It turns out that the 1939 World’s Fair in New York was only the culmination of what seems to have been a veritable craze for International Expositions in the United States. Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s, on view at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., until September 5, presents astounding evidence of America’s world-fair-mania: posters, architectural models, films, furniture, and even Elektro the Moto-Man robot.  Throughout that glorious decade companies like GM and Stran-Steel gave designers free reign to speculate and dream. And the American public lapped it all up. The contrast with the US pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, or even recent American design shows, is almost too stark to bear. Read more…

To get a behind-the-scenes view of how the Metropolis Booth came together for this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair, I went to the people in charge of making it happen. The interdisciplinary group in David Stark’s class at Parsons was a handful of students, both grad and undergrad. As a group they took on the assignment of conceiving, designing, making, installing, and recycling our booth—working on it from the beginning to the end of the spring semester, on a very tight budget!

Photo: Magda Biernat

Early on, three design proposals were presented. One was chosen to go forward. Amy Johnson, who just received her MArch, was on the team whose proposal was picked. As she explains, she “started out with an understanding that we had a strong idea, and pushed my group to represent our thoughts as clearly as possible. After the Metropolis meeting, I led the effort to successfully integrate parts of all three schemes, as requested. Throughout the second half of the semester, I found myself co-managing a number of different tasks with Lauren Zailyk—millwork, lighting, signage, electrical, transportation of materials, and the breakdown – as well as picking up loose ends. I also saw myself in a leadership role with the undergrads and, having real world experience, I hoped to push them to think about this is a ‘real’ project; i.e., to see through tasks from beginning to end.”

Lauren Zailyk, second year Master of Architecture student who just graduated, speaking for the group, recalls:  “During the schematic design and design development phases we worked closely together to develop the overall design, construction details, explore materiality, put together a comprehensive presentation of materials, and insured that all programmatic requirements were met in the design brief.”  Typically, she added, “I fielded questions from undergraduates in terms of representation methods and interior construction issues like ADA requirements. In addition to our detailed design and construction duties, Amy Johnson and I organized the final breakdown at Javits.”

While working with the group, Patrick McNaughton [MFA Interior Design and among the first to graduate from that new program this spring], acted as project manager. “This mostly meant maintaining communication with Metropolis and Javits, and ensuring that all project deadlines were met,” he said. Metropolis was the client, with me giving the overall charge to the class; Dungjai Pungauthaikan and Ashley Stevens of our Art Department providing the design critique; Carri Winters of our Marketing Department worked with the team on a daily basis. Here the students talk about their hands-on experiences of designing and building a booth that needed to represent the magazine—and celebrate our 30th anniversary—at the trade show.

Susan S. Szenasy: When you signed up for the course, what did you think you were about to get into?

Lauren Zailyk: After attending several ICFF shows, my admiration for the Metropolis booth design—its ability to interact with my aesthetic sense year after year—has continued to grow. When I saw the opportunity to participate in this group design-build I jumped at it. I expected to have the opportunity to take something graphic [the magazine] and make it experiential as well as gain hands-on experience with crafting functional furniture.

Amy Johnson: I was seeing this as a design-build opportunity. I feel that you cannot discount what you learn from physically making what you have designed, drawn, specified, etc.  What’s amazing about this project is that young designers usually do not have the budget to build what they are dreaming up.

Patrick McNaughton: I was really excited about the opportunity to work with David Stark and explore the more decorative side of design. I had previously worked on a couple of design-build projects through Parsons (Aftertaste 2010 Dinner and Parsons 2010 Fashion Benefit), so I was generally familiar with the process, which requires a lot of teamwork and, therefore, an extremely competent team. I was hopeful that we would have a fun experience, but also that the rest of the students would actively engage themselves enough to keep the workload evenly distributed.

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This year’s Metropolis Conference at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, in New York, featured a cast of “design entrepreneurs” who are reinventing their practices through creative approaches to the new economy. Even if you couldn’t make it to the daylong conference, you’re still in luck: video of the complete event is now available. Watch the one-minute teaser above for a quick look at a few of the speakers’ presentations, and keep scrolling for the conference schedule with links to all of the videos. Read more…

Design was in the air this month, and we took in great heaving gasps of it as we ran from one event to another (and from one blog to another). New work was released, exhibitions were exhibited, and awards were awarded. For those who feel like the month passed them by, here’s our shortlist from May’s cornucopia of design news:

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A Pavilion Fiasco at the World Expo

What could possibly go wrong with an event that combines Shanghai and showiness? The pavilions. The U.S. pavilion has been called “a sorry spectacle,” and don’t even get us started on the terrifying animated baby mannequin in front of the Spanish pavilion. The only point of agreement, it seems, was the general nostalgia for the great Expo designers of yore.

