February 2021

Designing Future Realities

On Thursday, February 18, I am giving a talk for the Designing Future Realities programme in Wattens.

6 – 8 pm, (CET) Zoom

Register for free: https://bit.ly/35tE356

What We Did Next

With this talk I would like to think about how as designers and artists we can respond to our times, what is happening around us and consider how we can contribute.

I will do this by showing examples of some of my own projects and approaches towards mass production, studio editions, industrial manufacturing technologies, artisan handmade skills and social engagement. I will also briefly talk about my experience when I was teaching at the Royal College of Art in the Design Products department and an approach that we developed to analyse the place of design projects in the world.

https://designingfuturerealities.com/

October 2020

World Hope Forum

On 24 October 2020, Tord Boontje will join the World Hope Forum to give a talk about his recent Do-It-Together project.

The forum will start at 10:30 AM C.E.T. (9:30 AM UK) and registration is free:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8yZ4Bam3SECrkKG0WzNPYQ

About the World Hope Forum:

Founded by Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano, the World Hope Forum is an organisation whose main goal is to create a global platform for the exchange and expansion of knowledge, innovation of business practices, the resetting of making methods, the invention of alternative models, the rethinking of the rituals of selling, sharing and bartering – and other initiatives yet to be discovered.

In this first meeting of great spirits and inspiring speakers, we invite general audiences from around the globe to join us and celebrate this WHF launch for the Netherlands. This conference will address several topics such as the climate crisis, inclusivity, waste management, cooperation, indigenous design, archeology as a source of inspiration, and the inclusion of the humanities in design. Multiple ideas about slowing down and scaling down; doing good for people and the planet alike.

Program:

10:30 Lidewij Edelkoort, World Hope Forum Manifesto
10:45 meet the WHF Ambassadors
(Mary Portas from England and Kaori Ieyasu from Japan)
11:00 Petra Janssen, WHF Ambassador for the Netherlands & founder of Social Label
11:45 Philip Fimmano, A Labour of Love: new materialism in design

12:15 lunch break

13:15 Rodney Lam, serial entrepeneur & co-founder, Daily Paper
13:45 Pascale Gatzen, head of Practice Held in Common, ArtEZ
14:45 meet the WHF Ambassadors
(Stephanie Calvino from France, Ragna Froda from Iceland and Mary Portas from England)

15:05 short break

15:15 Michiel van Maaren, 2020 Design Academy Eindhoven graduate
15:30 meet the WHF Ambassadors
(Marcella Echavarria from Mexico, Lilly Tede from Brasil, Barbara de Vries from the US)
15:45 Tord Boontje, designer & creator of Do-It-Together
16:10 Lucas de Man, Biobased Creations
16:30 Lidewij Edelkoort with last words of hope

September 2020

Do It Together

This week we are launching a new group of products, called the Do-It-Together collection. Our first two products are a chair and a light.

The D.I.T. collection is about affordable and functional products where you can enjoy collaborating in the making process.

The chair and light are now available from our online shop.

The chair comes flat packed and is made of untreated solid beech wood and birch plywood. You can finish the chair as you would like and assemble it yourself. We have printed the part names on the components to make the assembly very easy.

During this year's London Design Festival we are staging a small event in our studio on 17, 18 and 19 September. We will show the new pieces and demonstrate some of the production.

Visit us at:

Studio Tord Boontje, Unit E, Willow House
Dragonfly Place
London SE4 2AN

17-19 September from 10 to 5 pm.

October 2019

Balustrades for Chelsea Barracks

Flowers adorn the balcony balustrades we designed for the townhouses in Mulberry Square, Chelsea Barracks, the first phase of a new luxury development on the historic site in London.

Combining nature with the geometry of the houses, the flowers, all commonly found in Britain, are set on curved but geometric railing.

Unique to each house, the flowers were handcrafted by highly skilled blacksmiths based in a seventeenth century forge in Somerset.

See more on the project.

September 2019

Over 100 graphic panels for Naturalis

We have created over 100 graphic panels for the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, which are installed throughout the newly reopened museum building.
Asked by Naturalis and Neutelings Riedijk Architects to design the large scale panels, varying in size from an average of 1.2 × 3 metres to the largest panel at 27 metres long, each panel is a visual story celebrating the wonder and variety of the natural world.

Naturalis, the international institute for biodiversity, contains a collection of 42 million objects (the fifth largest natural history collection in the world). Its state of the art research facilities and brand-new museum form a meeting place for everyone who wants to discover and learn more about nature.
Visitors can wander around 6000 m2 of galleries centred around nine different themes, experience attractions and workshops, step in for food and drinks and visit the museum store.

See more on the project.

August 2019

Jewellery for I Do

We’ve create a collection of jewellery for I Do, a wedding jewellery brand with boutiques across China.

Including an engagement ring and wedding bands, inspiration is taken from frozen flowers and frosted branches.

The diamonds are to me just like small shards of ice, which are eternal.

See more on the collection.

July 2019

Garland blooms again in 2019 and our new online shop

First available in 2002, we've relaunched the Garland this summer!

A design classic included in the permanent collection of MoMA New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum London, we're proud to be producing the Garland ourselves to ensure it can continue to flower and delight.

We’ve also launched a new online shop where you can buy a selection of our designs. We're starting with the Garland but will add other items such as lighting and tableware.

Visit the shop now.

May 2019

New Glass Now

We have been selected to be part of New Glass Now, an exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.

New Glass Now features objects, installations, videos, and performances from the last 3 years by 100 artists of 32 nationalities working in more than 25 countries.

Taking place from 12 May 2019 to 5 January 2020, it is the third exhibition in a series organised by the Museum to survey contemporary glass on an international scale.

Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, the Museum will publish the 40th anniversary issue of New Glass Review, its annual exhibition-in-print of contemporary glass.

Find out more about the exhibition.

April 2019

An Accelerated Culture at Friedman Benda

Two of our pieces have been included in An Accelerated Culture, an exhibition curated by Libby Sellers and Brent Dzekciorius for the gallery Friedman Benda.

The exhibition, which brings together a selection of the most progressive contemporary designers from the so-called ‘Generation X’, is an investigation into any shared ideologies and beliefs that emerge from such a disparate cohort.

Through key examples and representations from more than twenty designers and design studios from eight (predominantly European) countries, the exhibition demonstrates the full breadth of this generation with an in-depth survey of design rarely seen outside of a museum context.

See the show from May 3 – June 8 2019 at Friedman Benda, New York.

April 2019

Light Drops and Radiant Table Light at Euroluce

This year in Milan it was all about light.

Our Luminous Reflections components for Swarovski have been reimagined as Light Drops and Radiant Table Lights and were launched at Euroluce.

I was given the opportunity to design my own crystal shapes and to create chandeliers with these new crystals. I was interested in using crystal to make a “soft light” effect, a quality of light you can see in a snowy landscape or as dancing light reflections on a lake.