Justin McGuirk appointed chief curator at London's Design Museum
British writer and curator Justin McGuirk – a regular columnist for Dezeen – is joining London's Design Museum as chief curator this month. More
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"Mad Max cornered the market in a particular vision of the post-apocalyptic future"
Opinion: the first three Mad Max films established a retro-futuristic aesthetic that has been turned up to 11 in the latest iteration, says Justin McGuirk. But could Fury Road have also stumbled on something a bit more more pertinent? More
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"We need critics and curators" says new head of Design Academy Eindhoven writing programme
Design writer Justin McGuirk has been named head of the writing and curating programme at Design Academy Eindhoven, with the school saying there is an urgent need to train a new generation of writers and critics. More
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"Anything threatening to be a subculture is commodified before it can walk"
Opinion: unbridled materialism, technology and design combine to challenge the meaning of personhood in William Gibson's latest sci-fi novel. The foundations for this future are already being laid in real life, says Justin McGuirk. More
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"No one will ever write a book called Zen and the Art of iPhone Maintenance"
Opinion: is the Internet of Broken Things the logical conclusion to the ever-escalating cycle of technological development and built-in obsolesce in our gadgets, asks Justin McGuirk. More
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"Protest has been marginalised"
Opinion: the Turkish government's attempt to move protestors from Taksim Square to a new public space – nicknamed the "third testicle" – on a piece of reclaimed land at the edge of Istanbul was a failure from day one, says Justin McGuirk. More
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"The perfect architectural symbol for an era obsessed with customisation and participation"
Opinion: a Le Corbusier design for a customisable house inspired by the devastation of Flanders during the First World War has haunted architecture ever since, says Justin McGuirk. More
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"We are not in the midst of a revolution, we are between revolutions"
Opinion: Justin McGuirk argues that despite the furniture industry's decline in Italy, it's still the best place to buy a sofa until the digital manufacturing revolution delivers on its promises. More
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"To stick it to The Man, first you have to let him trouser your money"
Opinion: now we buy everything from Amazon, where does that leave the counterculture? A new attempt to revive the spirit of the Whole Earth Catalog is "about as counter-cultural as a Happy Meal," argues Justin McGuirk. More
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"Design is complicit in economic and political systems that are inherently violent"
Opinion: as MoMA launches an online exhibition investigating design's relationship with violence, Dezeen columnist Justin McGuirk looks beyond objects like 3D-printed guns and drones to ask "what do our weapons say about the systems they support?" More
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"Design critics make an exception for certain technology products"
Opinion: following yesterday's column on how disruptive technology for emerging markets will affect the high-end tech giants, Justin McGuirk asks why contemporary design critics are obsessed with analysing technology. More
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"Apple and Samsung will have to change their game"
Opinion: Justin McGuirk's inaugural Opinion column for Dezeen is in two parts - in this first instalment he examines what cheap tablet computers developed for emerging markets like India will mean for high-end tech giants like Apple and Samsung. Tomorrow he'll ask why design critics are writing about technology in the first place. More
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Meet our new Opinion columnists!
Following the huge success of Sam Jacob’s regular opinion column, we’re proud to announce that four more world-class writers are joining us as columnists: Dan Hill, Alexandra Lange, Kieran Long and Justin McGuirk. More
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OMA's furniture collection for Knoll "turns industry into a fetish"
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our fourth movie recorded at the MINI Paceman Garage in Milan, MINI head of design Anders Warming introduces the workshops that took place in the space and journalist Justin McGuirk explains why he sees OMA's Tools for Life collection as a nostalgic reaction to the decline of industry in the city. More
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Design library opens in Seoul
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
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"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
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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
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"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
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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
