South Korea has 15-acre floating city backed by the UN
Atop large, buoyant concrete platforms anchored to the seabed, a South Korean city will house 12,000 by the mid-century. Able to rise and fall with the water, this trailblazing project has now been backed by the UN. By the mid-century, some 800 million people will be residing in conurbations...
Current in Design
Tate galleries cut ties with Russian investors
After weeks of public pushback, all Tate galleries are cutting ties with billionaire Russian investors amid the war in Ukraine. Tate Group, the institution which operates Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives, has severed ties with Russian investors Viktor Vekselberg and Petr Aven. The two billionaires had...
Four sustainable design companies to watch out for this year
From carbon positive public seating, recycled surfboard tables, to papier-mâché guitars & repurposed plastic furniture – we’re rounding up some of the most innovative sustainable designs yet. It’s no secret that humans have historically neglected sustainability and longevity when creating designs for public spaces, appliances, and home furniture. Our affinity for...
Studio Ghibli’s Nizo Yamamoto sells art to support Ukraine
Yamamoto works for the legendary animation company Studio Ghibli. He is selling an original piece of art to help support Ukraine’s relief effort via UNICEF. If you’re at all into animation, then you’ll be very familiar with Studio Ghibli. Heralded as one of the most influential and well-renowned animation companies in...
These prefab ‘skins’ could make homes more energy efficient
One of our biggest challenges as we strive for a net-zero world is making existing buildings energy efficient. However, a German engineering start-up may have an ingenious solution to speed up the retrofitting process. Working smarter – and not harder – could be the solution to improving our current problem...
Could memorial coral reefs replace traditional graveyards?
For those trying to remain eco-friendly well into the afterlife, being cremated and turned into a host for living coral might sound rather pleasant – but is this new trend actually sustainable? Although most people presume that once we’re dead nothing really matters, humans often ask each other (or state...
National Portrait Gallery finally cutting ties with BP
Following protests in London over the last several years, BP will finally stop gifting cash to the National Portrait Gallery at the end of this year. It will remain a sponsor of the British Museum, however. BP and the National Portrait Gallery have announced that they will not be extending their partnership beyond the final month of their current contract in December 2022. It follows years of protest and public outcry...
The New Raw upcycles marine plastics into stunning beach furniture
Marine plastic pollution, but make it trendy beach furniture. That’s what one Rotterdam-based studio called The New Raw has been up to in the last few months. You know what they say: don’t bring sand to the beach. But it’s 2022, and I think we can agree that ‘don’t bring plastic to the beach’ is far more relevant as we deal with the ever-growing problem of plastic pollution. A design studio based...
The Brooklyn Museum honours the trailblazing world of Virgil Abloh
The Brooklyn Museum’s latest exhibition is an ode to fashion ground breaker Virgil Abloh. In its first Survey Exhibition, the iconic venue celebrates a man who changed global perceptions of race and class in the creative world. The fashion industry and the creative world at large have been in a state of perpetual mourning since designer Virgil Abloh passed away in November. At the time of his death, Abloh was creative...
Opinion – Italian art must acknowledge its powerful women
The proposed erection of a statue celebrating the world’s first woman to get a PhD has sparked backlash across Italy. Should society still be allowed to debate the creation of art that salutes the female gender? In 1678, Elena Cornaro Piscopia became the first-ever woman to receive a PhD. In 1776, the city of Padua, where she had lived and died, decided to erect 88 statues of all its important,...
