New York’s Vessel reopens with stricter safety measures, TIME honors two architects in its 100 Most Influential People list, and new federal rules require airlines to issue cash refunds for delays. All that and more in this week’s Five on Friday.
What you missed from Milan Design Week 2024
A wooden chair designed by director David Lynch for his Thinking Room exhibition at Salone del Mobile; photo courtesy of David Lynch and Salone del Mobile
That’s a wrap for Milan Design Week, which took place from April 15th–21st. A number of installations caught attention this year, including Seletti Market, a supermarket-style shoppable exhibition by Italian maximalist design brand Seletti and House of Mirrors, an installation by architectural firm La Errería for Tile of Spain. A new cinematic experience landed at Salone del Mobile with Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room, an exhibition showcasing the acclaimed director’s design of a large wooden chair inside a dark room intended for meditation and reflection. In contrast to the low-stimulus room was Making Sense of Sound—a Fuorisalone project by Google Design Studio in collaboration with Chromasonic—where 21 open-box rooms with translucent panels shifted colors in rhythm with sound frequencies playing in the background. Designboom captures additional highlights from the week.
New York’s Vessel reopens to the public
The Vessel, also known as the Hudson Yards Staircase, designed by architect Thomas Heatherwick; photo courtesy of Francois Roux/Adobe Stock
The Vessel viewpoint has sat empty in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards since 2021 after four people died there by suicide. Designed by Heatherwick Studio as the centerpiece of the neighborhood, the honeycomb-shaped structure—comprising 154 staircases that meet at 80 platforms—was intended to be an interactive sculpture and public space. Three years after the incidents, the Vessel is now slated to reopen with more stringent protections to prevent people from jumping off its platforms, writes Dezeen, including floor-to-ceiling steel mesh across half its walkable spaces. According to UK architecture magazine The Architects’ Journal, Heatherwick Studio had previously proposed safety barriers in its design, but the plans were never implemented. Its highest platform will remain permanently closed.
TIME100 recognizes architects Lesley Lokko and Marina Tabassum
Marina Tabassum won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the design of Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh; photo by Rajesh Vora, courtesy of Aga Khan Trust for Culture
TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024 list includes two architects, Marina Tabassum and Lesley Lokko. Tabassum, a Bangladeshi architect and educator, is principal of her eponymous architecture firm and is known for placing climate, context, culture, and history at the forefront of her projects. In 2016, she won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the design of Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is not only as a place of worship, but also a place of refuge in the midst of a densely populated neighborhood. Lokko, a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist, has also made her impact on the architectural world, including the establishment of the Graduate School of Architecture (GSA) at the University of Johannesburg. Earlier this year, she was honored by the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA) with a Royal Gold Medal, one of the industry’s highest honors, making her the first Black woman to be honored since its founding in 1848.
New federal rules mandate automatic cash refunds for flight delays
Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock
The Biden administration issued final rules requiring airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like significantly delayed flights and canceled trips, the Associated Press reports. Under current regulations, airlines have discretion on the length of the delay before a refund is triggered. The Department of Transportation is removing that wiggle room by defining a significant delay as lasting at least three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international ones. The new rules also require airlines to be more transparent about fees for baggage, seats, or reservation changes, mandating all costs should be shown the first time a customer sees a flight price and schedule. The new rules are expected to save consumers more than $500 million a year.
HD Expo + Conference is here!
Following its success in France, Silencio nightclub recently launched a New York outpost designed by Harry Nuriev; photo by Pauline Shapiro
It’s showtime! We hope to see you next week at HD Expo + Conference 2024, which kicks off on Monday, April 29th with HD University. Join us for three days of thought-provoking sessions, including HD Masterclass: Hospitality’s Sustainability Playbook to learn effective design approaches that conserve resources and protect the environment; Evolving F+B: Designing for Local, Diverse, Authentic Dining on how to keep up with the evolution of restaurant design; I Love the Nightlife: Shifts in Cocktailing and Afterhours that will cover new design environments in the nightlife world; and a conversation with Lisa White of the Worth Global Style Network (WGSN) on six trends that will impact interior products and spaces in 2025. View the conference schedule for the full list of sessions. There’s still time to register!
