Officine Farneto is a former barrack — designed in 1932 by Enrico Del Debbio — converted into a cultural venue, although this is just the latest of a series of adaptive reuse programmes: in over three quarters of a century it’s in fact been used as a factory, then as offices, and it’s now turned into a conference venue and showroom.
Set within Monte Mario park, the venue preserves its original “industrial archaeology” outlook as a wrapping to the new contemporary design features added by the recent refurbishment programme by Architettare.it.
Facilities include a bar area, a bookshop, artists’ studios, a roof garden area, a fully equipped 130 seats conference room and an overall “event area” which can welcome up to 1600 people.
[photos via Officine Farneto]
Women, House Design and Domestic Space
London Women and Planning Forum Seminar
Wednesday 24th March 2010, 1.30 – 5.30
City Centre Seminar Room, Department of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
This half-day seminar focuses on house design and domestic space from a gender perspective. Taking some recent reports and debates on housing space standards as a starting point, the event will consider the historical and contemporary involvement of women in house design, women’s changing needs with regard to domestic spaces, and the implications of a gender perspective when formulating housing and space standards policies.
Speakers:
- Yolande Barnes
Director – Residential Research, Savills
Yolande is Director of Research with Savills, the UK’s largest real estate services company, and is also a Director of Design for Homes, a not-for-profit company which champions the value of good residential design, planning and construction.
- Dr Elizabeth Darling
Senior Lecturer in History of Art, Oxford Brookes University
Elizabeth works on 20th century British architectural history with a particular interest in inter-war modernism, social housing, and gender.
- David Levitt
Levitt Bernstein Associates
Levitt Bernstein is an award-winning architectural practice with a progressive outlook towards design and the development process. David has expertise in the area of space standards and housing design.
- Anne Thorne
Partner, Anne Thorne Architects Partnership
Anne has worked as an architect for twenty five years, and has always focused on women’s use of the environment and their participation in its creation both as users and as designers.
Registration: Room 126, Department of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, E1 4NS
The seminar is £25 and £10 for concessions. To reserve a place please contact the London Women and Planning Forum administrator, Evelyn Owen at e.owen@qmul.ac.uk or Department of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS.
The Girl Geek Dinners were founded on the 16th August 2005 as a result of one girl geek who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside. After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.
Girl Geek Dinner #4 in Rome this coming Friday (5th March 2010, h 7.00 PM @ Antù, Via Libetta 15/C) will be about sustainability: renewable energy, recycling and reusing.
Speakers for #ggdroma4 are:
More info on GGDRoma.
Co-convened by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee, the international symposium, ‘Prototype – craft in the future tense‘ will explore the radical and multiple ways that creative people are experimenting with ideas. The symposium looks to excite the mind and nurture unusual conversations by presenting a diverse range of perspectives concerned with innovation and ingenuity.
Prototyping is done in many industries – from cars to ceramics, medical equipment to publishing, architects to chefs – but the process, development and understanding for each is different. What can one discipline teach another about prototyping? What place does prototyping hold for scientists, artists, politicians, athletes or business managers? How can prototyping lead these and other disciplines to imagine and re-imagine the future?
This event aims to reduce barriers by generating trans-disciplinary conversations, thus setting the scene for the forging of new partnerships and fresh understandings for contemporary and future craftspeople. We hope to bring together representatives from academia, public and corporate sectors to discuss the history, theory and practice of prototyping, thereby creating a sustainable network of like-minded individuals and organisations that will continue to develop prototyping as a tool for change.
