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Pioneers of Change

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the kick-off event for Pioneers of Change, a festival of modern Dutch design, fashion and architecture that is currently underway on Governor’s Island. Presented to celebrate the 400-year history of Dutch-American friendship, Pioneers of Change features installations by a number of leading Dutch designers in eleven former Officers’ houses at Nolan Park on the Island. It’s the first time the houses have been open to the public in thirteen years.

Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, conceived of and curated the event. Each of the designers was assigned to an Officer’s house in which to create their installation, and all shied away from typical design and architecture presentations of models, drawings and artifacts. In one house, Maarten Baas created large-scale clocks in which projections of people’s recorded actions become the clock hands, creating a performative aspect to the passing of time while illuminating it as an arbitrary concept. In another, Christien Meindertsma knitted a huge carpet from the wool of three different Dutch sheep using six-foot-long needles, demonstrating a contemporary nod to handicraft while maintaining a connection to the raw material from which the carpet is made. Dutch fashion collective Painted collaborated with Native American bead masters and Parsons fashion students to create pieces to “dress” their house, imbuing it with life and beauty. On the lawn, sit on the Boombench by Michael Schoner of NL Architects. And keep an eye out for the incredible Slow Glow Lamps by Next Architects and Aura Luz Melis in the Go Slow café in yet another house.

The installations are inspired, imaginative, playful and exploratory. They establish new collaborations, for instance inviting visitors to repair broken objects. They highlight local context, such as with ceramics made from clay from central Holland and New York. They emphasize sustainability, as one house showcases left-over building materials found around New York, and they celebrate new notions of luxury, such as time, silence, space and slowness. Pioneers of Change is definitely worth a visit – aside from Governors Island being an inspired destination in which to picnic or ride a bike in New York, seeing the latest imaginings from some of Holland’s leading designers on our shores is truly not to be missed.

Pioneers of Change runs from September 11 – 13 and September 18 – 20. Governors Island ferries depart Manhattan from 10 South Street every 20 minutes.

Andrea Lipps
Curatorial Assistant, Design Triennial

Meier 75


Personally, I am partial to Richard Meier’s approach to architecture. According to Meier, a building is an act of “willful artificiality;” a “man-made” spatial construct that functions as a receptacle for experiencing the world of nature. Meier’s white walls act as nature’s film screen capturing ever-changing patterns of reflected color and light. While Meier credits Frank Lloyd Wright as one of his influences, he would not agree with Wright that a building should grow out of the natural landscape, rather he would re-fashion the landscape as a stage for displaying his creation. Meier’s separation of art and nature follows the ideas of the early modernist architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) who likened a house to a “machine for living in.”

I find the relationship of Richard Meier’s architecture to Le Corbusier especially fascinating. A number of years ago, I did some research on the French silversmith Jean Puiforcat (1897-1945) who was Le Corbusier’s contemporary [see Gail S. Davidson, “Perfection: Jean E. Puiforcat’s Designs for Silver,” The Magazine Antiques, vol. 163, pt. 1 (January 2003)]. Both silversmith and architect were influenced by design theory, current in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, concerning a governing mathematical system for achieving design unity or harmony. Le Corbusier applied the golden section in his Modular system for the scale and proportions of architecture. Puiforcat demonstrated his use of the golden section in his drawings for silver objects. Meier’s application of regulating lines to organize the Getty Center reflects another aspect of his debt to Le Corbusier’s architectural ideas.

Richard Meier’s gift to Cooper-Hewitt of two drawings for the J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles is part of a curatorial effort in the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design Department to collect architectural drawings by contemporary architects for museum projects. In 2001, Cooper-Hewitt acquired five drawings by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of the exterior elevation and cladding for the Museum of American Folk Art in New York ( 1997). Another design drawing for a museum project by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, Designs for the Galician Center of Contemporary Art, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1988-93), contains approximately seventeen concept sketches for the museum building situated in the old quarter of this medieval pilgrimage city.

Research Chronicles

Follow my field research chronicles on twitter, starting in Kumasi, Ghana at the International Development Design Summit organized by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and MIT. The summit aims to create equity in the distribution of research and development resources by focusing on the needs of the world’s poor, bringing together students, professors, end-users and professionals from over 20 countries with a broad range of disciplines and experience. Immediately following the summit, the first Maker Faire Africa convenes in Ghana’s capital of Accra. Organized to cultivate a manufacturing base, the Faire will bring together indigenous innovators of locally generated technologies to address immediate challenges to development.

Follow me on twitter to get updates from these events in the upcoming weeks.

Felt in Haiti

  • By: Susan Brown
  • | Friday July 31, 2009
  • | 8 Comment(s)


I had the pleasure of meeting recently with Ton Vriens, a Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist who, through his foundation Turtle Tree, is working with women in Haiti to develop a felt-making co-operative, with the goal of achieving economic and social independence for the members of the self-governed group.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, and many women there are the sole providers for extended families. This highly motivated group, which calls itself Fanm Veret, Wi Nou Kapab! (The Women of Verrettes, Yes We Can Do It), has earned a grant from the Spanish regional government of Andalusia to assist with the legal process of becoming a co-operative, and to provide business training. Turtle Tree is assisting with product development by inviting American designers and felt makers to lead workshops in the crafts of felting and needlework. While there is no felting tradition in the region, it has the advantage of not requiring expensive specialized equipment. (Turtle Tree has started a second, more long-range project, of re-introducing the organic cotton cultivation which used to be a major part of Haiti’s economy). Fanm Veret imports 100% organic wool from Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Co. in Montana. Because the wool is very soft, and the hand-dyed colors are subtle, the finished products have a higher level of refinement than products coming out of Central Asia, where the wool tends to be quite coarse. The women are currently producing simple and beautiful covers for iPhone and iPod, 13” MacBook and MacBook Air.

2009 Design Patron

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, has been selected the winner of the 2009 Design Patron Award. Mr. Levy is being recognized for his design stewardship of the Lincoln Center campus renovation project. The renovations at Lincoln Center have enhanced and added to one of New York City’s great cultural treasures with new dynamic public spaces and a greater sense of accessibility and openness to the campus. Mr. Levy, along with his board, allowed incredible new design voices including Diller, Scofido + Renfro and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, both National Design Award winners, to add their mark to Lincoln Center. The design of the new Alice Tully Hall has been met with rave critical reviews, which leaves us with great anticipation for the rest of the projects set to open later this year. All of the designers working on the renovation are bringing a new freshness to the modern 1960’s campus, always a design destination and now even more so thanks to Levy’s vision and leadership. We’ll be honoring Mr. Levy, along with all of the 2009 National Design Award winners, at an October 22 gala dinner at Cipriani in New York, as well as the White House ceremony July 24 in Washington, D.C. Don’t forget to check out details on attending the free events taking place on July 24 in Washington, D.C. – hope to see you there!

Click here for more information on the July 24 events