Inspired by creative thinkers with stratospheric ambition, we launch our very own Wallpaper* Moonshots Division, a design lab with extraordinary objectives. Watch this space for Earth-shaking new products, prototypes, experiences and immersions
Daan Roosegaarde is a tall, exuberant man with big, exciting ideas (the Dutch often are). Since establishing his design studio in Rotterdam a decade ago, he has created energy-neutral street lighting, energy-generating kites, an on-demand aurora borealis to illustrate the threat of rising water levels and, most famously, a smog-sucking tower. His latest mission is to dam or divert orbiting streams of space trash; 29,000 satellite bits and rocket pieces which, if left unchecked, threaten to block escape routes out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Or at least wipe out your Wi-Fi for a good while.
In October, his studio launched Space Waste Lab, the first move in a long-term effort to take down, or better upcycle, as much of this orbital junk as possible. To kickstart a space waste expo and symposium, Roosegaarde and his team set up camp at the KAF cultural centre in Almere in the Netherlands and aimed high-powered LEDs at scrap metal orbiting at altitudes of anywhere between 200 and 20,000km (they had spent over a year working with space agencies to develop tracking technology and obtain the requisite safety approvals).
This spectacular light show, with monthly repeats through to January next year, is an effort to illuminate and pinpoint just one per cent of space trash more than 10cm long (pieces much smaller than this, some travelling at a speed of 25,000km/h, can also cause catastrophic damage to satellites but they are almost impossible to map).
The three-month-long space waste expo, put together with advisors from Nasa and the European Space Agency, includes workshops or ‘living labs’. Amateurs and professionals, scientists and schoolchildren alike are encouraged to come along and throw in their own ideas and suggestions.
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Pas de Deux - Choreographer Wayne McGregor on turning a post-apocalyptic trilogy by Margaret Atwood into a three-act ballet in collaboration with composer Max Richter
Wayne McGregor is the master of creative collaborations. As resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, a position he has held since 2006, he has translated an eclectic roster of literary, avant-garde and contemporary references into works for the stage, as well as taken the helm on film, TV, fashion and music videos projects, and founded his own London-based studio.
Waking Moments - Design makes a welcome return to the Dakar Biennale, sounding out a clarion call to Africa's new creative generation
After a 20-year hiatus, design returns to the Dakar Biennale this year and, for curator Ousmane Mbaye, it comes at a pivotal time. ‘My curatorial practice is based on three aspects,’ he says. ‘A desire to do a design inventory in Africa; to record the materials being used; and to present the current generation of designers in Africa and its diaspora, and see their visions realised.’
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Recently reimagined by creative director Sabato De Sarno as part of his Cruise 2025 collection, Gucci’s ‘Blondie’ bag, first launched in 1971, centres around a rounded version of the brand’s historic interlocking-G symbol. Now one of fashion’s most recognisable motifs, it remains on De Sarno’s interpretation, which is designed to recall the original’s effortless insouciance and the heady, liberated spirit of the 1970s.
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The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's complex in Lisbon has been one of the city's best-loved landmarks since it opened in the 1960s. The foundation aims to improve quality of life through art, charity, science and education, and its Lisbon campus encompasses a main office, library, scientific research centre and contemporary art museum, Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM), which reopens this month following an extensive four-year renovation by Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates. Designed in collaboration with landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, the update cleverly reconfigures the space and extends the foundation's gardens to craft a more cohesive relationship between the existing structures.
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Over the last decade, Bali-based studio Ibuku, headed up by designer Elora Hardy, has become a leading expert in bamboo architecture, its output encompassing everything from a traditional Sumbanese house and a yoga and meditation space to playful treehouses and a riverside café at an eco-friendly jungle retreat in Ubud. In 2021, the studio completed The Arc sports hall at the Green School in Bali (founded by Elora's father, designer John Hardy). Made from a series of arches spanning an impressive 19m, it was a pioneering feat of bamboo engineering.
Guest Editor Marcio Kogan - Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century).
Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century). The 72-year-old architect has since become synonymous with contemporary Brazilian chic, offering a sumptuous blend of raw, textured materials; clean geometric forms; effortless functionality; vernacular design features; and a deep knowledge and appreciation of the rich, tropical modernist architecture legacy of his home country.
DREAM TEAM
A rewatching of a seminal film laid the foundation for JW Anderson's latest collection, a fantastical collaboration with artist Christiane Kubrick
