“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Laura Poitras. Image courtesy of TIFF…
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
Laura Poitras’s documentary about Nan Goldin’s anti-Sackler activism wins in Venice.
“‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,’ Laura Poitras’s epic documentary about photographer Nan Goldin and her activism against the Sackler family and their art connections has been awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Poitras, the American filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour,” thanked the festival for recognizing that “documentary is cinema” at the ceremony Saturday evening in Venice. Neon is expected to release the film in theaters this fall and HBO Documentary Films recently acquired it for a television run. Runner up went to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer,” the narrative debut from the documentarian about a young novelist observing the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.” [H/T Associated Press]
Stockholm Furniture Fair rebrands and launches an award for Scandinavian designers.
“Swedish trade show Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair has changed its name to Stockholm Furniture Fair as part of a process to create a clearer identity, the organization revealed during Stockholm Design Week. The fair, which is set to take place between Feb. 7–11, 2023, after being postponed three times as a result of the pandemic, will also be given a new graphic identity by Swedish studio Stockholm Design Lab. The fair also announced it is launching a new Scandinavian Design Award together with publishing house It is Media, which will celebrate both established and emerging designers from the region.” [H/T Dezeen]
The Jakob-Park Stadium in Basel by Herzog & de Meuron. Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron…
The Jakob-Park Stadium, home to FC Basel, gets revamped by Herzog & de Meuron.
“The Jakob-Park Stadium, home of FC Basel, is getting an update to extend its lifespan after 20 years of use. Originally designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the architecture reform aims to provide better hospitality to visitors by restructuring the access and optimizing security to keep the stadium open even on non-match days. The proposal also contemplates replacing the iconic facade with a sweeping roof to give the stadium a unified appearance and broadcast the events outside.” [H/T ArchDaily]
A school’s asphalt gets 12 degrees cooler after applying a solar-reflective coating.
“One 75-degree day last month, the playground of the SAE School outside of Atlanta underwent a dramatic transformation. Students and volunteers equipped with paintbrushes and rollers covered the school’s black asphalt basketball courts and preschool play area with a bright coat of blue and tan paint. Donated by GAF and its subsidiary StreetBond, the paint is actually a solar-reflective coating, and the paint job was about more than just aesthetics. Before the coating was applied on this modestly warm day, the temperature near the asphalt measured about 120 degrees—a hellish environment common to many asphalt-covered playgrounds of parks and schools across the U.S. Shortly after the coating was applied, the temperature on the SAE School’s playground dropped 12 degrees.” [H/T Fast Company]
Hidden cameras will broadcast footage from the West Bank to European museums.
“Planted among the olive groves of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank are structures that bear no fruit. Israeli-owned security cameras dot the landscape 300 feet apart, as they do in much of Palestinian occupied territory. Sophisticated facial recognition is now being used to capture the faces of the West Bank’s occupants. Their image is matched to a database described by a former Israeli soldier as the military’s “Facebook for Palestinians.” Last week, another camera was installed in an olive grove in Hebron. But instead of capturing footage for Israel’s central government, the camera will be used to broadcast a livestream. A number of European museums, including Bonniers Konsthall Stockholm, Sweden, Nitja in Lillestrøm, Norway, FOAM in Amsterdam, Holland, and SI Fest in Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy, will screen the livestream, revealing to their audiences the realities of life in the West Bank. The livestream can also be viewed online.” [H/T The Art Newspaper]
Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn by Ennead Architects, the firm originally founded by James Stewart Polshek…
James Stewart Polshek, a modernist architect who resisted design celebrity, dies at 92.
“James Stewart Polshek, who over a nearly 70-year career designed some of the country’s most significant works of public architecture even as he resisted the profitable allure of trendy ideologies and design celebrity, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 92. In an era when so-called starchitects dominated the profession, using their acclaim to pick up lucrative projects around the world, Mr. Polshek went the other way, embracing a modest approach to architecture that prioritized a design’s social value over its aesthetic worth. Such modesty did not keep him from rising to the pinnacle of his profession. His works include the William J. Clinton Library and Museum in Little Rock, Ark.; the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan; the Santa Fe Opera; and the Newseum in Washington.” [H/T The New York Times]
A Chicago lawmaker is pushing to build an offshore wind farm on Lake Michigan.
“If state Rep. Marcus Evans has his way, Chicago will enter the race to build the first offshore wind farm on the Great Lakes. Evans has introduced a bill that lays the groundwork for a proposed wind farm in Lake Michigan. The bill sets up a fund that would help the state to compete for federal money, including $230 million for port infrastructure projects available from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Illinois would enter the race behind Ohio—where the Icebreaker wind farm in Lake Erie recently won a court battle that should allow construction of a demonstration project to proceed—and New York state, which is studying the feasibility of a Lake Erie wind farm.” [H/T Chicago Tribune]