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Honored by the AIA

Early this month, the American Institute of Architects announced the 2010 AIA/HUD Secretary’s Awards and the 2010 AIA Housing Awards. But the ones to really look out for are the seven young firms that won the New Practices New York awards: EASTON+COMBS, Archipelagos, Leong Leong, Manifold SOFTlab, SO-IL, and Tacklebox. Their prize-winning work will be on view at New York’s Center for Architecture from July 15.

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The Pritzker Ceremony and the RIBA Awards

A galaxy of starchitects and other glitterati descended on New York’s Ellis Island for the Pritzker Prize ceremony, where the Japanese firm SANAA received architecture’s biggest prize. Meanwhile, 101 buildings received the architectural excellence award of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

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Frank Gehry Stirs Up a LEED Controversy

Frank Gehry’s cavalier comments on the LEED ratings system raised a few hackles. While the focus of the discussion shifted from Gehry to the legitimacy of the ratings themselves, New York’s Bank of America tower was awarded LEED Platinum, making it the greenest skyscraper in town.

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Even after last week’s ICFF live-blogging extravaganza, we ended up with dozens of unpublished snapshots of noteworthy new products and projects from the 22nd annual furniture fair. Here, then, in no particular order, is a final roundup of neat stuff from the 2010 ICFF.

Above: Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s Corvo chair, for Bernhardt Design, which we wrote about in the April issue of the magazine.

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As you may have read in the New York Times the other day, Metropolis’s editor in chief, Susan Szenasy, was one of several design mavens to comb the recent ICFF in search of the very best products for the annual ICFF Editors Awards. This year, Szenasy toted along a Flip video camera for part of her rounds. Click the play button for a sample of her unofficial ICFF video diary; to watch the full videos, visit our Multimedia page.

Related: We also produced show-floor videos on Tom Dixon’s Flash Factory, Emily Pilloton’s Design Revolution Road Show, and Artek’s Dress the Chair demonstration.

The biggest foreign presence at this year’s ICFF came from Spain, with 20 companies exhibiting a range of colorful and well-crafted furniture, lighting, carpets, and wall-coverings. Here are a few of the highlights:

Actually, one of my favorite Spanish products wasn’t on display at the fair: Nanimarquina’s new Digit rug, by the London-based graphic designer Cristian Zuzunaga, resembles an extremely enlarged color photograph. It comes in a 26-color version (shown) or with a more muted monochromatic palette. Read more…

Last year, the Japan External Trade Organization arrived at ICFF with a huge exhibition that took up an entire annex pavilion to the main Javits floor. Many curious fairgoers got their first look at products like Naoto Fukasawa’s famed Infobar cell phone, a candy-bar doppelgänger that has been (criminally) limited to Japan. JETRO was smaller this year, but there were still visual treats to be had. We’ve selected a few of the sweetest morsels.
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Hecmec

Bright and cheery, Hecmec’s fold-up plastic chairs for kids have a soft, cardboard-tube structure that protects little fingers. They come in glossy cardboard (for extra durability) or plain (for customizing with your four-year-old’s precocious scrawls). www.hecmec.jp

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When it comes to technology, one of my favorite objects is a Tivoli portable radio. The high-quality sound, the compact size, and the old-school knobs are perfect for simple folk like me. What’s refreshing is that the company in recent years has embraced Design with a capital “D.” This year’s iPAL models, for example, are available in high-gloss red, green, blue, yellow, and black—zippy colors that are bound to please. Read more…

In 1999, Benjamin and Thomas Cherner began the Cherner Chair Company to manufacture their father’s iconic molded-plywood chairs. Since then, they have reissued many other Norman Cherner designs according to original drawings and specifications. This year they’re introducing Multiflex credenzas—marking the first time they’ve ventured into case goods. The cabinets are made to order in a tremendous range of configurations and come in either “classic” walnut (the exposed beech core is stained to match the walnut veneer) or “natural” walnut (a clear finish emphasizes the contrast between the beech core and the walnut veneer). The brothers are also releasing a 1968 design for a rectangular tube lamp that sat on a table in their childhood home. Made of cast translucent acrylic and chrome-plated steel rods, it casts a uniform glow and is available in table, floor,  and pendant options. All the products from this family-run operation are made in the United States. Read more…