Back in May we were faced with the decision as to whether to remain with the online exhibition recommendations we'd been carrying throughout the spring, or, given that ever more museums were re-opening, move back offline for our June recommendations. And decided to move back offline, not least because "viewing an exhibition in a museum is the more satisfying experience, the more rewarding experience, the more enduring experience. And an important experience." Ahead of our November
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"How far can we entrust the machine to design?" asked the American architect Louis I. Kahn in context of the 1968 conference Computer Graphics in Architecture and Design. In his opinion, not much. "The machine can communicate measure, but the machine cannot create, cannot judge, cannot design. This belongs to the mind".1 And today? With the exhibition The Architecture Machine. The Role of Computers in Architecture, the Architekturmuseum der TU München explore the (hi)story of the computer
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The sense, logic or otherwise of the biannual changing of the clocks is a subject that can keep any conversation animated until the next change occurs......When it can start all over again. The biannual repositioning of the hands of time is however also an opportune moments to consider our relationship to time, for all our measurement of time, our harnessing of time, our charting of time, and of time metaphoric and time symbolic as represented by that embodiment of time tangible ... the clock.
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"I don't know what design is", opined once the Italian designer Enzo Mari. Not because he hadn't considered the question. But because he had. A lot. With the exhibition Enzo Mari curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli the Triennale Milano present an opportunity to approach an understanding of that which in the course of those considerations, and his 60+ year career, Enzo Mari has variously understood both design to be, and what it could, should, must, be........ Enzo Mari
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In 1977 Ludwig Glaeser, curator of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opinioned that "it is certainly more than a coincidence that [Mies van der Rohe's] involvement in furniture and exhibition design began in the same year as his personal relationship with Lilly Reich."1 A statement that has in many regards come to define understandings of the furniture designs of both Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. An understanding that "is certainly more than a
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In 1977 the German designer Luigi Colani demanded a "renaissance of Art Nouveau"1 What he meant, why he meant it, and if it is something we should all fear, can be explored and considered in the exhibition Luigi Colani and Art Nouveau at the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin....... Luigi Colani and Art Nouveau at the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Born in Berlin on August 2nd 19282 Lutz Colani3 studied sculpture at Berlin's Hochschule für bildende Künste between 1946 and 1948, before moving to Paris where he
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"Last night the waiter put the celery on with the cheese, and I knew that summer was indeed dead", opined once A.A. Milne, continuing that, while there may be other indications of autumn's arrival, "it is only with the first celery that summer is over." And the first celery appears, or at least appeared in early 20th century England, in October. Not that one should fear the celery, for in its crispness, freshness, tenderness, sweetness celery, so A.A. Milne, reminds us that winter isn't only
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As a general rule we prefer to focus the Design Calendar on positive events, it just seems more, well, positive; however, sometimes a negative event is more illustrative of a situation, provides for better access to a story. An event such as Mart Stam's beurlauben, suspension, as Rector of the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Berlin, on September 22nd 1952. The unhappy end of Mart Stam's not altogether joyful sojourn in East Germany. But also a moment that allows for some focussed
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On October 31st 1517 Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, his criticism of the contemporary Catholic church. 95 theses which fired a debate and discourse that, ultimately, led to the splitting of the, until then, all-powerful Catholic church, an event which was to have consequences far, far, beyond religious practice and power, and which was arguably one of the single most important moments in the development of European society.
