Many people, if not peoples, could currently be forgiven for reacting somewhat sceptically to the notion of a “Happy Future”. With their exhibition “Happy Future” Dutch design collective Dutch Invertuals take on this scepticism and aim to show that the basic ingredients for such are there; we just need to identify and use them correctly. Established in 2009 Dutch Invertuals is a loose collective of designers, largely but not exclusively with a Design Academy Eindhoven background, who
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Whereas, generally speaking, those designers we feature in these pages have trained as either an architect or carpenter, Jean Prouvé was a blacksmith. Or more correctly a ferronniers d'art. An ornamental blacksmith. A training that was to give him a singular perspective on the challenges of the age, on aesthetics, on the question of industrial versus artisan production and which endows him and his work with a unique place in the history of European architecture and design. He is also the only
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"Potentially it is the simplest assignments, unencumbered by the complex mix of functional, technical or economic conditions, that allow an especially eloquent architecture" So mused the Sachsen branch of the German Architects Association, BDA, in awarding a "Special Recognition" in the 2013 BDA-Preis Sachsen to the project "Garage in Holzstapelbauweise" by Stuttgart based Reichel Schlaier Architekten. Created for a private client in the village of Marienberg, Sachsen, Garage in
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Until April 27th Depot Basel are presenting the exhibition Okolo Offline. Documenting the first five years of Prague based design collective Okolo, aka Jakub Štěch, Adam Štěch, Jan Kloss and Matěj Činčera, the exhibition presents 25 posts from the Okolo blog - www.okoloweb.cz - in a gallery installation: from Moebius for Hermés to Anatomy of ČZ via rulers and set squares, Meiss ski goggles or "Recent Japanese Inspirations", the digital world is made tangible as objects, books, posters and
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As we noted in our review of the book "WEGNER – Just one good chair", Hans J. Wegner spent a large proportion of his career seeking to perfect and improve his chair designs. "If only you could design just one good chair in your life . . .", he mused in 1952, "But you simply cannot" Similarly for Egon Eiermann the "Chair of his Life" was always the next chair design. While Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was famously of the opinion that designing a chair was more complicated than building a
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"When I walk into a building I see space, light and colour", so explains the Finnish photographer Ola Kolehmainen his relationship to architecture. How Ola Kolehmainen visualises this triumvirate is currently being presented in the exhibition Geometric Light at the gallery Haus am Waldsee in Berlin. Born in Helsinki in 1964 Ola Kolehmainen originally studied journalism before completing an MA in photography at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. His passion for architecture
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The weekend April 4th to April 6th 2014 sees the 3rd annual "European Artistic Crafts Days". Organised by the French National Institute of Arts and Crafts (INMA), the Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art will be celebrated with untold events, workshops, open days and exhibitions in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Latvia, Hungary and Portugal. And by us through the candleholder Medallion by Gonçalo Campos & Maria Bruno Néo for Portuguese brand Vicara, a new product
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Born on April 2nd 1914 Hans Jørgensen Wegner is without question one of the most important designers of the so-called Danish Modern movement. Works such as the Peacock Chair from 1947, the 1949 JH501, an object often referred to simply as "The Chair" or his 1949 CH24 Wishbone Chair, his best selling creation, largely helping define Danish design in the 1940s and 1950s. Golden decades that still dominate the public persona of the Danish design tradition. Hans Jørgensen Wegner is equally
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"Okay so is there ANYTHING interesting happening in Milan this year?" asked dezeen founder and Editor in Chief Marcus Fairs in a recent tweet, "Judging by my inbox so far, the answer is no" The real answer of course is: ignore your inbox. As a Marcus Fairs must surely know. But which is admittedly easier said than done. With Milan design week, as with life, the best, most interesting, most enjoyable discoveries are invariably to be made on the by-ways. And often as the result of
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April 2014, as every April we can ever remember, means Milanese purgatory. Apparently it is meant to cleanse the soul, purify our thoughts and generally mitigate for the sins of the past, and so allow us to proceed to higher plains and greater virtues. And boy must we have sinned. We can't remember exactly when, far less how. We just hope we enjoyed it at the time. Because now we are paying. When, if, we return these are the new design exhibitions we're planning on visiting to help us
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If we were to be completely honest we would have to admit that although we were aware of the name "Ferdinand Kramer", it wasn't until Frankfurt based manufacturer e15 launched a series of Kramer re-editions at Milan 2012 that we actually paid any serious attention to the man and his work. Something we are very thankful for. Born in Frankfurt in 1898 Ferdinand Kramer undertook a foundation architecture course in Munich before joining Bauhaus Weimar in 1919. Disillusioned by the lack of a
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Until May 8th 2014 the Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin is hosting the exhibition Visions of the Alhambra, a presentation of the new visitor centre/site entrance designed for the Alhambra palace/fortress/citadel complex in Granada, Spain by Álvaro Siza Vieira and Juan Domingo Santos. Originally constructed in the 9th century as a feudal fortress, the Alhambra served from the 11th century as a seat of power for Moorish rulers of Granada and subsequently as a citadel for the catholic conquerors
