6th May 2025
May news: A new festival for Black creativity, a local-led public art trail, Design For All applications open, and Zetteler’s pick of the Popes
New exhibitions, festivals, projects and launches from Where Are The Black Designers?, Old Diorama Arts Centre, almanac, O’DonnellBrown, and more
Photography courtesy of Alastair Nicol and graphic design by Jackson Deans.
Studio Popelo
Materials-led practice creating sensuous, sustainable spaces
Materials-led practice creating sensuous, sustainable spaces
Founded by architect Dan Pope, Studio Popelo is a design and architecture studio driven by material curiosity, collectivity and environmental care. A Bartlett graduate and recipient of the AJ Sustainability Prize, Dan is at the forefront of efforts to transform architecture for a zero-carbon future. Their work explores how local resources and experimental processes can change the way we build and inhabit space.
In 2023, we wrote that Dan was a reason to be hopeful in a world spiralling from crisis to catastrophe. As time has gone on, we’re ever more convinced that their vision for architecture offers the perfect blend of ingenuity and hands-on practicality that the industry urgently needs.
Zetteler's Pope
In 2023, we wrote that Dan was a reason to be hopeful in a world spiralling from crisis to catastrophe. As time has gone on, we’re ever more convinced that their vision for architecture offers the perfect blend of ingenuity and hands-on practicality that the industry urgently needs.
Zetteler's Pope
Graphic courtesy of Where Are The Black Designers?
Where Are The Black Designers?
The Spaces Between – a new celebration of global Black creativity
The Spaces Between – a new celebration of global Black creativity
In an industry where just 3% of designers identify as Black (according to the 2019 AIGA Design census), Where Are The Black Designers? (WATBD) is a volunteer-run nonprofit that campaigns for underrecognised voices.
Going from strength to strength since its founding in 2020, it’s now launching its first in-person festival: The Spaces Between, a two-day celebration of Black creativity on 30–31 August, featuring leading voices from the global creative sector.
The wide-ranging line-up features visual artists, musicians, designers, creative directors, leaders of prominent cultural organisations, and more, with topics of conversation including designing spaces to cultivate community, centering collectivity and the importance of curiosity.
Go into space
Going from strength to strength since its founding in 2020, it’s now launching its first in-person festival: The Spaces Between, a two-day celebration of Black creativity on 30–31 August, featuring leading voices from the global creative sector.
The wide-ranging line-up features visual artists, musicians, designers, creative directors, leaders of prominent cultural organisations, and more, with topics of conversation including designing spaces to cultivate community, centering collectivity and the importance of curiosity.
Go into space
Artworks from The Story Trail. Photography by Nick Turpin and Alice Horsley.
Old Diorama Arts Centre
Resident-led art trail through Camden’s largest housing community
Resident-led art trail through Camden’s largest housing community
Following a four-year process shaped by thousands of Camden residents, Old Diorama Arts Centre has unveiled Regent’s Park Estate Story Trail.
The ambitious project brings together 10 site-specific commissions for a new resident-led public art trail, including a sculpture referencing a clandestine LGBTQ+ bar and another work that uses AI to give a more-than-human ‘voice’ to an old much-loved local plane tree. Each artwork relates to locations selected by residents and explores local culture, ecology and heritage as well as responding to the practical needs of the area.
Walk the estate
The ambitious project brings together 10 site-specific commissions for a new resident-led public art trail, including a sculpture referencing a clandestine LGBTQ+ bar and another work that uses AI to give a more-than-human ‘voice’ to an old much-loved local plane tree. Each artwork relates to locations selected by residents and explores local culture, ecology and heritage as well as responding to the practical needs of the area.
Walk the estate
Model for Lodge Lane Baths Village. Photo courtesy of Design For All.
alma-nac
Design For All: pro bono support for charities’ building projects available now
Design For All: pro bono support for charities’ building projects available now
Countless charities and community groups are itching to build vital infrastructure – from new HQs and meeting spaces, to community gardens and children’s activity centres. These projects require early-stage design work that is often too complicated and costly for a small charity to undertake. Design For All – an initiative created by London practice alma-nac – offers a solution.
Many architectural studios provide pro-bono work, but such support is given in an informal and ad hoc way, inevitably excluding organisations that are less well connected. Design For All’s open call offers small charities who might not otherwise be able to access architectural expertise a full suite of professional services, getting their projects over the initial hurdles and a step closer to reality.
Open and transparent, the programme is a welcome effort to make the built environment better serve all of society.
