In his Letter of Reference for Christian Dell on the occasion of his departure from the Kunsthochschule Frankfurt, the school's Director Fritz Wichert wrote: "...highly distinguished as college lecturer, silversmith and as an inventor and designer for the lighting industry. His technical ability, his sense for structure and the beauty of materials and his noble, uncluttered forms make him in my opinion the leading figure in this field in Germany."1 A perfect demonstration of what Fritz Wichert
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With the exhibition, The World of Charles and Ray Eames at the Barbican Art Gallery London coming to an end, it is most timeous that the Art & Design Atomium Museum, ADAM, Brussels are offering through their new exhibition Eames & Hollywood an opportunity to explore in a little more detail one of those many, many Eames' Worlds. And no, not film. Photography. Eames & Hollywood at Art & Design Atomium Museum, ADAM, Brussels Formally opened in December 2015 ADAM is a new design museum for
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"All in the wild March morning I heard the angels call, It was when the moon was setting, and the dark was over all; The trees began to whisper, and the wind began to roll, And in the wild March morning I heard them call: "Stop romanticising and visit a design exhibition!!!!" (The May Queen by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. With apologies) Were Alfred, Lord Tennyson around in March 2016, here’s five new design exhibitions we could recommend..... Alexander Girard. A Designer's Universe at the Vitra
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"The starting point for the chair was the problem of comfortable seating combined with a simple construction. A problem which led to the defining of the following requirements: a) Elastic seat and backrest, but no upholstery, which is heavy, expensive and gathers dust b) Inclination of the seat so as to support the upper leg along its full length without the pressure that arises with a flat seating surface c) An angled position for the upper body d) Freedom of the spine because each and very
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In the past we've often noted the number of "classic" furniture designers currently working in Belgium, and how in comparison to their near cousins in Holland, Belgium is home to noticeably fewer designers who take a more conceptual, theoretical approach to their work. There are of course exceptions, such as Brussels based designer Thomas Lommée. Following his graduation in 2005 from the Man and Living class at Design Academy Eindhoven Thomas Lommée spent a year in Toronto at the George Brown
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As a "consumer goods" trade fair devoted to tableware, accessories, gifts, light-bulbs with filigree filaments, and the like, Ambiente Frankfurt is not a trade fair to which we feel a particularly empathy. Indeed one could go as far as to say that with its hall upon hall of products who's reason for existence we question and the hollow echo of "Lifestyle", "Trend", "Innovation" and "Buy me! Buy me! Buy me and you'll rise to a social status you could previously never dream of attaining" which
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In our interview with Marcel Kabisch, founder of and creative force behind German label Feinserie, he told us that what interested him in design, and part of his motivation to study design, was the idea of "bringing a certain intelligence into a product", and of achieving "an efficiency in design" Principles which are elegantly displayed in his new Griffbereit Chair. In many ways an extension of an idea begun with his award winning Griffbereit Stool/Side Table, the Griffbereit Chair is formed
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"This is a job of work whose goal is precision, delicacy, amiability and attentiveness: being attentive to people, uses, buildings, trees, asphalt or grass surfaces, to what already exists. It's a matter of causing the least inconvenience or no inconvenience at all. It's a matter of being generous, giving more, facilitating usage and simplifying life"1 These words stand not only in the centre of the exhibition "Studio Plus. Druot, Lacaton & Vassal: Transformation as an architectural manifesto"
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Internationally known for its financial district, airport, financial institutions and sausages, Frankfurt am Main is less well understood as a city of design. Or at least not a city of contemporary design. That however wasn’t always the case. The 1920s and 30s saw the likes of Ernst May and Christian Dell help the city develop a reputation as a centre for modernist innovation, while the Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky gave it an internationally renowned kitchen concept in which to
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On February 5th 1916 Cabaret Voltaire opened in Zürich; consequently, 2016 sees the city celebrate the 100th anniversary of arguably Switzerland's most important contribution to global culture - Dada. It is therefore very fitting that 2016 also sees the city host a retrospective of the English designer Jasper Morrison. No. Honest. Jasper Morrison Thingness at the Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich Born in London in 1959 Jasper Morrison initially studied Design at Kingston Polytechnic before
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Sand is not a material on which many architects would hope to successfully build a project, far less a career. In many ways however that is exactly what the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen did. Bellevue Strandbad Copenhagen Born on 11 February 1902 in Copenhagen, Arne Emile Jacobsen studied architecture at the city's Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - graduating in 1927. One of Denmark's first, and foremost, functionalists, Arne Jacobsen was
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As we've noted in the past, Hungarian architects and designers made a valuable contribution to the development of post war architecture and design. Made. For in recent years a Hungarian accent in the design discourse has been principally notable by its absence. By its stillness. Which of course doesn't mean there aren't Hungarians producing intelligent, interesting, relevant and innovative work. There are. Hungarians such as the Budapest based practice Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop
