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Gemma Barton: don't look down on interior architecture courses
20 October 2014An education in interior architecture is still looked down on when compared to architecture, says Gemma Barton, designer and senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. But it shouldn’t be so, she argues, when it prepares students admirably for all aspects of the design world.
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Erik Spiekermann - It's time to break free of PowerPoint
14 October 2014At best many PowerPoint presentations are of limited value; at worst they can cause loss of life. Why rely on templates? If there is something to be said, say it, says Erik Spiekermann. Erik Spiekermann set up MetaDesign and FontShop, and is a teacher, author, designer and partner at Edenspiekermann.
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Britain's disused prisons are being turned into hotels and student accommodation
14 October 2014Since 2010 more than a dozen prisons in the UK have closed their doors. Declared ‘surplus to requirements’ by the Ministry of Justice, they are now being sold off to developers. The unlikely future for these buildings, which range from Victorian gaols and medieval fortresses to Sixties’ institutional blocks, could be in the form of hotels or even student accommodation.
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Ron Arad: save design education from bureaucracy and economics
7 October 2014In the first of our Listens for this education-focused issue, industrial designer and former Royal College of Art professor Ron Arad recalls his own student days, his aims at the RCA, and how he is concerned that bureaucracy and economics is now in danger of driving the curriculum.
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James Holder on creating fashion brand Superdry
7 October 2014From selling T-shirts out of the back of his mum’s car, via Bench, to co-founding the phenomenally successful Superdry brand, design director James Holder is not one to sit back and reflect on success. He is always looking for the next new idea, whenever and wherever it comes to him: he’s an original beer-mat sketcher, he declares.
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The Art of repetition: self expression in Communist-era Hungary
6 October 2014They may have been subjected to the rigidity of the country’s Communist regime, but Hungarians living in post-war state housing nevertheless made the monotonous block dwellings individual and full of character through painting and decoration. Artist Katharina Roters has documented the phenomenon in a new book, out now.
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Glass: A flexible material
30 September 2014Chris Lefteri examines new strides in glass, the once fragile and brittle material that, through technology, offers both flexibility and transparency, and as such is guaranteeing its place in the future. Lefteri, a designer and author, has helped some of the world’s largest consumer brands formulate new strategies for effective materials integration during the design process.
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Renzo Piano - interview
29 September 2014The maestro sends Herbert Wright a picture of his secret forest retreat and from there enlightens him about the Fondation Pathé, the secrets of a tranquil garden and hidden beauty.
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Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture - review
22 September 2014American architect Louis Kahn is renowned as a visionary, his work taught in architecture schools far and wide, and yet his acclaim is based on a few diverse buildings completed in a relatively short burst of just 25 years.
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Nigel Coates: Curated Diary
22 September 2014Nigel Coates: architect and designer with a unique conceptual edge.
