In 1960 Enzo Mari designed "16 Animali" for Italian manufacturer Danese. Comprising 16 wooden animal shapes "16 Animali" is simultaneously a child's jigsaw and 16 individual wooden toys to be played with and thrown about as wished. In 2014 with his son's second birthday approaching Prague based industrial designer Jakub Gurecký faced the question of what to give him? Yes, he could buy something, but surely as a qualified and experienced industrial designer he could also create something? But
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It is a fact, if not a universally known fact, that the New York Museum of Modern Art's 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition included a category “Furniture for Outdoor Living”. While much of what that now legendary competition instigated remains as relevant and contemporary as ever, the design of outdoor furniture has, regrettably, fallen somewhat by the wayside. A state of affairs ably demonstrated at the catchy titled "spoga+gafa garden fair 2015" in Cologne. Featuring hall
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The very first piece of product design George Nelson realised was inspired by architecture. The typical American family home in 1944 had storage problems: not only because increasing prosperity meant that a majority of 1940s Americans owned more than their parents and grandparents had ever possessed, but changing lifestyle practices meant they didn't own the same things their parents and grandparents had owned. Rather they owned things like golf clubs. Which don't fit in conventional
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As old Mother Goose, allegedly, once claimed: Thirty days hath September, and the following five enticing new design and architecture exhibitions which are probably well worth checking out if you get the chance....... "Piet Mondrian. The Line" at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Just as those architects who were to lead the move to modernism in the first decades of the 20th century generally began working in more classic styles before being seduced by the reduced charm of modernism,
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As we noted in our recent review of contemporary creativity in Berlin, the creative landscape in the German capital is not just an eclectic composition of genres and philosophies but for all of nationalities: in addition to a, relatively, low number of native Berliner the Berlin creative community is characterised by a goodly mix of German and international creatives. International creatives such as the Danish architect Sigurd Larsen. Following completion of his studies at the Royal Academy of
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"Father of Eero....." So or similar is in many circles the accepted form for referring to the Finnish architect and urban planner Eliel Saarinen. A highly unsatisfactory term of reference and one which in many respects denies and defames how much more there is and was to the man and his talents. Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950) Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was born on August 20th 1873 in the remote eastern Finnish town of Rantasalmi where his father served as a Lutheran pastor. In 1875 Eliel's father
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As Noël Coward famously observed, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, and it takes a similarly laissez-faire approach to life to open an exhibition in August. Everyone, but everyone, it would appear is on holiday. Or has at least like Coward's caribous, lain down for a snooze. Which is probably why the majority of the following five exhibitions open in late August, so after the sun has ceased to be much too sultry such that one must avoid its ultry-violet ray. "Shelter:
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"The challenges of contemporary housing are rooted in the changing materials, social and intellectual structures of our time; and can only be understood in such terms. The degree of structural change determines the nature and extent of the problems. They are deprived of any arbitrariness. They cannot be solved with slogans, nor hidden and ignored behind words of good intention. The problem of rationalisation and standardisation is only one part of the problem. Rationalisation and
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The so-called "Teepott" on the promenade at Warnemünde on Germany's Baltic See coast is a rare and precious construction. Not only because of the way it starkly contrasts with the 19th century lighthouse next to it, nor on account of the delightful way it sweeps and flows in harmony with the dunes and water behind it, nor because it reminds of work by Eero Saarinen, Pier Luigi Nervi or Félix Candela, yet is geographically far removed from such. But much more because it is a work by the German
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Taking a few minutes break from the 2015 Burg Giebichenstein Halle Summer Exhibition we sat ourselves on a low wall to enjoy a well earned coffee and to digest and reflect on what we had seen, when we slowly became aware of the unmistakable tones of Morrissey's "Everyday is like Sunday" drifting across the college's Neuwerk campus. "Armageddon, come Armageddon! Come, Armageddon! Come!" Give that in the course of its 100 year history nuclear obliteration is just about the only twist of fate
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It is probably fair to say that over the years and decades the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK Berlin, has produced the majority of the more interesting and important Berlin designers. Whereas historically that was largely on account of the lack of alternatives; today the school has responded to the increasing competition by employing good sensible teaching staff who set the students good sensible semester projects and also give them the freedom to develop their own individual projects as
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On the evening of Thursday June 9th Bauhaus University Weimar formally opened the 2015 edition of their annual Summaery end of year exhibition; thus, and equally formally, launching our 2015 summer tour of student showcases. For all in or near Weimar this weekend, Summaery 2015 runs at the Bauhaus University Weimar, and at locations throughout the town, until 6pm on Sunday July 12th, full details can be found at www.uni-weimar.de/summaery, and here three design projects which particularly