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In the famous Thonet Card Catalogue from 1930/31 the image of the B 9 side table and B 25 lounge chair is augmented by a small lamp atop the B 9. Whereas the Thonet B 25 and Thonet B 9 are credited to Marcel Breuer, there is no credit for the lamp. But then it isn't a Thonet lamp. Thonet don't do lamps. Thonet do tables, chairs, shelving and other furniture. Thonet don't do lamps. Or at least didn't. In 2010 Thonet released the LUM reading lamp by Ulf Möller as a floor version, adding a desk
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In addition to the exhibition of their work in Cologne, the A&W Designer of the Year crown also allows the recipient to select one young designer for the so-called A&W Mentor Prize: essentially a chance to invite a young designer whose work they admire to share the spotlight with them. Previous mentees have included Stefan Diez, selected in 2005 by Richard Sapper, Oskar Zieta, selected in 2011 by Tokujin Yoshioka, and the very first mentee, Konstantin Grcic, selected by Achille Castiglioni in
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In 1969 the then French President Georges Pompidou announced his desire that Paris should posses a large museum dedicated to art of all kinds and which in addition to nurturing and promoting creativity was itself a landmark of the architecture of our age. On January 31st 1977, and three years after George Pompidou's untimely death, that desire became reality with the official opening of the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris Le Centre Pompidou,
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2016 being as it is a leap year, February 2016 is graced with an extra day, and the global design and architecture museum community have jumped at the opportunity granted by the extra 24 hours to organise a record number of new design and architecture exhibitions. Reducing the selection down to five wasn't easy; but does mean that if you don't like our choices have a quick look at what is opening in Herford, New York, Zürich, Eindhoven, or, once again Zürich.... You're bound to find something!
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Back at Milan 2009 we stumbled by chance across "My Bauhaus is better than yours", an exhibition featuring works by a group of Bauhaus University Weimar students. Although not unimpressed by what we saw, indeed we remember finding one or the other project very good, the majority of the works were for us a little too "student", a little too obvious, which is not a criticism, it just meant we didn't feel the need to write about the exhibition. Seven years, and a legally obliged change of name
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2016 sees Augsburg based manufacturer Müller Möbelfabrikation celebrate their 20th anniversary, and to mark their round birthday the company have gifted themselves, and by extrapolation us all, a new round(er) form. Round(er) for despite their inherent quadraticness Müller Möbelfabrikation objects have always had a curvaceous soul; be that as expressed through the subtle contours of the grandiose TB 229 desk from the company's original 1996 Classic Line collection, or more obvious as with, for
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According to Brigitte Eiermann her late husband, the German architect and designer Egon Eiermann, would work so long on a furniture design project until he could say "Das ist nicht besser zu machen" - "That cannot be improved". It was, so Frau Eiermann, rare that he said such, so great was his striving for perfection. Everything could, somehow, be improved.1 However we imagine Egon Eiermann would be very satisfied with the new table trestle Egon from Stuttgart based manufacturer Richard
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For reasons known only to the IMM 2016 organisers the numerous segments composing the "Talents" section - that section of IMM Cologne devoted to younger designers and design students - have been scattered thought the exhibition halls. In past years they were, generally, all collated in one hall, which was all very pleasant, convenient and social. This year it is a bit here, a bit there, bit over there. And even when they do appear in the same exhibition hall then in a completely unrelated,
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As we noted in our post from the 2015 Garden Unique Youngstars competition, the contemporary outdoor furniture market is a largely forgotten world as far as quality design is concerned. And as we also noted, it needn't be. At IMM Cologne 2016 Thonet are presenting with the new All Seasons collection their alternative vision. Thonet @ IMM Cologne 2016 The (hi)story of Thonet furniture is, as with the wider (hi)story of furniture design, essentially one of indoor furniture. Although not
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2016 sees the 20th anniversary of German architecture and design magazine A&W's "Designer of the Year Award." Following on from previous recipients including Achille Castiglioni in 1997, Paola Navone in 2000, Gaetano Pesce in 2006 and more recently Werner Aisslinger in 2014 and Michele De Lucchi in 2015 the 20th recipient is Jasper Morrison. And that, joyously, means a Jasper Morrison exhibition during the 2016 Passagen Cologne interior design week. A&W Designer of the Year 2016 - Jasper
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There can be little argument that nature is, was and always will be the best designer, the most efficient designer: largely because nature never does anything unnecessary. Louis H. Sullivan, for example, saw the evidence that "form ever follows function" in the fact that "all things in nature have a shape, that is to say, a form, an outward semblance, that tells us what they are ... they are so characteristic, so recognizable, that we say, simply, it is “natural” it should be so"1; for the
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Radio is without question the most universal and democratic of all media, in many ways we are all raised on radio. Who doesn't remember lying in bed with your covers pulled up over your head? Radio playin' so no one can see. And when things haven't gone so well have we not all sat alone and watched its light, our only friend through teenage nights. Over the years, and regardless of at which station on life's highway we've found ourselves, radio has always been there for us, made us laugh, made
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