The Design Line: 24 – 30 September
There’s a chill in the air here in the Northern Hemisphere, so grab your seasonal hot beverage of choice and take a sip of Design Line, featuring a Pornhub chatbot, Norman Foster’s UN declaration on architecture, and an update on the situation at SCI-Arc.
He’s back
In 2020, Norman Foster withdrew his practice Foster + Partners from the climate change action group Architects Declare, citing a discomfort with the group's hostility towards the aviation sector that he dismissed as trying to “wind the clock backward” (a decision many interpreted, instead, as the studio’s unwillingness to wind back its lucrative airport commissions). Well, this week brought news that Foster is returning to the climate field by launching the United Nations’ set of "principles for sustainable and inclusive urban design and architecture" for architects: the San Marino Declaration. Described by Foster as a kind of Hippocratic oath for architects, the declaration will ask architects and other built environment professionals (a broadening out of signatories that Foster apparently insisted on, and for which he deserves credit) to agree to uphold “principles for sustainable and inclusive urban design and architecture in support of sustainable, safe, healthy, socially inclusive, climate-neutral and circular homes, urban infrastructure and cities”. It talks a good game, but Disegno can’t help but wonder what the point of it is? If doctors commit medical malpractice there are consequences, because codes of conduct are tied to medical regulators. But what happens if an architect breaches the San Marino Declaration? We mean, something must happen, right? Because otherwise, this whole exercise would feel pretty hollow and performative. Let’s hope that all offending architects will be immediately put on trial in the Hague; let’s give this thing some teeth.
So last season
Ferragamo is the latest in a long line of erstwhile fashion brands that has traded its fancy-pants logo for a more pared-back version. The Italian company has also dropped the first name of its founder, Salvatore, from its branding. British graphic designer Peter Saville created the new logo, with a typeface he describes as “a classic font” that recalls “an inscription set in stone”. The traditional elements are designed to allude to Ferragamo’s heritage as a 95-year-old purveyor of luxury goods, while the the mononym and downplayed serifs are a nod to the modish. More widely, there’s nary a high-end brand left that hasn't received a similar minimalist rebrand. Balenciaga, Balmain, Burberry (also by Saville), Celine, Chanel, Gucci, Maison Margiela, Saint Laurent (sans the Yves) and Valentino have all converted to this uniform logo style. While the urge to redesign to be seen to be moving with the times is palpable, it is curious that the supposed arbitrators of fashion are all following one another towards a homogenous aesthetic. Speculation about the causes of the trend include brands wanting to appear more “digital”, or fashion moving to a cycle where ostentatious branding is out and subtle markers of wealth are in. Whatever the reason, it makes for a rather bland spread.
Glyph: designed by children, for children (image: Aspa Koulira).
Meet Glyph
Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki are The New Raw, a Rotterdam-based design studio whose Print Your City initiative aims to tackle plastic waste by utilising 3D printing and community workshops to create new design elements for public spaces. It’s a compelling idea, which this week announced a new development with Glyph – a series of play furniture designed in conjunction with schoolchildren in Elefsina, Greece. Comprising 240kg of specially collected rPP and rPE plastic waste, Glyph is a series of eight swinging benches, which are intended to evoke the forms of ancient ruins found within Elefsina (albeit made to swing, because who doesn’t love swinging?) and help to activate vacant lots around the city. The benches are charming, engaging works, but most pleasing of all is the fact that Sakkas and Setaki have engraved the designs with the drawings of children who participated in an eight-week workshop that they hosted in the city to explore ideas around the circular economy. Glyph has been created as part of the programming for the Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Culture programme, and will be exhibited around the city during the festival, but its final destination is the schools of the students who participated in the workshop. It should make for a fine final act in Glyph’s story of renewal.
Tom Wiscombe has resigned from his post at SCI-Arc (image: via TWA).
So long, SCI-Arc
Some news from SCI-Arc as we prepare to enter Q4 of the 2022 Year of Architecture Scandals (see Disegno #34 for our full report on this turbulent year for the industry). Former undergraduate chair Tom Wiscombe and former history and theory coordinator Marika Trotter have both resigned from their posts. Trotter is employed as a senior associate at Wiscombe’s eponymous practice Tom Wiscombe Architecture (TWA). The pair were put on a leave of absence by SCI-Arc earlier this year after students came forward with concerning allegations that TWA had them work – unpaid – on competitions for the practice in lieu of a semester of teaching. Students reported working 18-hour days with no breaks and being instructed to deep clean TWA’s offices. When they banded together and quit, Wiscombe allegedly hinted that leaving would negatively impact their careers. The situation came to light after Trotter participated in a recorded panel discussion on career advice for new architects, in which she claimed 60-hour workweeks at smaller studios were more exciting than 40-hour weeks in a corporate practice. While it is reassuring that no more students will be exposed to these particular teachers, SCI-Arc is yet to publish the results of the investigation that it launched following the scandal. As students reported a wider culture of internships-for-scholarships at the school, it is vital that a thorough overhaul of institutional culture begins as soon as possible. Hopefully SCI-Arc will follow the lead of the Bartlett and make the full third-party report available to all.
Nudge theory for porn
The results of Pornhub’s chatbot designed to “nudge” users away from attempting to access child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and towards specialist help were revealed this week. Co-developed by the Internet Watch Foundation and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, the chatbot pops up on screen if someone attempts to use any of the 28,000 terms identified as having links to CSAM. This chatbot asks a series of questions, explains that they are searching for illegal material and directs them to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s confidential services. Before, Pornhub used a static page to direct people to the charity. Since the chatbot launched in March, it has been triggered 170,000 times, but only 158 people clicked through to the services. Of course, 158 people receiving help is better than nothing, but it does suggest that these kinds of harm-reduction tools on the internet are a drop in the ocean compared to tech giants such as Apple being slow to act and introduce CSAM detection software for their messaging apps. Nudge theory is a form of behavioural economics that aims to prompt individuals to take positive actions, but its efficacy is surely stymied when top-down intervention from platforms is limited. The chatbot will run for another year before a full evaluation from academics.
See the See Monster (image: Ben Birchall).
Risen leviathan
This week, Disegno has been hankering for a seaside jaunt to Weston-Super-Mare, home of the newly opened See Monster. A decommissioned offshore oil platform from the North Sea, See Monster has been installed in a former lido in the town, where it has been transformed into a public arts installation. It’s an intriguing use for a piece of industrial infrastructure and one that provides a compelling home for environmentally inflected artworks from Trevor Lee and Ivan Black, as well a “garden lab” of wild plants selected to thrive in a salty seaside environment. This thought-provoking juxtaposition between industry and nature is intended to provoke conversations surrounding reuse, renewables and weather. Personally, Disegno is in favour of any setting that can take works out of traditional gallery spaces, particularly when there is a thematic resonance with the works on display, and there is an undoubted thrill about the possibility of exploring See Monster’s creaking industrial bones. The installation was forced to temporarily close a few days after opening owing to high winds, but this simply reaffirms its message: this is not some open-all-weathers perfect space, but rather a setting for art in direct dialogue with the natural forces it aims to raise questions around. So strap on your galoshes, windcheaters at the ready, sou’westers battened down, and get yourself over to Weston-Super-Mare to see it.