The Design Dispatch offers expertly written and essential news from the design world crafted by our dedicated team. Think of it as your cheat sheet for the day in design delivered to your inbox before you’ve had your coffee. Subscribe now.
Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here.
A digital NFT artwork by Beeple fetches an unprecedented $69 million at Christie’s.
As if the current non-fungible token (NFT) craze couldn’t get crazier, Beeple’s digital work Everyday: The First 5000 Days (2021) has fetched a staggering $69.3 million at auction. A flurry of bids nearly crashed Christie’s website in the auction’s final 15 minutes, pushing the work’s price up by more than $40 million. The sale marked the first time Christie’s accepted cryptocurrency as payment; unsurprisingly, the auction house plans to sell more NFT art in due course. “Beeple’s success is a testament to the exciting possibilities ahead for this nascent marketplace,” says Noah Davis, a postwar and contemporary art specialist at Christie’s. “Your work has value. Keep making it.”
The Shed will hold a series of indoor performances next month for vaccinated attendees.
Next month, the Hudson Yards performing arts venue will stage a series of indoor performances for limited audiences in which everyone has either tested negative for coronavirus or vaccinated against it. Each of the performances—concerts by Kelsey Lu, Renée Fleming, and the New York Philharmonic, as well as a comedy set by Michelle Wolf—can accommodate up to 150 people. The Shed has some major architectural advantages over its fellow New York venues: it’s a new building with a modern HVAC system capable of refreshing the breathable indoor air every 30 minutes, and its main performance space also opens directly to the outside. Later this year, the venue will host Frieze New York and programs in collaboration with the Tribeca Film Festival.
3D printed home by ICON…
America’s first 3D printed homes, built with construction innovator ICON, are on sale in Austin.
America’s first-ever 3D printed homes are currently on sale at the developer 3Strands’ first multi-home project in Austin, Texas. Built with construction technology innovator ICON, the development features two to four bedroom homes designed by Logan Architecture. The first floor of each home was 3D printed using ICON’s “advanced material” that can withstand fires, floods, high winds, and other natural disasters while also being built in a matter of weeks. “There’s an extreme lack of housing that has left us with problems around supply, sustainability, resiliency, affordability, and design options,” says ICON co-founder Jason Ballard. “We anticipate more high-velocity progress in the years ahead to help bring housing and construction into the modern world and in line with humanity’s highest hopes.”
Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer credited with inventing the audio cassette tape, dies at 94.
A longtime engineer at the Dutch electronics company Philips, Ottens is credited with inventing the audio cassette tape, which debuted at electronics fairs in August 1963. Helming the Belgium team as the head of product development, Ottens was tasked with transforming bulky reel-to-reel tape recorders into something portable that could fit inside of a jacket’s pocket. He would later help to develop compact disc technology.
Thom Mayne’s proposed house in Brooklyn…
Thom Mayne has been ordered to rework a Brooklyn townhouse he designed for his son.
At this week’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) public meeting, plans for a house by architect Thom Mayne in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Historic District were the topic of conversation. The Morphosis founder’s red-brick proposal will sit behind a five-condo development opposite Fort Greene Park and will house his son, Sam Alison-Mayne, when completed. LPC commissioners ultimately suggested that the Pritzker Prize laureate should tweak his proposal, which is marked by an irregular massing, so that it doesn’t overwhelm the older, boxier townhouses nearby.
President Joe Biden approves a massive wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
Set 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, the $2.8 billion Vineyard Wind proposal has been seeking federal approval for two decades while facing opposition from waterfront property owners. The project recently received a major boon—an endorsement from the Interior Department after completing a final environmental review. Though it still pales in comparison to Europe, the offshore wind industry is primed to expand along the East Coast, including in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia.
Sacco Chair by Piero Gatti for Zanotta…
Today’s attractive distractions:
Polaroid’s new 3D printing pen draws actual edible pieces of hard candy.
These lucky Zanotta furnishings embarked on a cross-country road trip.
A hospital in Lebanon becomes the world’s first to serve only vegan food.
Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue is the most Instagrammable color out there.
