Future of the City

Future of the city is a competition where Mario Lombardo asked 8 textile designers/artists around the world: “What should the surface of a city look like?”

From Sheila Pepe's proposal.

Our cities are still defined by urban structures established many centuries ago, sometimes dating back to Roman times, more often shaped in the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. However, our world is changing rapidly. Surfaces are always the result of the underlying principles. Are the solutions of the past still viable today, especially in face of technological advances of post-modern societies such as the internet?

Nathan says this: I love the idea of walking and driving around on the streets of New York, with an entire world beneath us. Manhole covers always seem like a portal to the underworld of New York- something hidden, something mysterious, the connection between the past and the present.

Amongst these artists are big name folks like Sheila Pepe and my personal friends Crystal Gregory and Nathan Vincent.

Crystal says this: Each design lives in visual harmony while questioning differences and social associations with material and place.

I can truly say that my 2 favorite ideas are Crystal and Nathan's. Mainly because they are unique and fresh interpretation of fibers in our environment. They offer something different and even more minimal and I would love to see them be the 2 that make it to the end. SO go look, read through the answers and vote. Voting ends this Friday. I cast mine.