As the international design and architecture calendar moves deeper into the autumn and winter seasons, cultural institutions and museums around the world are launching a diverse array of exhibitions, public installations, and competitions. From explorations of early-twentieth-century avant-garde movements to ambitious adaptive reuse projects and contemporary reflections on sustainability, the latest curatorial offerings demonstrate the broad scope of current architectural and design discourse.
Among the most prominent new presentations is a sweeping exploration of Surrealism mounted by the Design Museum in London. Co-curated with the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the exhibition traces the foundational origins of Surrealist art and design while simultaneously examining contemporary responses and legacies across multiple creative disciplines. The show brings together a rich assemblage of furniture, interior design, fashion, photography, and traditional artwork from major twentieth-century figures such as Salvador Dalí and Man Ray. These historical works are placed in dialogue with creations from more recent tastemakers, including couture fashion houses Schiaparelli and Dior, as well as conceptual contributions from Icelandic musician Björk. The exhibition offers visitors a comprehensive look at how the irrational, the subconscious, and the uncanny continue to influence design thinking.
What’s Going On
In Washington, D.C., the cultural landscape has expanded significantly with the opening of a major new contemporary art institution. Don and Mera Rubell, who have been active collectors since 1965 and currently maintain one of the world’s most extensive private contemporary art holdings, have established a second museum space. Following the 1993 opening of their foundational museum in Miami, the Rubell Museum opened a new 32,000-square-foot facility in Washington, D.C., housed within a former public high school that was meticulously renovated by architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle.
The inaugural exhibition in the nation’s capital draws its title as a direct homage to a 1971 album by legendary soul artist Marvin Gaye, who notably attended the very school building that now houses the art collection. The inaugural presentation features over 200 works created by 40 different artists. Among the highlights is a rare 20-part ink-and-gouache series by Keith Haring, which the artist executed in a single, uninterrupted sitting while listening to the music of both Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley.
Meanwhile, in Karlsruhe, Germany, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media is hosting the first-ever solo exhibition dedicated to the work of high-rise architect Ole Scheeren. Founded in 2010, Scheeren’s eponymous firm has gained international acclaim for monumental and experimental building typologies. The German-born architect, who began his professional career at Rem Koolhaas’s OMA office in Rotterdam, is widely recognized for masterminding groundbreaking structures such as the award-winning China Central Television (CCTV) Station in Beijing and the cascading Interlace residential complex in Singapore. The winter exhibition, titled Ole Scheeren: Spaces of Life, explores the philosophical and technical underpinnings of his architectural practice.
Ongoing Exhibitions
In London, ongoing exhibitions continue to probe the pressing intersections of architecture, ecology, and societal change. At the AA Gallery, visitors have been engaging with The Future is a Journey to the Past: Stories about Sustainability, an exhibition curated by Bologna-based Mario Cucinella Architects. The showcase investigates the evolving definition of sustainability and considers how the built environment can actively mediate conflicts between natural ecosystems and human development. The exhibition features a comprehensive timeline mapping the historical progression of environmental activism alongside a curated selection of built and unbuilt projects by Cucinella’s firm that exemplify sustainable design strategies. The conceptual framework of the exhibition is drawn from principal Mario Cucinella’s book of the same name, in which he reflects on ten distinct journeys to cities and landscapes around the world, questioning contemporary patterns of natural resource consumption.
Along the coast of Weston-super-Mare in the United Kingdom, a bold experiment in industrial adaptive reuse has captured public attention. Titled See Monster, the project involves the transformation of a retired North Sea oil rig into one of the country’s largest public art installations, orchestrated by the design studio Newsubstance. After spending much of the summer floating along the British coastline, the massive structure was successfully docked in the Bristol Channel. Visitors entering the installation pass behind a dramatic cascading water feature flowing from the lower platform, granting access to four distinct levels of interactive elements. These include a multi-level slide, a seated amphitheater, and elevated gardens. Developed as part of the nine-month Unboxed Festival, See Monster serves as a tangible demonstration of how obsolete industrial infrastructure can be creatively repurposed for public enjoyment and community engagement.
Back in London, the Korean Cultural Centre UK, in partnership with the Art Center Nabi in Seoul, is presenting Our Friendly Neighbors. The exhibition highlights new works by contemporary Korean artists Yiyun Kang, Bang & Lee, and Jinjoon Lee. The featured works center on the complex relationships between art, technology, and the natural environment, prompting viewers to reconsider the boundaries and definitions of community in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating global connectedness.
In New York City, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union is hosting Model Behavior. Curated by Anyone Cooperation, the exhibition features more than 70 works by 45 diverse artists and architects, including prominent figures such as Olafur Eliasson, Peter Eisenman, Eyal Weizman, and Greg Lynn. The presentation investigates the active role that architectural models play, asking how physical and digital representations not only reflect but actively shape human behaviors well beyond the traditional boundaries of design practice.
On the West Coast, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is currently presenting the first solo museum exhibition dedicated to award-winning architect Marshall Brown. Titled The Architecture of Collage: Marshall Brown, the show features 25 of the architect’s distinctive collages. Brown refers to these artworks as chimeras—invoking the mythical creature composed of multiple animal parts—because they are constructed using photographic fragments of existing buildings that are reassembled to generate entirely new architectural forms and spatial relationships.
Events
In the realm of live cultural events, the architectural heritage of Las Vegas is taking center stage. The Neon Museum, featuring structures designed by legendary mid-century architect Paul Revere Williams, is hosting a multi-day event titled Duck Duck Shed: Celebrating Las Vegas Architecture, Design, and Culture. The program is designed to honor decades of radical architectural innovation, with a particular focus on hospitality design that defines the identity of the city. The schedule includes key lectures and discussions led by prominent figures in urbanism and design, including urban planner Alan Hess and architect Jon Sparer, who played key roles in the development of iconic destinations such as the Mirage, Paris Las Vegas, and the Bellagio.
Competitions
For students looking toward the future of material innovation, the annual student design competition has officially opened for submissions. Prominent surfacing manufacturer Formica has launched its 2023 FORM Student Innovation Competition. This year’s design challenge invites students to submit a detailed color rendering paired with a comprehensive project statement for a furniture piece inspired by the design philosophy of maximalism. To qualify, student entries must incorporate three or more products from the Formica or FENIX brand portfolios, including at least one selection from the manufacturer’s SurfaceSet 2022 collection.
