The Design Line: 30 July - 5 August
Welcome to this week’s Design Line, where we celebrate the appointment of Muyiwa Oki at RIBA, raise an eyebrow at the cancellation of Design Miami Paris, delve into the role of sports bras in athletic success, and much more.
The gilets jaunes take Miami!
It was supposed to be “the natural next step in Design Miami's evolution”: a new edition of the leading collectible design fair, hosted in the heart of Paris for autumn 2022. Yet plans for Design Miami Paris collapsed this week, after the city’s new police commissioner Laurent Nunez refused permission for the event to be hosted in Place de la Concorde. Citing “security problems” (the venue is close to the Élysée Palace and the US embassy), Le Monde reported that permissions had been refused over fears that “demonstrations of the ‘gilets jaunes’ type" would be drawn to the event. Ridiculous scaremongering if you ask us: after all, what on Earth would draw protests surrounding rapidly growing economic disparity to an event premised on a “signature, curated mix of high-end design commerce and culture” (read: very expensive stuff)? Politics aside for one moment, the event’s cancellation is a pity: for those who can stomach the socioeconomic systems behind collectible art and design, Design Miami is a hotbed for interesting, technically daring design work that can otherwise struggle to find a home. Nevertheless, the fair has not abandoned its plans for Paris. While a spokesperson for the event noted that the “unexpected challenges to public event permitting in Paris” had forced a timeline to find a venue that was “too short to proceed this autumn”, a new edition is currently being planned for 2023.
German (energy) efficiency
The maelstrom of multiple crises currently converging on the world are looking more than a little worrying. Climate change causing more extreme weather, combined with potential gas shortages resulting from Russia’s aggressive foreign policy and growing inflation has left Europe looking at a long, cold winter for which many countries seem unprepared. Joke about German efficiency all you like, but at least Germany has a sensible plan for upgrading building designs now to save money, energy and carbon emissions in the long run. Germany’s government has earmarked €56.3bn of its €177.5bn Climate Transformation Fund for increasing the energy efficiency of its buildings, with a focus on upgrading the least efficient structures first. Currently 30 per cent of the country’s total energy consumption is used heating spaces and water, so retrofitting homes and businesses to make them more efficient is good for both the planet and Germany’s fiscal policy. The move is additionally interesting because it marks a shift away from building new energy efficient buildings and towards working with what the country already has. Retrofitting existing stock is a huge challenge across Europe, where an estimated 75 per cent of buildings were constructed before EU climate regulations were in place. Better insulated homes will keep people warm and the planet cool. Welcome to the make do and mend era of the Anthropocene.
Supporting the team
It’s been a hell of a week for sports bras. Ever since Chloe Kelly scored the goal that saw England win Euro 2022, celebrating by taking her shirt off to reveal a Nike sports bra beneath, sales of the garments are reported to have risen by 1,590 per cent, with thousands drawing inspiration from the heroics of the tournament (as author Lucy Ward noted on Twitter, images of Kelly celebrating have huge social significance: “This is a woman’s body – not for sex or show – just for the sheer joy of what she can do and the power and skill she has.”) In the aftermath of England's victory, analysis fell upon the squad’s bras, with the players having been equipped with personalised prescriptions to help improve comfort and support during games. “[Did] prescription bras help Lionesses to Euro 2022 glory?” The Guardian asked, with Joanna Wakefield-Scurr of the University of Portsmouth, who led the project to design bras for the England squad, noting that “sports bras have performance benefits, comfort benefits and health benefits, so I would say they’re just as important for exercising females as trainers.” It was an important reminder of the role that design and technology can play in opening up access to sport (research has shown that ill-fitting bras can hamper athletic performance and cause pain) and the importance of ensuring that sport caters to bodies of all kinds. In this spirit, further good news came with the arrival of a maternity sportswear collection designed by Adidas with Stella McCartney, including the brand’s first performance nursing bra: a design that incorporates a clip in the bra's strap to let wearers breastfeed or pump easily and discreetly. Moving forward, let’s hope that sport can do even more to provide people with the support they need to participate.
Reasons to be cheerful: Muyiwa Oki (image: RIBA).
A win for workers
It’s rare to feel joy at election news these days, so hooray for Muyiwa Oki, the new president-elect of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects). Oki has made history as the first Black architect to take the top job in the institution’s 188-year history. At just 31, he will also be the youngest ever RIBA president when he takes over the role in 2023. The news has been welcomed by organisers and activists campaigning for fairer conditions in the industry given that, crucially, Oki is a worker, not a boss (unlike current RIBA president Simon Allford, co-director of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and a second-generation architect, who has alienated many RIBA members with his milquetoast stance on issues such as the Bartlett abuse scandal). “I hope this is the start of many great things to come for those who feel disenfranchised and under-represented,” Oki told the Architects’ Journal, where he thanked the “grassroots movement whose support and passion offered a platform to represent architectural workers.” Oki, who previously worked for Grimshaw where he founded a multi-ethnic group and allies network, has promised to focus on helping younger RIBA members achieve a better work/life balance – a big issue in an industry notorious for long hours, low wages and exploitative overtime systems. Here’s to designing a more hopeful future.
Air conditioning with conditions
It is no secret that the world has been hot this summer and, as temperatures have soared in the northern hemisphere, blessed relief has come in the form of air conditioning, with many retreating indoors to beat the heat. Yet beware of those who come bearing gifts! Air conditioning and electric fans are believed to account for around 10 per cent of global electricity usage and, as we all know, consuming energy is only making the heat worse. Kudos to Spain, then, which this week past temporary measures to limit usage of air conditioning and heating in public buildings, shopping centres, cinemas, theatres, rail stations and airports. Under the new rules – which have an environmental inflection, but are equally motivated by a desire to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies – heating cannot be set above 19°C and air conditioning cannot drop below 27°C. Alongside these temperature restrictions, doors need to be closed to avoid wasting energy, and lights in shop windows must be switched off after 10pm. All thoroughly sensible stuff, then, and it is only a pity that the rules are currently set to expire in November 2023. Design and architecture, consider this a challenge: global temperatures are rising and we need to dramatically reduce energy usage. The air conditioning cheat code is simply no longer viable for making spaces fit for habitation.
The Internet of Waves
You’ve heard of the Internet of Things, now get ready for in the Internet of Waves. China has been using an internet originally intended for smart cars as the computing power for designing its new warships. Naval contractors made use of a cloud computing platform to enlist thousands of CPUS (central processing units) across eight server centres to run wave simulation software that could test how large ships moving at high speeds would cope with waves. The Internet of Cars had originally been developed to support autonomous vehicles using 5G, but being able to harness so many computers’ processing power clearly has applications for military technology too. China has the world’s largest navy, with 355 ships including six Type 055 class stealth guided-missile destroyers. While it’s an impressive feat to band together so many computers to run complex puzzles – and wave dynamics still offer some of science’s biggest mysteries – it’s always more than a little concerning to see technology harnessed to design weapons of war. Recent conversations around companies using AI to develop new lifesaving drugs have turned dark as scientists and developers realised the computers were also producing horrifying and never-before-seen nerve agents in just six hours. Oops.