Comments update: two design heavyweights, Marc Newson and Frank Gehry, dominated the debate on Dezeen this week for very different reasons.
Swear-y Gehry: Frank Gehry’s response to a journalist’s question about his architectural style – raising his middle finger and saying the “98 per cent of what gets built today is shit” – became the biggest architecture story of the week with plenty of readers wading in to give their view.
“I think it’s fair to say that some of his own buildings belong to the 98 per cent he’s talking about,” wrote Mies.
“If he were a bit less blinded by his past, he could see that the debate has long moved on,” added Gerland Lindner. “Today heroes are those who help build towards a fairer and more sustainable world.”
But Aaron was among the Gehry defenders. “I like his reaction. You don’t go through projects of the magnitude that Gehry designs ‘just for show’,” he wrote. “That is insulting.”
James was one of the few that agreed with Gehry and offered a reason for the problem. “It is sh*t because the planners don’t let us build anything with a bit of vision,” he wrote. Read the comments on this story »
Gun debate: news that Marc Newson – who recently joined Apple as a special projects designer – was preparing to unveil a new shotgun for Italian gun brand Beretta triggered a heated debate in the comments.
“Something that kills will never be beautiful,” wrote Christian Ocampo. “I’ve seen many antique samurai swords that I’d consider beautiful,” countered another reader calling himself Odysseus.
“Regardless of the final design, the discussion over whether firearms are utilitarian or objects deserving of beauty, is a good one,” added regular commenter The Liberty Disciple.
But Colonel Pancake was baffled by the response: “I’m continually amazed at Dezeen’s ability to manufacture outrage at anything that isn’t a dinky cabin in the Swedish countryside.” Read the comments on this story »
Bookish: the expansive interior design for this bookshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, proved popular on Dezeen, but locals chimed in to explain it might not be as inclusive as the open plan space might suggest.
“A beautiful project in my hometown, but unfortunately only a privileged group of people has access to this bookshop, as it sits within a luxury mall in one of poshest regions of the city,” wrote HeloRighetto. Read the comments on this story »
Tea time: one of the products we featured from Dutch Design Week was the Miito, a device for heating water in a cup using an induction plate. Its creator, Eindhoven graduate Nils Chudy, said it would help save energy by only heating what people need rather than boiling a whole kettle full of water.
“How does it compare to a microwave? Will it heat multiple cups more efficiently than a kettle?” asked mb4design.
Chudy jumped into the comments section on Dezeen to answer these questions and more. “It is quite hard to estimate the time you need until one cup has been heated in the microwave,” he wrote. “That is why I believe Miito might be a better option to heat your cup of tea.”
A number of readers said that the idea of using an induction plate wasn’t new, but most were taken by the design anyway.
“Not much different from putting a small stainless steel pot or kettle on an induction plate,” wrote spadestick. “But I think I will part with some cash for this brilliant concept.” Read the comments on this story »
Skyscraper vs minarets: Herzog & de Meuron unveiled plans to overhaul the Basel campus of pharmaceuticals company Roche, including new skyscrapers that prompted a discussion of Switzerland’s seemingly contradictory rules about religious structures.
“I really do not understand the logic behind approving not one, but two towers of this scale in a city like Basel, and on the other hand ‘banning’ the construction of Minarets with the main argument of distorting the city landscape,” wrote one reader under the name Confused Basler.
“The argument that led to the minaret ban in Switzerland may be minimised by the building permit for these huge towers, but minarets are all about architecture and politics,” responded ionandrei. Read the comments on this story »
