Istanbul Design Biennial 2012

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Istanbul Modern


Istanbul’s inaugural design biennial kicked off this month, with events clustered in two central locations: Galata Greek School and Istanbul Modern. The theme, Imperfection, was set by Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic.

“As a city, Istanbul is far from perfect, yet it is one of the most exhilarating and dynamic centres in the world," Sudjic explained. "Its special quality is that it makes so much of the imperfect, the inexact and the provisional.”

Transparent Tools: Toaster by Jesse Howard


The highlight of the Biennial is Adhocracy, an exhibition curated by Domus editor Joseph Grima that focuses on people who make things - specifically people who make things that that enable the consumer to make things.

Jesse Howard's Transparent Tools project is critical of built-in obsolescence: using 3D-printed, CNC-manufactured and standard components, the Transparent Tools can be made when needed and fixed when broken.

ProdUSER by Tristan Kopp


ProdUSER by Dutch designer Tristan Kopp is a series of bike components that enables the user to make the frame out of whatever resources are locally available: a clever hybrid of centralised mass production, and local production.

A sledge made using components from Open Structure


The Open Structures collaborative project explores the possibility of a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid.

Subscribers, read our full report from the Istanbul Design Biennial here.