Invited speakers include:
- Michael Schrage, Business Innovator, MIT
- Elizabeth Sanders, Participatory Designer, MakeTools
- Stuart Brown, Biomedical Engineer, University of Dundee
- Norman Klein, Novelist & Cultural Critic, California Institute of the Arts
- Simon Starling, Conceptual Artist
- Pieter Jan Stappers, Design Theorist and Innovator, University of Delft
- Hazel White, Interactive Jeweller, University of Dundee
- Leonardo Bonanni, Architect, Designer, Artist, MIT Media Lab
- Frederic Schwartz, Architectural Historian, University College London
- Constance Adams, Space Travel Architect, Synthesis International
- Rosan Chow, Designer, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
- Chicks on Speed, Musicians, Artists, Innovators
Prototype – Craft in the Future Tense will be acting as the central focus for Craft Festival Scotland, an ambitious series of nationwide events happening throughout the summer of 2010. “Future Craft”, the theme for Dundee’s contribution to the Festival, will portray the different faces of craft and the different voices it has as a creative practice. It will focus on reviving the way people see craft by initiating a range of public events comprising several major exhibitions, films and workshops which are set to challenge perceptions and profile debates around craft.
The University of Dundee has, for the past two years, been at the forefront of the V&A at Dundee Steering Group, with support from Abertay University, Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish government. The project, which aims to establish a presence for the Victoria & Albert Museum at the heart of the city’s waterfront, took a massive step forward in August when Michael Russell MSP, Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution, announced the Scottish Government’s significant commitment of support. An international architecture competition was launched in January of this year for the £47m centre, financial support for which is expected to come from the Scottish government, philanthropic and corporate sponsors via a charitable trust. As the first V&A base outside of London, V&A at Dundee would aim to provide space in which to showcase Scottish applied arts and design in an international context, act as a focus for debate and dialogue for the creative economy, enhance the creative environment for the benefit of the general public and creative education, and create a platform for partnership working in the cultural sector in Scotland.
Online registration is now open, and more information may be found on the event website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/prototyping
The Modern Interiors Research Centre Conference
Kingston University, London — Thursday 13 and Friday 14 May 2010
This conference will consider the historical insights that ethno/auto/biographical investigations into the lives of individuals, groups and interiors can offer architectural and design historians; the methodological issues that arise from the use of ethno/auto/biographical sources to explore the history of the interior as a site in which everyday life is experienced and performed; and the ways in which contemporary architects and interior designers draw on personal and collective histories in their practice.
Online booking now open
Here in Rome there are a few “houses” dedicated to arts and culture: we have a Casa dell’Architettura, a Casa del Cinema, a Casa delle Letterature and so on. They’re mainly existing buildings, originally designed as country villas or even as an aquarium (that’s what Casa dell’Architettura was before it became what it is nowadays.), and then converted and reused as cultural spaces.
Since 2003, Chicago based ICARCH gallery’s been periodically launching art/concept design competitions for “a house for [insert name of personality of choice here]“.
Below you can see sample entries from past competitions for a house for Fernando Pessoa, one for Albrecht Dürer, one for Michelangelo Antonioni and one for Ingmar Bergman:
Ongoing competitions are for a house for Frédéric Chopin, one for Akira Kurosawa, one for Albert Camus, another one for Anton Chekhov…
Then they came up with a brilliant, contemporary idea: why not design a house for Lady Gaga, too?
Please send icarchgallery@yahoo.com ANY work, ANY size and ANY format that responds to the theme. You can send your work to this e-mail address. The deadline is June 1st, 2010. There is an entry fee of 50$ (25$ for students) payable by PayPal to admin@icarch.net. We will display all the works received on our website: www.icarch.net. We will also forward them to Lady Gaga, for her consideration. And we hope that if one proposal matches “her essence and her spirit,” (as apparently the dress that Armani designed for her did), she will build it! We are almost sure of it! We suggest you choose a real location for your proposal, since we think that this potential client will be quite able to build anywhere in this world. Let’s get Lady Gaga interested in architecture! We think she might enjoy our provocation very much, since architecture is supposed to be “frozen music.” So let’s bring together Dance and Music and Architecture through an adventurous, forward looking and exciting house for the ever changing Lady Gaga!
[via Y Magazine]
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