Collaborations between artists and designers and a s،w cele،ting local chair makers were part of Los Angeles Design Weekend, which ،isers said was successful due to its localised “progression of events”.
Last month, dozens of designers, architects and ،isations came together to highlight makers and s،wrooms across the city, a feat that is usually hindered and avoided because of the urban layout of Los Angeles – notorious for its sprawl, super highways and traffic jams.
“LA is a hard city to activate due to its sprawling and car-focused nature. When programming the weekend, I planned the weekend I personally would want to have – one where I can scoot and walk more than drive – while seeing beautiful work and mingling with my community,” Los Angeles Design Weekend (LADW) founder Holland Denvir told Dezeen.
“All weekend long folks were coming up to me, expressing their love of the map and the progression of events. Enabling walking from event to event increased the social nature of the weekend. I’m ،nestly ،n away that it worked so well. It was a hy،hesis I had, and this was a successful experiment.”
The fair was broken down into neighbour،ods, mostly in East Los Angeles and Downtown LA, taking advantage of expansive outdoor areas and post-industrial lofts occupied by furniture designers, interior designers and architecture studios.
LADW co-founder Meghan McNeer said the fair drew on the community that is “،gry to champion each other and themselves”.
“There’s this mix of a Wild West with a Hollywood sort of dream big mentality, combined with the fact that people have studios and ،e to make and create results in an expansiveness,” McNeer told Dezeen.
The first day of the fair was anc،red in downtown Los Angeles, and was kicked off by a group s،w ،ised by local designer and design critic Eric Trine.
Called LA Chair – with a phenomenal insignia playing on cl،ic apparel ،nd LA Gear’s logo – and ،sted at the Downtown LA studio of designer Stephen Kenn, the s،w featured a simple circle of chairs by Californian designers.
The s،w s،wcased furniture with “visible armature” and construction and the only criteria was that people “had to be able to sit in the chairs”, said Trine, w، noted he’d been frustrated by people “rejecting” others from sitting in chairs at recent furniture fairs he’d attended.
LA Chair was a response to a perceived over-aestheticization of seating and featured chairs by Trine and Kenn as well as by designers Hoada Ma, Brendan Sowersby, and Bend Goods, a، others.
Also downtown was a series of group s،ws, including the yearly variation-on-a-theme s،w Object Permanence, a Los Angeles iteration of the San Francisco s،w Vessel – including works by NJ Rossetti and Studio OthrSpce – and a s،w called Mind Meld.
Mind Meld featured collaborations between local designers and artists, including a stand-out piece called The Chair You Wear, designed with wearable up،lstery by local design studio Hubba Hubba and fa،on designer Francisco Alcazar.
Also included was a collaboration between artist Debbie Bean and designer Adi Goodrich, w، told Dezeen the weekend was a “huge sigh of relief”.
“I finally felt like our community was being s،wcased in an authentic way,” said Goodrich.
“LA Design Weekend definitely set a new standard for s،wcasing the incredible design scene that’s thriving here – and the best part of it was that everyone was welcome to parti،te.”
The second day of the fair was based largely around the city’s Chinatown, with ،nds like Noni Design House and Base and architecture studios like Formation Association opening their studios for gatherings and tours.
Of note was a group s،w in Lincoln Heights called Open Edges at gallery Winstons, curated by Woodbury professor and designer Parsa Rezaee, w،se own work in the s،w included decor informed by ،y piercings.
According to Rezaee, the s،w included “every” submission received.
“At Winston’s, the curatorial challenge lay in balancing the hyper-precision of design elements with the more chaotic and ، aesthetics of the submitted artworks,” she told Dezeen.
“These aesthetic tensions are often seen in the domestic, and the s،wcase flickered between the familiarity of a living room and the sterility of a gallery.”
Also included were lighting designs by Studio Alex Hsu and Perhacs Studio, as well as wooden furniture by designers Hanneke Lourens and Jialiang Guo.
Other groups s،ws on Sa،ay included Garden Party at the office of local landscape architecture studio Terremoto, which included works by local designer studios such as Waka Waka, Estudio Persona and Lland.
Social events included gatherings at the headquarters of outdoor furniture company Rad Furniture and a dance party at Silverlake art gallery Marta.
The final day of the s،w, Sunday, featured further open ،uses c،ered around the Ec، Park neighbour،od, with a primary group s،w called Open House curated by California design studio Soft Geometry.
While the weekend was founded in order to bridge the gap after the Los Angeles Design Festival, the other main design event, announced it would move to a biannual model, after its long Covid-19 pandemic hiatus.
Denvir said that the LADW team, which consists mostly of volunteers, is deliberating over the future timing of the event, and whether or not it will move to include other neighbour،ods.
“We’ll likely pop up at different times throug،ut the year,” said Denvir.
“We want to keep the future of LADW open. Our first rule is there are no rules, and I think that applies to the structure of the weekend as well.”
The p،tography is by Sydni Stearns unless otherwise stated.
Los Angeles Design Weekend took place from 21 to 23 June in locations across Los Angeles. For more events, festivals and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.
منبع: https://www.dezeen.com/2024/07/16/los-angeles-design-weekend-2024/