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One of the first telephone calls Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner made upon assuming leadership of the Vitra Design Museum in 2011 was to Konstantin Grcic to discuss the possibility of an exhibition. Grcic was, in principle, open to the idea, but, "I didn't want a static exhibition, something that froze my work in time, rather I wanted something dynamic" That "something dynamic" is the exhibition Konstantin Grcic - Panorama which opened at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein on Friday March
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It is a universally acknowledged fact that men only buy Playboy to read the articles. And we only visited the exhibition "Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979" at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt in order to, to, to, tttoooooooo see the Eames DCW that is on display.....mmmm...... its not a chair you see that often..... aaahhh......mmmmmmmm..... or the Bertoia Diamond Chair? [Audible nervous cough. Depart stage left.] Originating from a project by students at Princeton University
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As the prevailing design ideology in post-War Germany die gute Form almost single handedly established the modern German design tradition, and so by extrapolation was responsible for defining the popular understanding of "German Design" Loosely translatable as "good form", gute Form can be considered as reducing an object, building or anything really down to its very essentials, of creating "a natural product, developed from its function and technical requirements, that in its form represents
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As a general rule we ignore rules. Especially those rules that start with "don't" However, when we were told not to photograph inside USM's new powder coating facility at their Münsingen HQ, we did as we were told. For fear that had we not one of the new robotic arms would have picked us up and dispatched us on a Willie Wonka-esque punishment journey leaving us permanently coated in one of USM's 14 colours. Built at a cost of some 20 Million Swiss Francs the new USM powder coating facility
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Although these days talk of necessary redevelopment, renewal, reinvention and change of function in Bremen is often undertaken in context of the local football team Werder; generally the focus is the former harbour areas. With the relocation of the oversea harbours from their former city locations, Bremen has found itself with large areas of land and innumerate buildings looking for a new identity and new functions. Bremen of course isn't the only maritime metropolis having to come to terms
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Until June 10th the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin is presenting "New Architecture! Modern Architecture in Images and Books", an exhibition devoted to architecture photography and architecture publishing of the 1920s and 30s. And an exhibition that illustrates just how little the genres have evolved over the intervening decades. The central focus of New Architecture! is the life, work and archive of the architecture critic and art historian Walter Müller-Wulckow. In addition to his journalistic and
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On Friday March 14th blickfang Stuttgart opens its doors to the public for the 22nd edition of the consumer design fair. Inaugurated in Stuttgart in 1992 by "a couple of “"fools"" - their words, not ours - blickfang has gone on to grow beyond its native city and can now be found throughout the year in locations as varied and widespread as Basel, Zürich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Hamburg and, most recently, Munich. Blickfang Stuttgart remains however a special occasion. In addition to the usual mix
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On Thursday March 13th Leipzig Buchmesse 2014 opens to the public at the city's exhibition centre. And as ever (smow) Leipzig are participating in the annual Leipzig Liest public reading festival with a programme of readings by a specially selected triumvirate of authors, a programme that not only promises a diversity of styles, but guarantees visitors the best, most enjoyable, seating in Leipzig. (smow)liest 2014 begins on Thursday March 13th with the novel Der lange Atem by Stuttgart author
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"Colours have an important, positive, psychological effect", so explained Verner Panton the polychromatic nature of his Visiona 2 showcase. But not just psychological effects. Colours can also produce physical effects, can influence the way we perceive and understand objects. The decision to paint the exterior of the VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein anthracite, for example, was not a popular one with local residents and councillors; however, according to architects Herzog & de Meuron was a decision
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"It is simple to prove that despite all distractions to the contrary from the cultural community in western Germany that also in the area of industrial design no real, definitive, new impetus can be expected; the foundation for such is missing and the wheel of development is being turned back, advancement stopped and that regardless if Germany - and the future in general - is thereby endangered..... We, the artists of the German Democratic Republic, are the opinion that owing to our
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There are, we would argue, three phrases that have come to popularly define modernist architecture and design: "Ornament is crime", "Less is more" and "Form follows function". The first is derived from the 1908 text "Ornament and Crime" [Ornament und verbrechen] by the Austrian architect Alfred Loos. The second is most commonly associated with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, although its origins are much, much, older. The latter can be found in American architect Louis H. Sullivan's essay "The
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The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, And what will poor robin do then, poor thing? He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm And hide his head under his wing, poor thing. Or, and much more sensibly, take himself off and visit one of the new design exhibitions opening during March. And so not only keep himself warm but also informed, entertained and inspired. Our selection from the new, robin friendly, openings in March features an homage to East German concrete architecture in
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