Albertopolis

This blueprint of the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the form of a colossal mechanised creature, is a rarity of the golden age of Victorian engineering. The recently unveiled diagram shows an elevation and cross section of a hugely ambitious project that heralded biotechnology a century before it became a reality.

Envisioned by Prince Albert (husband of Queen Victoria and prominent reformer and innovator of the time) as an itinerant art storage facility, it would have been able to bring knowledge of art and design to the working classes of the British Empire and beyond.

Designed to be self sufficient, its operation requires a crew of hundreds including pilots engineers, curators, wardens, conservators and maintenance among others. Because it almost was a moving autonomous city, the project –in obscurity until now– was nicknamed Albertopolis. Back in the days of the Great Exhibition this term had been coined by the press to mock Prince Albert's ambitious redevelopment of Kensington into a museum quarter.

Powered by steam technology, considered highly sophisticated by the standards of the age, it would have been able to displace itself over long distances and be fully operational for days. One of its peculiarities is a defence mechanism inspired by Prince Albert's Mughal court sword which was intended to be used as a deterrent to potential enemy attacks during planned educational campaigns into foreign territory.

In 1891, Aston Webb, the architect of the V&A's current facade, redesigned Albertopolis' already anthropomorphic shape to further resemble the Prince Consort; in homage to the visionary reformer.

Unfortunately, Albert's untimely death and the outbreak of World War I indefinitely delayed its completion. However, Albertopolis still lies dormant underneath the museum today, waiting for the lightning spark that will ignite its beating heart.

This edition of fifty A1 digital prints is inspired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington. It celebrates Prince Albert, figurehead of the Great Exhibition of 1851 that led to the creation of the world's first design museum.

Grand Entrance with Experienced Pilots

 Dacre Beasts and Sculpture Gallery

 Cast of David

 Trajan Column in the Cast Courts

 Medieval and Renaissance

 British Galleries and Sacred Silver

 Jewellery and Tapestries

Paintings and Glass 

 Members Cafe and Glass Lift

 Technical Services 

 Underground Water Storage

 Staff Changing Room and Dragon's Lair

 Sewer and Heating System

Central Computer and Ceramics Galleries

Rock Paper Pixel

In July FAD Barcelona invited me to participate in Rock Paper Pixel, a section within their yearly Fadfest, Barcelona's design festival, where local and international creativity is celebrated over two weeks of exhibitions, awards and activities. On its second year, these sessions of short talks aimed at glimpsing at the present of design and looking for the joy of the immediacy in a volatile communication environment.

Back to back with other creatives and spearheaded by communication design gurus Maria Popova and Debbie Millman, I was then granted 8 minutes to introduce my architecture/character design illustration work at the FAD's new home, the DHUB at the now unrecognisable Plaça de les Glories. A bit daunted by the size of the auditorium at the beginning I went over 6 years of work and focused on the key pieces that have shaped this experimental project to this day. It was a delight looking at some of the illustrations go scale 1:1 on the screen towering behind me –not even near that though way larger than my laptop screen…

Cross Section of the DHUB Creature

On my first visit to the DHUB last Christmas I was genuinely fascinated by this geometrical block that seems like an alien spaceship trying to remain unnoticed by taking the shape of a local animal. I then toyed with the idea of the FAD headquarters being housed inside this mighty beast while all the workers indifferently go about their business. So here's my own cross section of the DHUB creature and life as it goes on in its entrails. The drawing is worked to be blown to a huge cinema screen without it turning into a Tetris-cake of pixels. It's to be printed in an A1.

Boiler Room Heart

Board Room Lung

Greenhouse Lung

Thyroid Reactor

Throat Corridor

Kitchen Stomach

Intestines Design Studios and Library

Intestines Dance Studios and Film Club

Rectum Facilities

Mark Magazine #39

I am happy to have been featured in the Cross Section of the August/September issue of Mark Magazine. The article includes a short interview by Silvie Schaefer together with images of the illustrations inspired by the Barbican Estate and Guy's Hospital in London Bridge, which has been recently dwarfed by the Shard. I have taken a few photos of the magazine against the weathered wooden floor of our flat in East London. This issue has a strong focus on the future plans for the Olympic park. I found particularly interesting the article on architects firm Cadaval & Solà-Morales.