This year’s Jerusalem Design Week was titled Lies & Falsehoods. Here are our highlights from the event.
Wrapping up last week, this year’s Jerusalem Design Week was not (just) about toying with our perception of reality, but about considering the role of the designer as someone whose work ‘oscillates between reality and fiction’, according to the organizers. ‘On the one hand, there is the constant expectation to produce a dazzling spectacle, the longing for beauty, and the impetus to generate desire in order to maximise profits. On the other hand, current design practices have been focusing more and more on establishing transparency, building trust, and taking responsibility. The 2023 Jerusalem Design Week sets out to examine and celebrate the role of the designer in these contexts.’
NON-GARDEN
Studio MA of Moria Architects
Yael Moria, Yael C. Agmon, Adi Levi-Trau, Amir Lotan, Alaa Shulhut
Against the backdrop of urbanization and deforestation, Non-Garden presented a vision of rewilding that ‘does not symbolize the victory of nature over culture or vice versa, but the synthesis of them’. Imagine an array of seeds collected from across Israel and strewn across a garden using advanced spraying technology. The creators say the sprayed seeds create ‘a new, hybrid landscape: simultaneously natural and artificial, local and foreign, authentic and fake, organized without hierarchy, multicultural and homogeneous. A non-garden.’
AGENCY FOR UNSEEN SIGHTS
Esmée Willemsen
Agency for Unseen Sights revealed ‘invisible’ sights, critiquing our tendency to travel long distances to gain new perspectives. Through a series of playful, interactive structures that mark, guide and frame, the project questioned whether beauty can be found in even the seemingly banal, turning any scene into a must-see attraction.
THE UNCANNY VALLEY OF FUTURE FOOD
Naama Nicotra, Ram Shalom, Maya Margolin, Or Rosen, Noam Sol, Or Ben Dov, Ofri Shapira, Inbal Abramson, Noa Zeevi, Shaked Schwartzberg, Imri Dromi
With new food-tech start-ups emerging every week, it’s getting easier to imagine a future where more people eat lab-grown ‘meat’ than actual animals. The Uncanny Valley of Future Food questions why we’re still hung up on re-creating the look and feel of such original food sources. Contemplating the possibility of embracing entirely new aesthetics, eleven young designers joined forces to redesign four lab-grown foods: eggs, dairy, meat and fish.
TIME CAPSULE
Future Positive – Nir Goeta and Rotem Goeta
Pondering the fragility of the earth’s ecosystem, Future Positive blended digital fashion and NFT technology to preserve flowers for posterity. Time Capsule explored what happens when clothing is no longer constrained by the physical world, visualizing our personal avatars strolling the metaverse clad in colourful blossoms.
BLACKOUT PROTOCOL
HQ Architects
Claiming that most lies are half-truths, HQ Architects created an installation that shrouds JDW venue Hansen House in shadow, playing with visitors’ perception of its physical structure. Visitors first encounter a black X, which seems to disintegrate as they approach – a visual illusion that relies on carefully assembled fragmented planes.
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Idan Sidi, Gal Sharir
As climate change dries up water sources and melts icebergs, Idan Sidi and Gal Sharir assert that ‘the search for life-giving water is more relevant than ever’. Like a mirage, their iridescent sculpture was ‘proof’ that legendary wonder spring the Fountain of Youth could be found in the courtyard of the JDW venue, Hansen House.
WOODENWOOD
Research team: Arch. Avi Cohen, Yuval Berger, Yoav Dabas, Alon Nisan
Disrupt.Design Lab, Technion directed by Arch. Shany Barath
WoodenWood is a comment on the lack of circularity in wood’s material chain. The team combined raw wood waste, sawdust and cellulose-based natural binders to offer an alternative to petroleum-based design materials and reduce unnecessary wood waste. They used seating elements as prototypal case studies, illustrating how the resulting ‘wood textile’ could be robotically printed into rattan patterns.
IN-LINE V2
Nohlab - Yasemen Birhekimoğlu, Candaş Şişman, Deniz Kader
Through a play of LED screens, reflection and haze, In-Line v2 broke the perceivable borders of a building to create a ‘limitless space’. The immersive light-and-sound experience changed from moment to moment, celebrating ‘order and disorder’.