What’s Happening: An anonymous collective of prominent artists and architects called the Johnson Study Group are asking the Museum of Modern Art, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and other public-facing nonprofits to remove Philip Johnson’s name from leadership titles, public spaces, and other honorifics over the late architect’s ties to fascism.

The Download: Philip Johnson’s problematic political inclinations are well-documented, but haven’t received much attention until recently. To recap, the architect personally translated propaganda for the Nazi party, disseminated Nazi publications, and attempted to found his own fascist party in Louisiana. (As late as 1964, he even described Hitler as “better than Roosevelt.”) As the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture and Design collection, a five-decade position in which he helped define modern architecture to the American public, not a single work by any Black architect or designer was included.

In the era of Black Lives Matter, that troubling legacy is changing. In February, MoMA will open “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America,” the museum’s first to explore the architecture of African American and African diaspora communities in the United States. The letter, addressed to MoMA director Glenn Lowry and the institution’s chief curator of architecture and design Martino Stierli (whose title is named after Johnson), was co-signed by six of the 10 participants in the show: Emanuel Admassu, Sekou Cooke, J. Yolande Daniels, Felecia Davis, Olalekan Jeyifous, and Amanda Williams.

In Their Own Words: “Philip Johnson’s widely documented white supremacist views and activities make him an inappropriate namesake within any education or cultural institution that purports to serve a wide public,” the letter reads. “There’s a role for Johnson’s architectural work in archives and historic preservation. However, naming titles and spaces inevitably suggests that the honoree is a model for curators, administrators, students, and others who participate in these institutions. He not only acquiesced in but added to the persistent practice of racism in the field of architecture, a legacy that continues to do harm today.”

V. Mitch McEwen, a Johnson Study Group member who also has work in “Reconstructions,” sums it up: “The architecture world is just so complicit with white supremacy that people bat an eye and keep going,” she tells Curbed. “It sets up a standard for abuse—that’s what the title of ‘Philip Johnson’ does; it’s what a gallery named after Philip Johnson does.”

Surface Says: It’s long overdue that the institutions bearing Johnson’s name are finally being taken to task. As the saying goes, “those who live in Glass Houses…”

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We didn’t think Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay A9 Speaker, a wireless multiroom piece originally designed by Øivind Alexander Slaatto, could get any sleeker. Enter Saint Laurent Rive Droite, the Parisian cultural and retail destination curated by creative director Anthony Vaccarello, which has recently put the French maison’s signature all-black stamp on some of today’s most celebrated contemporary design objects. Not only does the collaboration see the Beoplay A9 rendered in a dark-as-night sheen, its freestanding circular body playfully contrasts with its surroundings wherever it stands, making a compelling case for speakers as statement furniture. The days of hiding your utilitarian bluetooth box in the corner have passed.

When devising his newest piece, Maximilian Maertens was drawn to a rather unexpected inspiration: Jurassic Park. The designer for Swiss watchmaker MB&F looked to his favorite childhood movie when conceiving the Robocreature family of clocks, a trio of mechanically influenced pieces with spindly legs and futuristic faces, whose lifelike forms feel machine-like and sprightly.

MB&F recently teamed with Switzerland’s noted clockmaker L’Epée 1839 to debut the newest addition to the Robocreature trilogy, the TriPod table clock—an insect-like creation made of plated brass. Around 10 inches tall, the TriPod clock stands on three thin legs, which support a colored “body” and three glass spheres as “eyes.” To read the time, one gazes through the glass eyes to magnify the clock’s subtle numerals. Creating optical-grade spheres was critical, and rare—a ball of glass rarely has such precision and tolerance. And there are only three limited editions of 50 pieces, available in bright blue, green, and red.

When: Until Jan. 10, 2021

Where: ADA \ Contemporary Art Gallery, Accra

What: Across 12 large-scale paintings, the emerging Nigerian artist highlights the identities, narratives, and power struggles formed within the different frameworks that define shared spaces, whether it’s a shared living space, shared mindset, shared community, or our shared transience. Working in oil on canvas, his vivid works tackle injustice, racial conflicts, and the pressure of living a modern life versus traditional societal norms.

Cigarette butts are the world’s most littered item—more than 4.5 trillion are tossed every year. They have a thin plastic filter made from cellulose acetate, which eventually degrades into microplastics that infiltrate our waterways and harm marine life. Sachi Tungare, an industrial designer based in Mumbai, wants to give discarded butts a second life. At Dutch Design Week, she recently debuted a colorful collection of sculptures, bowls, and vases, each made from 300 hand-collected cigarette stubs. To create them, she sanitizes the cigarettes with an enzyme-based bleach and dissolves the cellulose acetate into a solution that can be poured into molds, which create her sculptures when they harden.

Savvy Studio is a branding and architecture design practice based in New York and Mexico. The firm uses its expertise to create brand stories and experiences for ventures such as boutique hotels, restaurants, retail spaces, art galleries, and museums.

Surface Says: With work that ranges from interiors and graphics to elaborately spiced chocolate bars, Savvy Studio injects a contemporary slickness to each of its projects. Consequently, their clients are always on the cutting edge of cool.

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