Apply by 23 May 2025
Many architectural studios provide pro-bono work, but such support is given in an informal and ad hoc way, inevitably excluding organisations that are less well connected. Design For All’s open call offers small charities who might not otherwise be able to access architectural expertise a full suite of professional services, getting their projects over the initial hurdles and a step closer to reality.
Open and transparent, the programme is a welcome effort to make the built environment better serve all of society.
Apply by 23 May 2025
The No.1 Common exhibition showcases four designers' response to wood’s natural beauty. From left: Daniel Schofield, Kia Utzon-Frank, Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng and Andu Masebo. Photo by Dan Medhurst, courtesy of AHEC.
AHEC
Four designers make the case for underused timber at 3daysofdesign
Four designers make the case for underused timber at 3daysofdesign
The timber grading system does exactly what you think it might do: rate wood based on factors including size, texture and the prevalence of knots. Yet differences between US and European understandings mean a lot of viable material is left at the wayside.
AHEC’s solution is to commission four impressive designer talents – Daniel Schofield, Kia Utzon-Frank, Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng and Andu Masebo – to create visually and texturally unique designs that showcase the potential of aesthetically rich, high-performance materials.
Discover the results for yourself at No.1 Common, an exhibition at 3daysofdesign’s Material Matters fair on 18–20 June 2025, championing a sustainable approach to material selection: ‘use what nature provides’.
Get to No. 1
AHEC’s solution is to commission four impressive designer talents – Daniel Schofield, Kia Utzon-Frank, Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng and Andu Masebo – to create visually and texturally unique designs that showcase the potential of aesthetically rich, high-performance materials.
Discover the results for yourself at No.1 Common, an exhibition at 3daysofdesign’s Material Matters fair on 18–20 June 2025, championing a sustainable approach to material selection: ‘use what nature provides’.
Get to No. 1
New Olympia House by O’DonnellBrown. Photo by David Barbour.
O’DonnellBrown
Award-winning Glasgow-based architects with a reputation for retrofit and a community-focused philosophy
Award-winning Glasgow-based architects with a reputation for retrofit and a community-focused philosophy
Over more than a decade, community-driven practice O’DonnellBrown has built a reputation for socially responsible architecture that makes a positive difference to human lives. Founded in London 2013 by Jennifer O’Donnell and Sam Brown and now based in Glasgow, the eight-strong team of architects has particular strengths in retrofit and regeneration.
2025 is rapidly turning into a milestone year for the team. Alongside the completion of a major 209-home housing project, the reinvention of a 1970s Kilmarnock community centre and the rejuvenation of a historic town hall on Great Cumbrae, O’DonnellBrown is beginning to deliver on its cultural and heritage masterplan for the former Govan Graven Docks, opening up the site to the public for the first time in 40 years.
Meet the architects
2025 is rapidly turning into a milestone year for the team. Alongside the completion of a major 209-home housing project, the reinvention of a 1970s Kilmarnock community centre and the rejuvenation of a historic town hall on Great Cumbrae, O’DonnellBrown is beginning to deliver on its cultural and heritage masterplan for the former Govan Graven Docks, opening up the site to the public for the first time in 40 years.
Meet the architects
Graphic courtesy of Collective for Architecture Lebanon.
Lebanese Pavilion
Rethinking architecture through land politics
Rethinking architecture through land politics
Curated by the Collective for Architecture Lebanon (CAL), The Land Remembers transforms the Lebanese Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale into a fictional institution, the Ministry of Land Intelligens, to explore themes of ecocide and environmental healing.
Rooted in the history of conflict and urbanisation in Lebanon that has pushed its landscapes to the brink, the pavilion argues that architecture must begin with the land, emphasizing that architects must recognise their role in protecting and regenerating nature.
The pavilion itself is constructed from compacted soil bricks embedded with wheat seeds, one of the oldest domesticated crops, first cultivated in the region. These bricks will gradually sprout over six months, demonstrating nature’s inherent ability to regenerate.
Regenerative curation
Rooted in the history of conflict and urbanisation in Lebanon that has pushed its landscapes to the brink, the pavilion argues that architecture must begin with the land, emphasizing that architects must recognise their role in protecting and regenerating nature.
The pavilion itself is constructed from compacted soil bricks embedded with wheat seeds, one of the oldest domesticated crops, first cultivated in the region. These bricks will gradually sprout over six months, demonstrating nature’s inherent ability to regenerate.
Regenerative curation
Yinka Ilori. Portrait by Kane Hulse.
