenisse, a quiet neighborhood across from the city’s busy industrial port, has a 10% illiteracy rate—Book Mountain, explains the architects, is an “advertisement for reading.”

  The project took nearly a decade to complete, and cost $39 million. The massive glass-and-timber building houses around almost 10,000 feet of bookshelves, ramping upwards in a continuous “mountain” that ends at the roof, where a cafe gives visitors views of the neighborhood and port. Around it, a mixed-use development of 42 affordable housing units, a parking lot, and various commercial spaces form a red brick podium for the library, which glows like a beacon at night.

  “The exterior of the library refers in shape and materiality to the traditional Dutch Farm,” explain the architects. “It’s a reminder of the towns agricultural past, which has grown from farming village to Ville Nouvelle in the past 40 years.”

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  Terunobu Fujimori

  There is something viscerally appealing about the work of Terunobu Fujimori. As an architectural historian, he spent his formative years becoming deeply well-versed in the traditions and rich heritage of the field, but it wasn’t until 1991 at the ripe age of 44, that he designed his first building. His ever-growing repertoire represents a compelling middle ground between magic and maturity—it’s as if his creations emerged, fully formed in an earth-toned palate of natural materials, from the pages of a long-lost folk tale where strangely shaped teahouses stand high above the ground on spindly tree trunks, or individual rooms tower over the roof of a charred-wood house above.

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  Usain Bolt: Behind the lens

  After winning gold in the 200m, Usain Bolt took Swedish newspaper photographer Jimmy Wixtrom’s camera and began photographing his surroundings. The shots capture the Olympic Stadium, teammate Blake as well as the international press. 

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  Risk

  When my daughter Clara was six or seven years old, she came home from school one day with a gold star. The star wasn’t for an assignment or a test; she received this reward for taking a risk. This unconventional praise opened my eyes to the benefits of rewarding the right kind of risk. In the context of culture, art and design in particular, risk plays a critical role in fostering innovation and creativity. Just look at the example of Danny Boyle. Without risk, and risk-takers, we lose “the cutting edge”, we lose the breakthroughs, we replace red with beige, wasabi with vanilla.

  In order to expand and develop our creative society we need to hand out more gold stars for those willing to venture into the unknown and embrace the outcome. Those in the creative industries still have a higher tolerance for risk, it is part of their job description. However, some of the institutions that work with designers, artists and creative thinkers could stand to learn from their creative colleagues. In the US, museums are often operated to ensure the board of directors is pleased. Because the US system is run more like a private business, risk is eliminated rather than explored or embraced. The “arms length” system in the UK allows for a certain degree of freedom. Each institution can take more risks with things like collections, exhibitions, education and even community outreach. Here risk is not pushed to the margins and eliminated, it is embraced as a necessary part of staying relevant and growing.

  Risk also provides the grounds for conflict and dialogue, both important parts of culture. Last week I went to see The Winter’s Tale performed by Propeller, an innovative theatre company.  Their interpretation of Shakespeare’s work would certainly be considered risky but that is what made the performance unique and engaged a more youthful audience. Risk is really the driving force behind change.

  For another example of how risk benefits cultural development we need not look further than South Kensington. It was by no means clear that the Great Exhibition of 1851 would be such a phenomenal success and lead to the construction of so many world class institutions, from the Royal Albert Hall to the V&A. The Glass Palace, which housed the Great Exhibition, was another tremendous risk given that the technology to build the structure had yet to be developed. Without risk we would not be able to enjoy this magnificent centre for art, design, science and culture.

  To continue in this spirit of risk-taking, the V&A will try and use a yet-to-be made type of ceramic tile in the construction of our new grand entrance on Exhibition Road. The architect, Amanda Levete, has created an amazing space that will incorporate cutting edge ceramic technology, an industry with a very significant history in the UK. By taking this risk we are trying to support and promote the creativity of those in the ceramics industry in the UK.

  Taking a risk is not about throwing caution to the wind, it is about freeing the decisions you make from the fear of their outcomes. The question is then, how can we reward those who take the risks necessary to keep things interesting, and give our culture the creative energy it needs?

  By Martin Roth Director of the V&A

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  UTOPIA IS POSSIBLE. ICSID. EIVISSA, 1971

  The 7th Congress of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), organised by the Agrupació de Disseny Industrial del Foment de les Arts Decoratives (ADI/FAD), was held in Eivissa (Ibiza) from 14–16 October 1971. What might have been a conventional professional meeting became, in the Spanish context, an unprecedented event. For three days, what the ICSID did in Eivissa was not just an open congress where professionals and students could meet and debate; it was a point of convergence between design and the most experimental forms of art and architecture at the time in Spain. In this sense, it preceded the Encuentros de Pamplona (Pamplona Meetings) that took place the following year, and which could be seen as a prolongation in an urban context of the innovative spirit that the ICSID had developed in a natural environment. The exhibition at the MACBA is an attempt to recreate that event and the ideas that are still relevant today: sustainability, participation, solidarity, new relations between industry and society, and the liberating powers of art. It includes documentary material, photographs and films, from various archives and from the MACBA Collection.

  
  

• Ikea imagines a world without textiles

  You’ve had it too good for too long and you don’t even know it. That pillow you slept on last night, those undies snuggling your nether regions, the very clothes on your back—swap all of that with cacti, aluminum foil, and cardboard and welcome to what your life would be like without textiles.

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