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"Hvis jeg får et nyt liv, vil jeg være gartner", opined once the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen. "If I have another life, I want to be a gardener" Not that, as Arne Jacobsen – Designing Denmark at Trapholt, Kolding, would tend to imply, he made an incorrect career choice..... Arne Jacobsen - Designing Denmark, Trapholt, Kolding Arne Emile Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen on February 11th 1902 into a, by all accounts, comfortable middle class family; his mother a trained bank
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Not the Situla itself. But rather what is depicted on that small, delicately carved, 10th century ivory object: the four Christian Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, busy writing their gospels while seated at height-adjustable desks....... La Situla del vescovo Gotofredo (photo Dominik Matus via commons.wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0) .....or possibly, possibly, height-adjustable desks. As Bert S. Hall, to whom we will be eternally indebted for introducing us to the Situla,1 notes, the
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Tuesday September 22nd marks the 2020 Southward Equinox, and thus the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere, and of spring in the southern hemisphere. Two seasons known throughout history for the vagaries, capriciousness, of their weather. And thus two seasons perfectly suited to a longer architecture and design, or art, museum visit. Our recommendations for four new showcases opening in September (autumn) 2020 can be found in Berlin, Kolding, Düsseldorf and Berlin (again); our
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"Trunk-hasped, cart-heavy, painted an ignorant brown. And pew-strait, bin-deep, standing four-square as an ark"1 Reading Seamus Heaney's musings on his Settle Bed one could be forgiven for considering it a thoroughly unremarkable object. Ignorant even. That would however be to misunderstand the nature, spirit, essence, of poetic construction. And the nature, spirit, essence of the Settle Bed. A World of Vernacular Furniture: The Settle Bed. As a settle...... (Photo Kenneth Allen via
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"It is a very interesting thing indeed to ask myself certain questions", reflected H.G. Wells in 1937, "How did I come to know what I know about the world and myself? What ought I to know? What would I like to know that I don't know? If I want to know about this or that, where can I get the clearest, best and latest information? And where did these other people about me get their ideas about things? Which are sometimes so different from mine. Why do we differ so widely?"1 Questions whose
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"At the present day a library has become as necessary an appendage to a house as a hot and cold bath" wrote the Roman Stoic Seneca at some point in the first century CE, "I would excuse them straightway if they really were carried away by an excessive zeal for literature; but as it is, these costly works of sacred genius, with all the illustrations that adorn them, are merely bought for display and to serve as wall-furniture."1 And today? While the glossy coffee table book may be have become
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"Wij hebben de nieuwe wereld te scheppen" wrote a, then, 19 year old Mart Stam in 1919.1 "We have to create the new world" And subsequently spent the following decades developing, explaining and demonstrating his understandings of what that meant...... Mart Stam (1899 - 1986) Martinus Adrianus Stam was born on August 5th 1899 in Purmerend, a community to the north of Amsterdam, and which, not uninterestingly, is also the birthplace of Stam's contemporary J.J.P. Oud. Following an initial
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"What August dosen't do, September puts right"1 declared Johann Wolfgang Goethe. And loathed as we are to contradict Goethe. He’s wrong. August may be a time when one can allow oneself a little more freedom than the rest of the year; however, that which we call life is the actions, experiences, leanings, emotions of each month consecutively and sequentially building on, informing and evolving one-another, a month of inactivity is a month of moments missed, and hoping that September can in
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While understandings of form, of beauty, in context of the objects with which we surround ourselves continually evolve and develop, understandings of function are, generally, much more stable. Or at least are once they have been identified, understood and normalised. Something that can be studied and appreciated in Thomas E. Warren's Centripetal Spring Chair..... A Centripetal Spring Chair by Thomas E. Warren for the American Chair Company with tapered back and armrests (Image © and
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In all corners of the globe one finds objects of furniture which developed in response to local conditions, traditions and practices; vernacular objects without a formal author and which although, on account of?, arising from a very specific place and time can, invariably, both teach us a lot about the essentials of furniture and help explain furniture's relationships with wider realities. And objects we want to celebrate, starting with arguably, one of the best known examples of vernacular
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The German designer and graphic artist Otl Aicher once opined, "Hans Gugelot wasn't a theoretician. But not a practitioner either. What is one if neither a theorist nor a practitioner?"1 What, indeed.....? With the exhibition Hans Gugelot. The Architecture of Design the HfG-Archiv Ulm allows one to approach an answer..... Hans Gugelot. The Architecture of Design, HfG-Archiv Ulm Johan (Hans) Gugelot was born in Makassar, Indonesia, on April 1st 1920, as the second son to Dutch couple
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Christa Petroff-Bohne arrived a trifling couple of minutes late for the opening of Beauty of Form. And was most apologetic, apologised for keeping us all waiting. Whereby, we couldn't help thinking, it is much more us, all, the international community, who should be apologising for keeping Christa Petroff-Bohne waiting for such a comprehensive and rounded recognition of her work and career.........1 Form studies by students of Christa Petroff-Bohne's Basics of Visual Design, as seen at
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July is traditionally a slow month for new architecture and design exhibition openings. July 2020 less so. Not because of any fundamental changes in understandings amongst architecture and design museums of when is a good time to open an exhibition; but because owing to Corona many shows scheduled to open in the spring had to be postponed, not least until the museums were allowed to open. And throughout July 2020 ever more museums are planned and planning to open; meaning ever more
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Given the very close connections between Le Corbusier and France, one could be forgiven for, occasionally, forgetting that he was born in Switzerland. With the exhibition Le Corbusier and Zürich the Museum für Gestaltung allow not only an insight into the Le Corbusier biography as charted by Switzerland's largest city, but also of his not always easy relationship with the country of his birth. Pavillon Le Corbusier, Zürich The most visible, tangible, relationship between Le Corbusier and
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Our deliberations on Bauhaus and music very naturally led us to a whole raft of further deliberations on the associations between music and other forms of creative expression; and for all the question, given that so many of those Bauhäusler who had/could have had second careers as musicians were artists, are there designers who have/had second careers as musicians....... .......of course there are...... 6 D 030 Z by Charles & Ray Eames for Evans for Zenith Radio. We all know that designers
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