Here's the Heads Up #16

Designgoat at the opening of Making Things Better as part of Design Intelligence at the National Craft Gallery. Photo by Pat Moore, courtesty of the NCG

IRELAND

Tuesday 18 June: NEWNOWNEXT, Tatiana Bilbao
Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, Dublin 2
The latest series of talks presented by the Irish Architecture Foundation (and supported by Arup) is entitled NEWNOWNEXT, bringing exciting young architects from all over the world to Dublin - some for the first time - to speak about their work. The series kicked off with Jeanne Gang and booked out in no time: keep an eye on the IAF's site for free tickets to hear architect and urban advocate Tatiana Bilbao of Mexico speak about her diverse portfolio of work.

Tuesday 18 June: Urban Knights
Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2
If you'd prefer something else on the 18 June, Science Gallery's Urban Knights series of talks from people in Ireland and abroad making changes in cities continues with presentations from John Lynch of the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design, founder of Rothar Anne Bodes and others.

Maria Keil

(Intendente)

Born in 1914, Maria Keil was a Portuguese artist who created a massive amount of work, and in particular a great number of tile patterns and murals in the city of Lisbon. I've seen examples of Keil's designs in various places, but it's her work for the Lisbon Metro system that stands out most for me. I first came across her name when researching a post about Parque Metro Station. Parque was one of the first Metro stations opened in Lisbon and the striking tiles in its lobby were designed by Keil.

Parque Metro Station

When it comes to transport in Lisbon the city's little yellow trams, still in use since the 1930s, get all the glory. And justifiably so - they're about as adorable as public transport comes. But for this post on transport infrastructure in Lisbon I thought I'd take a look at a small but striking Metro station near Avenida da Liberdade, the city's main boulevard: Parque.

Glasgow's Riverside Museum

On a recent trip to Glasgow I visited the newly-opened Riverside Museum - the city's new Museum of Transport designed by (st)architect Zaha Hadid. Though Hadid's aesthetic usually doesn't appeal to me at all (exaggerated computer-generated curves, I get it already), I have to say I kinda like the Riverside! The building's exterior form is essentially that trademark Hadid curvy extrusion of a not-so-trademark flat silhouette that creates the two main facades at either end of the building. The facades have a sharp, graphic quality about them that echoes the warehouses and steeples you see - or would have seen - along Glasgow's Clyde river, and the use of zinc-cladding on the building's exterior evokes some of Glasgow's industrial past. It's fairly textbook, but it works.

City Bikes

At long last I Like Local* is based at home in Ireland again, and what a pleasure that is! Though the summer, with all its Danish and Scottish adventures, was Supernice, it's great to be home to assume my role here as a freelance visionary (my current favourite made-up job title: altogether more positive-sounding than "floundering graduate", which I went with for a while).