5 New Design Exhibitions for August 2015

As Noël Coward famously observed, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, and it takes a similarly laissez-faire approach to life to open an exhibition in August. Everyone, but everyone, it would appear is on holiday. Or has at least like Coward’s caribous, lain down for a snooze.

Which is probably why the majority of the following five exhibitions open in late August, so after the sun has ceased to be much too sultry such that one must avoid its ultry-violet ray.

“Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles” at the A+D Architecture Museum Los Angeles, USA

For their inaugural exhibition in their new home in Los Angeles somewhat distressingly titled “Arts District” the A+D Architecture Museum Los Angeles have chosen to visit a well worn but never tiring genre of architecture exhibition – the future study. Specifically the museum have asked six Los Angeles based architecture offices to create a domestic redevelopment solution for strip of land in the north of the city which responds to issues such as, for example, decreasing land availability, increasing density, evolving diversity and contemporary environmental considerations. Clearly a very site specific challenge, the hope is however that the research the architects undertake will result in new visions of future urban housing solutions which are universally applicable, or at least more widely applicable than to a narrow strip of land in north Los Angeles.

Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles opens at the A+D Architecture Museum Los Angeles, 900 East 4th St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 on Thursday August 20th and runs until Friday November 6th

Shelter Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles at the A+D Architecture Museum Los Angeles USA

“Lost and Found in Oranienbaum” at Ampelhaus, Oranienbaum, Germany

If we’re completely honest a few months ago we doubted that there would be a fourth season at Ampelhaus, too much appeared to be happening elsewhere and we couldn’t imagine that the main players would find the time to create a new exhibition. Thankfully we were proved wrong and for their 2015 exhibition Ampelhaus present works by eight designers and eight artists created in the course and context of a residency in Oranienbaum. And that is all we can say. Other than the exhibition will feature works by, amongst others, Bora Hong, Joost Goudriaan, Birgit Severin, Nienke Jansen and Giuseppe Licari and thus promises the represent the eclectic mix of styles, approaches and philosophies that makes the Ampelhaus exhibitions so unique, challenging and worth visiting.

Lost and Found in Oranienbaum opens at Ampelhaus, Brauerstraße 33, 06785 Oranienbaum on Saturday August 28th and runs until Saturday September 26th

Ampelhaus, Oranienbaum

“A New Layer. Taiwanese lacquer art seen through Swedish eyes” at The Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden

Oriental lacquerware not only has a long tradition in arts and crafts but has an equally long tradition in acting as a bridge between eastern and western cultures and of inspiring designers and craftspeople of all backgrounds, perhaps most famously the Irish designer Eileen Gray who’s first experience with product design was through Japanese lacquerware. Continuing this long tradition the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg and the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute paired five Swedish design studios with Taiwanese craftspeople and with the brief to develop a new product. The results of this exchange and combined design process is a collection of seating, storage and purely decorative items. We don’t expect anything ground breaking but certainly thought provoking. And for all inspiring.

A New Layer. Taiwanese lacquer art seen through Swedish eyes opens at The Röhsska Museum Vasagatan 39, 411 37 Gothenburg on Tuesday August 25th and runs until Sunday October 4th

A New Layer Taiwanese lacquer art seen through Swedish eyes at The Röhsska Museum Gothenburg Sweden

“TOYSSIMI. 100 Kids + 100 Designer = 100 extraordinary toys and more” at the Triennale Design Museum Milan, Italy

Very occasionally the background idea to a design exhibition is every bit as endearing as the end result. Such as with TOYSSIMI at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum. Organised in conjunction with the ilVespaio “creative workshop” the project paired a designer with a child and set the duo the brief of developing a toy. The majority of the children involved were at the time of the project in various Italian children’s hospitals and the designers turned up with a suitcase full of materials and let the child’s wishes and imaginations lead if not dictate the creative process; the experience and design understanding of the designer being called upon to ensure a realisation that was as practical and functional as it matched the child’s vision. As such the end results per se aren’t so important, much more interesting is what the results tell us about contemporary toy design, in how far modem toys meet the imagination of modern kids, in how far the imaginations of modern kids meet the imaginations of kids from generations gone…. and that following the end of the exhibition all 100 toys will be auctioned, the proceeds going to Amani, a non-profit organisation working with orphaned and vulnerable children in Kenya and Zambia.

TOYSSIMI. 100 Kids + 100 Designer = 100 extraordinary toys and more opened at the Triennale Design Museum, Viale Alemagna, 6, 20121, Milan on Friday June 24th and runs until Friday September 11th

TOYSSIMI. 100 Kids + 100 Designer = 100 extraordinary toys and more at the Triennale Design Museum Milan Italy

“Lennart Mänd – Bindings” at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art, Tallinn, Estonia

It is probably fair to say that in a “normal” month a bookbinding exhibition probably wouldn’t make it into our top five. Not because it is not interesting or worthy, but because there would be five other exhibitions which were, in our, singular, opinion, more interesting and more worthy. And so it is perhaps good that the Estonian Museum of Applied Art’s chose to open Lennart Mänd’s exploration of contemporary bookbinding in August. What particularly attracts us to the exhibition is the promise of new techniques particularly suitable for limited editions – as our world becomes ever more digital the appreciation of a well-made functional analogue products will increase, including the appreciation of a well designed, and well bound book. Lennart Mänd – Bindings sounds like an excellent place to start gathering ideas for that coming future. On show in the so-called Staircase Gallery it is probably not extensive enough to be worth travelling extra to Tallinn to view, but should you be in the Estonian capital it should be worth taking the time to have a look.

Lennart Mänd – Bindings opens at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, 17 Lai Street, 10133 Tallinn, Estonia on Friday August 28th and runs until Sunday October 25th.