Login
Registered users
Organized by Iris Ceramica Group and UAE Modern, the event series Local Cultures in Global Settings continues. THE PLAN is the media partner. The focus of the initiative is an international contest for architects and designers, also named Local Cultures in Global Settings, who are invited to create a drawing to be printed on the Group's ceramic slabs.
The initiative has grown out of the collaboration between Iris Ceramica Group, as promoter, and, as curator, UAE Modern, a cultural hub dedicated to sustainability and circular economy founded by Massimo Imparato and Monica Mazzolani. The panelists at the various sessions will be prominent figures from the world of design.
Following the first event, held in April as part of Milano Design Week, the next is scheduled for Monday, May 22, in Dubai. Future events, to take place over the coming months, will be held in London and Dubai, the final destination of this journey aimed at creating cultural bridges between people, institutions and businesses.
The Local Cultures in Global Settings contest is aimed at architecture, art, and design professionals who have graduated from 2013 on. Entrants are asked to create a geometric or figurative pattern to be printed on the ceramic surfaces of Iris Ceramica Group products using the patented Design Your Slabs technology, which makes it possible to reproduce any image or illustration. Entries, to be submitted by July 31, 2023, can be for either interiors or the building envelope.
The jury of the contest is composed by Lidewij Edelkoort, trend forecaster, educator, publisher and activist; Monica Mazzolani, cofounder of MTA Associati; Federica Minozzi, CEO of Iris Ceramica Group; Abeer Seikaly, architect, artist and cultural producer; and Khalid Alshafar, founder and director of the same-name brand.
Taking place at Canadian University Dubai, the second talk of the program Local Cultures in Global Settings will comprise a panel discussion and student workshop on the topic Materials Semantics in Design Applications. Previously launched in Milan, the contest will also be presented.
The climate emergency brings with it a whole series of problems, such as resource scarcity, rising energy costs, and the disparities generated by the overexploitation of land. In this scenario, designers are being asked to choose materials from a circularity point of view – a system in which today’s waste becomes tomorrow’s resources. What will the impact on the perceptions of users and their relationship with the architectural space be? What repercussions will this have on a symbolic and emotional level? The panelists who will discuss the evolution of the culture of materials over the 20th and 21st centuries, with the discussion scheduled for May 22, are Steven Velegrinis, design director of Gensler; Jonathan Ashmore, founding principal of ANARCHITECT; and MAK, founder and design director at KDSV.
The workshop is open to students from Canadian University Dubai, De Montort University Dubai, and, subject to registration, students from other institutions. Based on the work of Burle Marx, it will offer future professionals a chance to experience the relationships between colors, shapes, and materials.
