Stories
Milan Diaries: Day One
This week the Disegno team is on the ground in Milan for the Salone del Mobile. Over the coming days we’ll be sharing our reflections from the festival and picking out some of the installations, exhibitions and launches that stood out.
Obsolescent Masculinity
With demolition underway of Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower, Aki Ishida tracks the decline of this once-futuristic landmark against Japan’s shifting gender roles.
The Design Line: 28 May - 3 June
It’s not the end of the week until Design Line is here! This week has MVRDV taking to the rooftops, Volvo entering its video gamer era, and a rather underwhelming foliage-themed homage to the Jubilee from Heatherwick Studio.
The Crit #20: Bees Don’t Wear Shoes
A bonus episode sees the podcast move to the Eden Project in Cornwall, for an exclusive interview with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and her project to make gardens for pollinators.
Design for the Real World ᵥ
Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular zoom with David Chalmers to philosophise about virtual architecture and the challenge of designing civic spaces in a privatised metaverse.
Disegno #33
Rejoice, for Disegno’s summer 2022 edition is here! Disegno #33 includes a political report from OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Centre; colourful curation with Sabine Marcelis; a journey into Yinka Ilori’s new home; and a study of who gets left out when design imagines the future.
The Design Line: 21 - 27 May
Sit tight! It’s this week’s Design Line, filled with news about the end of Marcel Wanders Studio; a redesigned missing person poster; and Foscarini’s acquisition of Ingo Maurer’s lighting company.
It Has Pockets
Disegno interviews Hanna Ter Meulen, co-founder of Early Majority, a technical outerwear brand addressing the pockets gender gap.
A Pachinko Game on Anabolic Steroids
Immersed in the surreal world of Tokyo’s pachinko arcades, Luke Caspar Pearson elaborates on the architectural complexity of Japanese medal games.
Useful for Some; Fatal for Others
As UK restaurants are legally compelled to include calorie counts for their dishes, Georgina Bronte lays out the risks of redesigning menus.
The Design Line: 14 - 20 May
A new director for the AA, a campus for Google, accessible computer accessories, and a pavilion for Melbourne all feature on this week’s Design Line.
Enter the Zoöp
Aric Chen, Het Nieuwe Instituut’s artistic and general director, discusses transforming the institution into the world’s first zoöp: a body dedicated to ecological regeneration and representing non-human life.
Blocks, Each Exactly One Cubic Metre
Minecraft is raising a new generation of young gamers applying their design skills to real-world issues, but its first foray into mobile AR gaming raises questions about surveillance technology.
The Ground of Palestine
Artist Ariel Caine meets architect Dima Srouji and archaeologist Silvia Truini to discuss archaeology as a tool of colonisation and settlement in Palestine.
The Design Line: 7 - 13 May
Design Line covers the end of the iPod, more than a bit of Bitcoin drama, an ear-tingling ASMR exhibition, and a political interruption.
McModernism, USA
She said no pickles. Kate Wagner mourns the loss of garish Hamburgler decor as McDonald’s revamps itself to fit with the trend for boring, brandless spaces.
Fewer Pictures of the Cigar-Smoking
Drawn together by ArkDes, a group of architects and curators take aim at the myth of Sigurd Lewerentz, and explain why this giant of 20th-century Swedish architecture’s work was so much greater, richer and stranger in reality.
The Design Line: 30 April - 6 May
It’s a week of multi-billion rail announcements, drone chaos, rhythmic tremors, and historical dress scandal as Design Line returns with all the latest news.