©
Design Academy Eindhoven
© Downtown
For more information:
- www.designacademy.nl
- newyork.designacademy.nl
- www.designdowntown.com
Improvvisare
NY
Design Academy Eindhoven
New York City,
May 15-18, 2004
Downtown at The Chelsea
Rooms 323 and 325
222 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10012
Daily from 11:00am until 7:00pm
Contact: Tim Groen
E-mail: tim@designdowntown.com
Tel.: 212-352-9968
Opening reception: Saturday, May 15, 5-7pm (by inivitation only!)
The world-renowned Design Academy Eindhoven from the Netherlands, will premier at Downtown—New York City’s annual off-site design event—with the project Improvvisare New York.
Improvvisare New York is the Design Academy’s third and final installation based on the theme of improvisation as executed by select graduates. The previous installations attracted major press attention during the Salone del Mobile and Tokyo Designers Block. The team of designers will come to New York City to create a surprising site-specific installation, using nothing but found materials. The end result will be a clever commentary on disposability versus value, waste versus design, and will invite spectators to take a critical look at their own surroundings.
Participating designers are: Mark van der Gronden, Cynthia Hathaway, Joris Laarman, Christien Meindertsma, Reineke Otten, Marc van de Sande, and Neeltje Westenend.
Their experiences and discoveries as well as as the design process
can
be followed online from May 6 onwards via
http://newyork.designacademy.nl
The project will be overseen by Li Edelkoort, co-chairwoman of the Design Academy, sought-after trend forecaster, and publisher of Bloom and View on Color. “This latest generation,” Edelkoort says about these graduates, “has probed, prodded and tweaked the conventional to arrive at a very new and personal vision of design in which the eccentric is linked to the practical”.
Recently referred to by Murray Moss in The New York Times as “without question currently the best design academy in the world”, the Design Academy Eindhoven has launched the careers of Jurgen Bey, Tord Boontje, Marcel Wanders, and Richard Hutten to name but a few. Teachers include top design professionals Ulf Moritz, Ilse Crawford, Hella Jongerius, Gijs Bakker of droog design, and the Bourroullec brothers.
Improvvisare has been made possible in part by the Mondriaan Foundation Amsterdam and Unlimited DSM.
Improvvisare New York is one example of how Downtown helps create an exciting off-site culture in New York. The 2nd annual Downtown is a unique showcase for select international design companies and product manufacturers—many of whom choose this alternative platform to make their U.S. debut. Participants temporarily recreate suites in the hotel to present their product lines.
Downtown will be held
at the Chelsea Hotel, (222 West 23rd Street, New York City) Saturday,
May 15, Sunday, May 16 and Monday, May 17 and runs from 11am to 7pm daily.