Virtual Design Festival

Live video interview with SO-IL and Beatrice Leanza as part of Virtual Design Festival

Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of architecture practice SO-IL and MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza spoke to Dezeen live as part of Virtual Design Festival's collaboration with MAAT.

An exhibition and installation by SO-IL were set to open on 27 March as the first phase of Italian curator and critic Leanza's new programme for Lisbon's Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology.

However, the projects have been postponed until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic, so VDF is collaborating with MAAT today for a virtual launch.

Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of architecture practice SO-IL and MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza speaks to Dezeen live as part of Virtual Design Festival's collaboration with MAAT
Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu are the founders of SO-IL, a New York-based architecture studio

This morning, we premiered a video about SO-IL's planned Beeline installation, which would have created a temporary public route through the centre of the Amanda Levete-designed museum.

We also published a documentary about SO-IL's temporary architecture projects, and will be giving an exclusive video sneak peek of the Currents exhibition later today.

New York-based SO-IL is known for both its temporary and permanent architecture projects including a three-storey, net-covered dwelling tower built in Milan in 2017 and an installation that wove a giant hammock between 130 trees.

Leanza has worked as a curator at alternative art space China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW) and was creative director for Beijing Design Week from 2013 to 2016. She founded research studio Bao Atelier and urban and social impact organisation B/Side Design, and helped set up The Global School, a design and creative research institute.

Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu of architecture practice SO-IL and MAAT executive director Beatrice Leanza speaks to Dezeen live as part of Virtual Design Festival's collaboration with MAAT
Italian curator and critic Beatrice Leanza is executive director of MAAT

The interview is the third live conversation in our VDF Screentime series, which launched last week with an interview with trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and a conversation with Tokyo-based studio Klein Dytham Architecture.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at [email protected].