The month of March takes its name from the Roman month of Martius which in turn takes its name from the Roman God of War, Mārs.
As does the planet Mars which a small group of individuals appear phenomenally keen to get to as quickly as possible. Ideally quicker. If that is because they suspect the presence of rare earths, are looking for new regions to fight over by way of honouring Mārs, or simply read far too many comics as children and believe it is the unavoidable fate of humans to visit Mars, is unclear. Clear alone is that they are very keen to get there.
Not that one needs visit Mars to expand the boundaries of human society, one can also visit an architecture or design exhibition, an experience that is, invariably, a launch pad for a speculative, intellectual, philosophical, abstract voyage to places unknown, possibilities unthought, and whose atmosphere is as a rule much more supportive for humanity than that of Mars.
Our five locations for forgetting about the contemporary apostles of Mārs for a couple of hours, and for exploring beyond the the known borders of human society, can be found in Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Andover and Hornu.......
While humans' early ancestors lived in trees, humans themselves have tended to live in what is left over from trees after we chop them down and saw them up. But what if we lived with trees? Should we live with trees? It is desirable that we live with trees? How does one live equitably with trees?
Such, and similar, questions promise to be at the core of Trees, Time, Architecture! and its exploration of uses of, and relationships with, trees in architecture and urban/social spaces beyond the planks, posts, beams and doors that has traditionally been wood's role in architecture and urban design.
An exploration that not only promises to be international in breadth, but, as the title implies, also to reflect on temporal aspects, the longevity of trees when we don't kill them, an arboricide global warming is meaning we're achieving at an ever greater scale, with all the further problems that will bring with it; and that via projects practical and speculative, tangible and intangible, such as, for example, the living root bridges of the Khasi peoples of India as also met in All Hands On: Basketry at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin; Finnish artist Ilkka Halso's project Naturale which imagines trees, and further materials of natural landscapes, stored in vast industrial warehouses, ready to be deployed in the service of humans; or the so-called Arbor Kitchen, a combination of, amongst other elements, 32 London plane trees, photogrammetric point clouds and glass fibre reinforced plastic shingles that provide a roof for a tree bordered social area at Neue Kunst am Ried Sculpture Park, and an Arbor Kitchen project by architecture students at the TU München.
And thus an exploration that should not only provide for differentiated insights into human relationships with trees but also contribute to a better formulating of the questions we needs must pose of future relationships between the human built environment and the natural environment.
Trees, Time, Architecture! is scheduled to open at the Architekturmuseum der TU München, Barer Str. 40, 80333 Munich on Thursday March 13th and run until Sunday September 14th. Further details can be found at www.architekturmuseum.de
Born in Paris in 1879 Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann counts among the most influential interior architects and furniture designers in the development and ascendency of Art Déco in the France of the 1920s and 30s. An influence he also exerted through his designs for his family's mirror, paint and wallpaper business, a business Jacques-Émile took over following his father's death in 1907; and mirrors, paint and wallpaper which were of key importance to the novel interior expressions of the period.
And wallpaper that will be the primary focus of Ruhlmann décorateur via a presentation that alongside samples of wallpaper designs by Ruhlmann both for the family business and other contemporaneous French manufactures and photos, including of Ruhlmann's interiors for three of the national residences of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, an institution that is in itself instructive and informative in context of the developments in architecture and design of the 1920s and 30s, also promises to present digitalised versions of Ruhlmann's 26 sketch books in which he not only developed his designs but also graphically records those sources of inspiration he met out and about. Sketch books which, in conjunction with the realised works, should offer deeper insights into Ruhlmann's processes and approaches.
Thus a presentation that should not only allow one to better place Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann in the (hi)story of design but also allow for more nuanced reflections on the role and function of wallpaper in not just the interiors of the 1920s and 30s but in the development of interior design as an independent discipline in the 1920s and 30s. While also allowing for reflections on the contemporary use, role and function of wallpaper.
Ruhlmann décorateur is scheduled to open at Musée des Arts décoratifs, 107, rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris on Wednesday March 12th and run until Sunday June 1st. Further details can be found at https://madparis.fr
Although he died at the tragically young age of 55, an age before many architects have reached their full potential, Gunnar Asplund was without question one of the defining architects, defining creative voices, of 20th century Sweden. An architect who first found his voice in context of the Neoclassical influenced Swedish Grace of the 1920s, a voice that changed tone somewhat in context of its call for a more Functionalist approach to architecture and design in the 1930s; if a change of tone that remained true many of the articulations, and much of the vocabulary and syntax, of the younger Asplund.
A change of tone that is most instructive in context of a Sweden seeking its way forward in context of the rise of machines, the advances of industrialisation and the shifting demographics of the period.
