News: a library dedicated to design has opened in South Korea's capital city, offering access to over 11,000 books chosen by an international team of curators and critics. More »
Tag: Justin McGuirk
Design library opens
"Why should the poor live in slums if there are
empty offices in the city?" - Justin McGuirk
Curator Justin McGuirk tells us why his Golden Lion-winning installation about a community living in a vertical slum in Caracas could set an example for new forms of urban housing, in this movie we filmed at the Venice Architecture Biennale. More »
Justin McGuirk, Urban-Think Tank and Iwan Baan
win best project at Venice Architecture Biennale
Dezeen Wire: architecture critic Justin McGuirk (pictured above, holding the award), photographer Iwan Bann and the Urban-Think Tank team of Venezuela (also pictured above) have won the Golden Lion for best project at the Venice Architecture Biennale for their Torre David/Gran Horizonte installation and cafe. More »
"The market cannot solve the housing crisis"
- Justin McGuirk
Dezeen Wire: in an article for Domus magazine, design critic Justin McGuirk examines the social and physical decline of London's social housing, discussing the part played by luxury real-estate developers and how architects have been held accountable. More »
Strelka launch new
publishing house
Dezeen Wire: the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow has launched a publishing house called Strelka Press. Based in London and Moscow, it will offer printed books and e-books.
Strelka's publishing director Justin McGuirk talks about new platforms for long-form writing and the future of design criticism in the interview we filmed at Dezeen Studio (below). More »
Interview: Justin McGuirk
at Dezeen Studio
Milan 2012: in this interview filmed at Dezeen Studio, Guardian critic Justin McGuirk gives us his take on the future of design criticism, as fast reactions on platforms like Twitter and Facebook are balanced by long-form analysis in e-books and online journals.
He goes on to discuss how the fetishisation of traditional crafts by mass-producers is pushing design in a new direction and agrees with previous guest journalist Joseph Grima that the arrival of hacking culture and open-source production is the big story in Milan this year, describing it as the antithesis to the luxury design industry that the city normally centres around. More »
"From handicraft to digicraft: Milan's furniture fair
looks to the future" - Guardian
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk writes about the focus on alternative means of production, open-source design and crowd-funding that permeated this year's Milan furniture fair in his column for the Guardian newspaper.
McGuirk talked to Dezeen about these issues when he popped into Dezeen Studio powered by Jambox at MOST last week - watch the interview in our daily show from Milan here.
We also spoke to editor-in-chief of Domus magazine Joseph Grima about The Future in the Making show he curated that's all about collaboration, open design, crowd-sourcing and hacking, and interviewed curator Beatrice Galilee at Hacked Lab where workshops, demonstrations and happenings took over the city's most famous department store all week.
Justin McGuirk reflects on two
Colombian cities - The Guardian
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk examines the politically driven design and development that has taken place in Colombian capital Bogotá in recent years and reflects on the successes and failures when compared to the advancement of second city Medellín - The Guardian
Watch a movie about the Coliseos sports centre in Medellín here, which is one the buildings mentioned in the article.
Bacteria and pedal power could be the
future of kitchens – The Guardian
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk says that a kitchen concept by Dutch electrical company Philips that uses decomposition to generate methane gas for cooking is an example of how we may "have to get more comfortable with bacteria and with putrefaction's role in our ecosystem" – The Guardian
McGuirk claims the Microbial kitchen concept's "steampunk" aesthetic offers "an alternative vision to the clinical kitchen," and also mentions the trend for low-tech kitchen appliances, such as designer Christoph Thetard's pedal-powered devices, which he says represent a reaction to the impending energy crisis.
Last year Dezeen published a report on Food and Design, including examples of low-tech gadgets for preserving and preparing ingredients and concepts for growing food in the kitchen.
Justin McGuirk urges governments to
get designers on board
Dezeen Wire: in his latest article in The Guardian, design critic Justin McGuirk explains how the Finnish government's use of design thinking offers an exemplar for other states and big businesses who need to generate creative solutions to large social problems.
Justin McGuirk reviews this year's
London Design Festival
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk claims that the most creative work on show during the recent London Design Festival was to be found in basement flats and disused offices - The Guardian
See more stories by Justin McGuirk here and all of our coverage on the London Design Festival here.
"Has postmodernist design eaten itself?"
- The Guardian
Dezeen Wire: Justin McGuirk of The Guardian is the latest critic to write about the kitsch revival of postmodernism, which he says remains popular with consumers - The Guardian
A retrospective about the postmodern movement opens at the Victoria & Albert museum on 24 September. See recent articles on postmodernism by Alice Rawsthorn for The New York Times and Rowan Moore in The Observer.
"Is all of this design?" Gwangju Design Biennale
review - The Guardian
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk reports from Korea on the Gwangju Design Biennale - The Guardian
Curated by Ai Weiwei and Seung H-Sang, the biennale runs until 23 October. Exhibits include designs for bombs, plastic surgery for fighters and blueprints for public executions, plus a series of temporary follies built around the city by renowned architects including Atelier Bow-Wow, Peter Eisenman and Dominique Perrault.
"The rise of the designer-maker"
- The Guardian
Dezeen Wire: Justin McGuirk analyses the motives of designers who "make stuff themselves" and consumers' nostalgia for craftsmanship - The Guardian
“Designs for life won’t make you a living”
- Guardian
Dezeenwire: design critic Justin McGuirk lifts the lid on the furniture industry's royalty system and asks "are designers being exploited by having to make work for free?" in his article for The Guardian, describing #milanuncut as the big story of Milan 2011. Read the full article »
More about #milanuncut here »
Follow the debate on Twitter »


