this week, christian de portzamparc is among the five laureates awarded the praemium imperiale for his contribution to architecture.organized by the japan art association, the annually awarded global prize recognizes the work of international artists in five fields: painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theater/film.the french architect, who was also the 1994 pritzker prize winner, joins the award’s previous architecture laureates, rafael moneo, frank gehry, tadao ando, among others.

 

in more architecture award news, the 2018 shortlist for the RIBA stirling prize – an award annually presented to the best building in the UK – has been revealed. the nominations range from the bloomberg, a central london workspace designed by foster + partners, to the reconfiguration and extension of the tate st ives by jamie fobert architects with evans & shalev.  judged with a wide range of criteria from design vision to accessibility and sustainability, the 2018 winner will be announced on october 10 2018.

in the world of design, designboom detailed fornasetti's 'tema e variazioni', which catalogues the story of its infinite icon. like helen of troy, who legend named ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’, lina cavalieri — the wildly-enchanting 19th century opera singer — would later lead a curious and eclectic italian artist on a lifelong creative voyage. piero fornasetti, born in milan in 1913, was first spellbound by the visage of the italian soprano after spotting her portrait in an old magazine. bewitched by her classical beauty, formal features and heavenly hypnotic gaze, fornasetti first embarked on a sojourn to paint the face of ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ in 1952 — and never stopped.

 

another in-depth feature this week explored the craftsmanship of swedish bed maker hästens, who has long been regarded as one of the best in the world. since 1852, the family-owned brand has handcrafted mattresses using only the finest natural materials. over the course of six generations, it has come to be revered not only for the rare fabrics, stuffings and stitching that make up the beds but also for the actors, athletes and aristocrats who have favored them for decades. this is also the case for the swedish royal court, whose relationship with the brand since 1952 has grown even stronger with bernadotte & kylberg – a collaborative design studio by oscar kylberg and prince of sweden, carl philip bernadotte  – designing a new bedlinen collection that hästens launched at salone del mobile 2018.

following our preview visit earlier this year, designboom took an exclusive tour of teamlab’s mori building digital art museum upon its opening. set across 10,000 square meters and comprising more than 50 artworks, the immersive institution features multiple 3-dimensional spaces that revolve around the theme of ‘borderless’, removing the boundaries between art and visitors. the japanese collective of ‘ultra-technologists’ have titled the entitled the extensive exhibition ‘teamlab borderless’ to describe the free-flowing nature of the boundary-free installations that transcend the various rooms, communicating with other artworks and even blending in with them.

 

as well,the ‘oculi’ installation - developed by american architecture practice austin+mergold LLC, maria park studio and cornell university - aims to promote sustainability-oriented thinking amidst the architecture and design communities, requiring them to dispose or reuse the materials utilized for their works. the structure comprises seven metal grain bins and is set on governors island in new york.

traveling to mercedes-benz’s headquarters in stuttgart, germany, designboom details a behind-the-scenes insight into the workings of their designers and, specifically, how their EQ brand is revolutionzing the future of mobility. their design philosophy of sensual purity aims to establish the characteristics of intelligent emotion – ease, respect, trust and love – through a balance of hot and cool styling. luxury is at its core, but, commandeering the cliché that designers always work in the future, what does luxury look like in the time to come?

 

in celebration of world emoji day earlier this week, apple has swapped out the official headshots of its executive mangement team for memojis. the emoji faces have been superimposed on top of the real-life torsos of execs, including tim cook and jonathan ive. it commemorates the reveal of 70 new emojis, which the company announced on july 16 2018 will launch in a free september sofware update for iPhone and iPad. 

this week for our readers submissions, berlin-based studios batek architeckten and ester bruzkus architeckten’s design for a cinema located in an art district aims at achieving the maximum effect with minimalist construction and decoration details. the auditoriums are all different colors — while one of them is entirely black — and are illuminated by LED color changing strips.

 

also, hungarian textile and fashion designer katalin huszár draws the attention to the plastic waste issue through the beauty of her works. titled ‘notjustuseless’, her project is an experimental eco-design initiative collecting and re-using plastic straws and reusing them in a fabric design for curtains, dividers, or tablecloths.

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