Binge on Design With a New Documentary Series
‘Abstract: The Art of Design’ profiles some of the top creative thinkers of our time
Netflix has created swaths of binge-watchers out of documentaries focusing on subjects like true crime (Making a Murderer) and cooking (Chef’s Table). Now the company is hoping to attract viewers’ attention with a new topic: design.
Photo by Barbara Nitke/Netflix
The designers profiled include graphic designer Paula Scher, seen here, illustrator Christoph Niemann, stage designer Es Devlin, photographer Platon, automobile designer Ralph Gilles and Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield. During the episode featuring Ilse Crawford, viewers get a glimpse inside her iconic Ett Hem hotel in Stockholm. “This has to be the most welcoming, comfortable hotel in the world,” Neville says. “I want to live there.”
The designers profiled include graphic designer Paula Scher, seen here, illustrator Christoph Niemann, stage designer Es Devlin, photographer Platon, automobile designer Ralph Gilles and Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield. During the episode featuring Ilse Crawford, viewers get a glimpse inside her iconic Ett Hem hotel in Stockholm. “This has to be the most welcoming, comfortable hotel in the world,” Neville says. “I want to live there.”
Photo by Jens Cederskjold
The episode on Danish architect Ingels is full of surprises, Neville says. The environmentally conscious “starchitect” whose firm, Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, has won several awards and competitions, now lives in New York. Ingels recently designed 2 World Trade Center, currently under construction, which will replace the building destroyed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“He has a way of bending the rules to envision something unimaginable,” Neville says of Ingels. “He also has the ability to convince clients to pay for it. Bjarke lives in a future he’s already envisioned. The episode tries to take you there. For example, Bjarke’s Copenhill is a waste-fueled power plant with a ski slope on the roof. Somehow it really exists.”
Ingels’ 8 House, pictured, also known as the Big House, is a figure-eight-like residential mixed-use building in a suburb of Copenhagen.
The episode on Danish architect Ingels is full of surprises, Neville says. The environmentally conscious “starchitect” whose firm, Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, has won several awards and competitions, now lives in New York. Ingels recently designed 2 World Trade Center, currently under construction, which will replace the building destroyed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“He has a way of bending the rules to envision something unimaginable,” Neville says of Ingels. “He also has the ability to convince clients to pay for it. Bjarke lives in a future he’s already envisioned. The episode tries to take you there. For example, Bjarke’s Copenhill is a waste-fueled power plant with a ski slope on the roof. Somehow it really exists.”
Ingels’ 8 House, pictured, also known as the Big House, is a figure-eight-like residential mixed-use building in a suburb of Copenhagen.
Photo by Naotake Murayama
Here’s a look at Ingels’ Mountain Dwellings apartment complex, also outside of Copenhagen.
Here’s a look at Ingels’ Mountain Dwellings apartment complex, also outside of Copenhagen.
Automobile designer Ralph Gilles is profiled in the Netflix series Abstract.
The trailer for the series, below, hints at the tension, drama and tumultuousness behind the creative process of each designer in seeing his or her designs come to life and be put to use in the broader world.
And that was the point. “The idea was not to make a TV equivalent of a design magazine, but rather to tell great stories about how the world we live in is put together,” Neville says. “I think the most surprising thing was that most of design deals with the same issues we all deal with. Filmmaking is a design process. The same is true for so many different disciplines. I think we actually get at some universal questions in the series that would be relevant to a dancer or a farmer.”
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The trailer for the series, below, hints at the tension, drama and tumultuousness behind the creative process of each designer in seeing his or her designs come to life and be put to use in the broader world.
And that was the point. “The idea was not to make a TV equivalent of a design magazine, but rather to tell great stories about how the world we live in is put together,” Neville says. “I think the most surprising thing was that most of design deals with the same issues we all deal with. Filmmaking is a design process. The same is true for so many different disciplines. I think we actually get at some universal questions in the series that would be relevant to a dancer or a farmer.”
More
Meet the Chilean Architect Who Just Won the Industry’s Highest Honor
Meet the Aboriginal Women Forging a New Design Identity for Australia
Netflix’s new documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design aims to “go inside the minds of the world’s greatest designers,” including architect Bjarke Ingels, pictured here, and Ilse Crawford, British designer of interiors, furniture and products. The eight episodes of season one will be available starting Feb. 10.
“Design is something I have always been attracted to — architecture, graphic design, industrial design,” says Morgan Neville, executive producer of the series along with former Wired magazine editor in chief Scott Dadich, Dave O’Connor, Jon Kamen and Justin Wilkes. “When I heard there was going to be a series, I had two thoughts. First, why hasn’t that happened before? Second, can I please be a part of it?”