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The Adventures of Aluminium: From Jewellery to Jets

Start Date 18 October 2002
End Date 19 January 2003
Venue Design Museum
Location London, UK
Designer David Adjaye Architects

An exhibition at the Design Museum next month, The Adventures of Aluminium: Jewellery to Jets, designed by David Adjaye Architects, will trace the history of aluminium in shaping modern design.

Light, shiny and supple, aluminium was regarded as a ‘miracle material’ when first mined in the mid-19th century. By the 1920s and 1930s it had become part of the fabric of the modern world, used in Marcel Breuer’s avant-garde furniture as well as mass-produced Airstream trailers and record players.

Featured items include Paco Rabanne’s 1960s metallic tunics and Donald Judd’s 1980s furniture, plus the 1985 Lockheed Lounge (pictured) that launched Marc Newson’s career.