And a change of tone that can be approached in and by projects such as, and amongst many others, his 1936 extension of Gothenburg City Hall, his architecture for the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, that so important event in the development of Functionalist Modernist positions, and in which context Asplund also co-authored the text acceptera, if one so will, a manifesto, whose written arguments accompanied the physical arguments of the exhibition buildings and which demanded that Swedes acceptera, accept, the realities as they are, for only through acceptance can one respond meaningfully. And a change of tone that can be also approached in his mid-1920s Stadsbibliotek in Stockholm, a work that is very much inspired by the past but also predicts elements of the re-imaginings of the Functionalist Modernism of the day that were still to come and therefore not only captures the flow of time in its strict geometric juxtapose, but also reinforces the pure nonsense of architectural epochs and academic pigeon-holing.
Works that, we presume, will feature in Gunnar Asplund 1885-1940, but we don't know for certain, the Konstakademien aren't giving much away in advance. All we do know for certain is that the Konstakademien's showcase is being staged as a component of the launch of a new book by the architecture historian Eva Eriksson, and thus a showcase that while it may not be as expansive in terms of objects and texts as a full-scale Asplund retrospective, should still provide for an introduction to, and a stimulation to better approach, an architect and designer who not only greatly contributed to the shaping of 20th century Sweden, but continues to inform 21st century Sweden.
Gunnar Asplund 1885-1940 is scheduled to open at Konstakademien, Fredsgatan 12, 111 52 Stockholm on Saturday March 22nd and run until Saturday May 3rd. Further details can be found at https://konstakademien.se
Sited, for want a of a better description, in the middle of nowhere in Southern England, Andover was a town of around 18,000 residents when, in the wake of the 1939-45 War, the UK government declared it a so-called Overspill Town, one of several towns that were either expanded or newly created by way of housing those whose homes had been lost or damaged as a result of War time bombings. And also as a method of adjusting the population distribution of England through relocating individuals from an overcrowded city to undecrowded rural locations.
An immediate post-War urban rebuilding period that in many regards forced Functionalist Modernist architectural and urban planning principles on an England that had proved resistant pre-War; and that in many regards paved the way for those who later not only challenged those tenets but the principle of what architecture and urban planning is on which they are based. And a period that structurally and socially still defines many of those Overspill Towns.
Including Andover?
Based on the results of a 12 month community based research project by Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA) An Overspill Story promises to explain and explore not only how Andover grew, nor only the consequences of that growth on both those who had lived there previously, those relocated and the natural environment in and around the city, but also where the enforced, planned growth has brought the contemporary Andover. And thereby should not only allow for a better understanding of the contemporary Andover, but for all allow the contemporary Andover to serve as an example, a case study, for an age when across Europe thoughts on how to ease the overcrowding and densification of a few major urban centres are becoming ever more acute, and where questions of expanding existing rural towns and building new ones by way of achieving a more sustainable distribution of a (invariably expanding) population are being more actively considered.
And thus should also help elucidate that even those in the middle of nowhere have interesting tales to tell and can contribute to debates and discussions. If asked.
Andover: An Overspill Story is scheduled to open at Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age, 6 Church Close, Andover SP10 1DP on Friday March 14th and run until Sunday April 27th. Further details can be found at www.hampshireculture.org.uk
A graduate of La Cambre, Brussels, Lucile Soufflet's canon is broad but unquestionably dominated, physically and conceptually, by her reflections on and designs for public spaces, not least her urban furniture designs, a genre of furniture design that despite the very obvious importance and centrality to us all, collectively and individually, is only rarely reflected on to the degree Lucile does, is only rarely at the centre of discourses on urban spaces.
Reflections and positions Common Grounds promises to both explore via photographs, videos, plans, etc of Lucile's public spaces, and we suspect via one or the other, (out-of-context but still informative) object and also to juxtapose with the more private space of Lucile's workshop as represented by a presentation of samples, models, sketches et al and which as a whole should not only provide for insights into the designer behind the designs, but also allow for an expanding of the review of her work beyond the public seating that is so central to it.
Public seating one can also enjoy in context of the four benches Lucile has realised for the Centre for Innovation and Design at Grand-Hornu in context of Common Grounds.
And thus a presentation that should allow not only for an introduction to Lucile Soufflet but for all allow for more nuanced and focussed reflections on urban furniture, the role of urban furniture in defining and opening an urban space, and the question why we don't all invest more time and effort in thinking about urban furniture. Why doesn’t the design of urban spaces involve from its very beginnings more intensive consideration on the furniture of urban spaces much as the design of interior spaces is unimaginable without considerations on furniture?
Common Grounds. Lucile Soufflet is scheduled to open at the Centre for Innovation and Design at Grand-Hornu, Site du Grand-Hornu, Rue Sainte-Louise 82, 7301 Hornu on Sunday March 16th and run until Sunday August 24th. Further details can be found at www.cid-grand-hornu.be