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"The essence of the Thonetschen invention is that when bending a steamed piece of wood the neutral layer is relocated to the upper, convex, surface of the curved wood. If any cylindrical or prismatic body is bent, the upper layers are extended, the lower, concave, layer compressed, so shortened, and only one layer, namely that which passes through the centre of mass of the cross section, remains in the original length. Thus in this type of ordinary wood bending the upper, convex, lying part is
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On days when his sketches didn't meet with his own, self-critical, approval, the Swiss architect and urban planner Le Corbusier is reported to have laid down his pencil and quietly reflected, "c'est difficile, l'architecture" 1 Equally difficile is describing and explaining the multifarious talents and passions of Le Corbusier. One option, arguably the best option, is to focus on just one aspect of Le Corbusier's oeuvre and to use this concentrated analysis as a conduit through which to
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On the evening of Wednesday June 24th the winners of the 2015 aed neuland young designer competition were announced in a ceremony in Stuttgart. Organised by the design/architecture/engineering association aed Stuttgart, neuland is a biennial international competition open to students or recent graduates under the age of 28 and according to the organisers the 2015 competition attracted some 330 entries across the five categories. An exhibition featuring all 23 nominated and prize winning
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"I intend to run the institution such that in terms of craftsmanship the best possible is achieved, and to foster it so that from an artistic perspective it meets all the requirements of modern conceptions of art"1, so wrote the architect Paul Thiersch in his 1914 application for the vacant post of Director of the Handwerkerschule in Halle, Germany. An argument which clearly found favour with the Hallesche selection panel, for on July 1st 1915 Paul Thiersch was selected ahead of the 74 other
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It being July, there is an obvious temptation to search for new design and architecture exhibitions opening near the coast, maybe in interesting seaside holiday locations. That four of our five tips for July 2015 are indeed being staged a flip-flops throw from the beach is genuinely more by chance than design. Is however very, very welcome. "Rygalik: The Heart of Things" at Gdynia City Museum, Gdynia, Poland The first time we met Tomek and Gosia Rygalik they were making tables out of old
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Space is, as any Trekkie will tell you, the final frontier. For designers and architects it is certainly a very challenging frontier. Not only do the normal physical laws not apply thus requiring new considerations in terms of materials or construction, but functionality takes on whole new meanings: “comfort” being replaced by “need to survive”, “ergonomics” being replaced by “need to survive”, “adaptability” being replaced by “need to survive” And does the interior of a spaceship need to be
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In his review of Chris Taylor's book "How Star Wars Conquered the Universe" the American film critic Tom Shone makes a point so obvious you wonder how it has escaped you these past 38 years: Junk is everything in Star Wars. The Jawas deal in junk. The droids are sold as junk. Our heroes are delivered as junk into the Death Stars trash compactor. That the Death Star is the only new piece of technology on display is sign enough of its nefariousness: those serving the Empire are the only people
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"Fancy a cup of tea?" "Oh, yes please! Thank you!" "OK, I'll put the kettle on" "Troglodyte" Boiling water for tea is a process as old as, well...... the drinking of hot tea. And a process that has remained largely unchanged since. When change has come it has invariably been influenced by technology: kettles over open fires, kettles on stoves, electric kettles. But always involving a kettle. (Accepting that is that the samovar is a "kettle".......and even if you don't, the samovar has
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As previously reported, Bauhaus Dessau are currently presenting “The coop principle – Hannes Meyer and the Concept of Collective Design”, an exhibition devoted to the second Bauhaus Director and for all his belief in the strength of the collective in almost all aspects of life, but especially in design. Hannes Meyer himself never completed projects alone, but always as part of a collective, the Dessau exhibition celebrates that fact and Meyer's unshakeable belief in the power of the
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Charles Eames is arguably the best known representative of post-war American design. His works are certainly the most commonly recognized and endearing examples of post-war American design. Yet exactly because of the success of his post-war work it is often forgotten that Charles Eames has a pre-war biography, a biography that is pre-Ray Kaiser, pre-George Nelson, pre-Hermann Miller, pre-Vitra, pre-plywood, plastic and aluminium, pre-IBM, Moscow, India, Mathematica, Franklin & Jefferson.... and
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There is little in this world that brings us more pleasure than a good modular shelving system. We know that sentence speaks volumes about the state of our alleged "lives", but we're not embarrassed to admit it. We like shelves. Consequently, given that it appears that everybody but everybody is developing a modular shelving system and that as a result you currently can't visit a furniture fair or design event without stumbling every few metres across another new system, these would appear
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In our recent post "Blurred Lines or What if Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke designed furniture?" we took a stroll along the very fine border between being inspired by a piece of furniture design and plagiarising a piece of furniture design. One of the most popular sources for both inspiration and plagiarism is Charles and Ray Eames: for inspiration because of the many ground breaking designs, processes and theories the pair developed over the decades, for plagiarism because of the
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