Milton Keynes Station Square
‘Walk With your Dreams’: Yinka Ilori celebrates the vibrancy of the New Town vision
‘Walk With your Dreams’: Yinka Ilori celebrates the vibrancy of the New Town vision
One of the last and largest settlements to be born from the New Towns Act, Milton Keynes is a postwar urban-planning success story. This year, MK’s artistic identity is set to be enriched with the transformation of Station Square.
Conceived as the gateway to the new town when it was first developed, the expansive public space will feature a large-scale, boldly colourful 2D installation from artist Yinka Ilori that will greet visitors, facilitate wayfinding, reflect the city’s extraordinary story, and reflect the vibrancy and variety of MK today. The result – ‘Walk With Your Dreams’ – is set to be unveiled in summer 2025.
Find out more
Conceived as the gateway to the new town when it was first developed, the expansive public space will feature a large-scale, boldly colourful 2D installation from artist Yinka Ilori that will greet visitors, facilitate wayfinding, reflect the city’s extraordinary story, and reflect the vibrancy and variety of MK today. The result – ‘Walk With Your Dreams’ – is set to be unveiled in summer 2025.
Find out more
Kiln Sauna in Gylly Beach, Falmouth. Photo by Jenna Foxton.
Kiln Sauna
The heat is on – changing the UK’s sauna culture
The heat is on – changing the UK’s sauna culture
Inspired by wellbeing traditions from Scandinavia to the Baltics and Asia, where the sauna is understood as part of daily life, designers Kathryn Tyler and Angus Thatcher founded Kiln Sauna in 2024. Part of the evolving movement in the UK, their aim has been to democratise sauna culture, taking saunas out of the typical luxury spa setting and into the community.
Having opened saunas in Gylly Beach, Falmouth and Kiln Quay in Flushing,and bagged the UK Sauna Society’s Best Community Sauna Award, the duo have now won the tender for a three-year lease on a beautiful stretch of land in St Ives, overlooking Porthmeor beach, just steps away from the Tate Gallery. This revolution will be wood-fired.
Hot stuff
Shivas Brown, Errol Anderson and Bosco Taylor speaking. Images courtesy of Stone Island Sound.
Andu Masebo
Music in Milan with Stone Island and Friendly Pressure
Music in Milan with Stone Island and Friendly Pressure
Andu Masebo’s stools featured as part of Stone Island’s latest collaboration, Friendly Pressure: Studio One. This immersive audio experience took place during Milan Design Week 2025 at Capsule Plaza, where the dimensions of the space itself determined the texture of the soundscape within it.
The set-up also included an adjustable console designed in collaboration with Fables Collective, a rack system by Mitre & Mondays, and modular couches by ANDA_BA. The project appeared alongside a week-long cultural programme of live music sessions, DJ sets and conversations, in collaboration with Friendly Pressure, a bespoke sound system studio founded by Shivas Brown in London.
Keep up with Andu
The set-up also included an adjustable console designed in collaboration with Fables Collective, a rack system by Mitre & Mondays, and modular couches by ANDA_BA. The project appeared alongside a week-long cultural programme of live music sessions, DJ sets and conversations, in collaboration with Friendly Pressure, a bespoke sound system studio founded by Shivas Brown in London.
Keep up with Andu
Photo by Keymea Yazdanian.
Flowers on the Edge
Eight boundary-pushing florists mark British Flowers Week
Eight boundary-pushing florists mark British Flowers Week
Coinciding with British Flowers Week, Flowers on the Edge aims to push the boundaries of sustainable floral design by shining a spotlight on emerging seasonal floral designers and locally grown flowers.
Running from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June 2025 at Staffordshire St project space in Peckham, eight up-and-coming floral designers and artists will each create a unique installation. Displayed on a minimal plinth, each piece will demonstrate their innovative and artistic approach to floral design, using only locally grown flowers and sustainable mechanics.
Organised by florists and Flowers from the Farm members Cissy Bullock and Olivia Wilson, the exhibition sets out to showcase the artistry that underpins floral design while raising awareness about the positive environmental impacts of season-led floristry.
Flowers to follow
Running from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June 2025 at Staffordshire St project space in Peckham, eight up-and-coming floral designers and artists will each create a unique installation. Displayed on a minimal plinth, each piece will demonstrate their innovative and artistic approach to floral design, using only locally grown flowers and sustainable mechanics.
Organised by florists and Flowers from the Farm members Cissy Bullock and Olivia Wilson, the exhibition sets out to showcase the artistry that underpins floral design while raising awareness about the positive environmental impacts of season-led floristry.
Flowers to follow
+44 (0)7791 568890
Unit 73B Regent Studios
8 Andrews Road
London
E8 4QN
8 Andrews Road
London
E8 4QN