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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The first post in our, hopefully short, new series "Things we missed at IMM Cologne 2014" is devoted to the new Pegasus Home Desk by Ippolito Fleitz Group / Tilla Goldberg for Munich based manufacturer ClassiCon. We know why we missed it in Cologne, call it youthful arrogance, we just can't believe we did. Not only does the Pegasus Home Desk exude a formal parity with a horse saddle, but it functions as a sort of home office saddle bag - the leather desk top can be rolled up from the left
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The much discussed experiment Bauhaus reaches its first conclusion with the opening of its own institute in Dessau on December 4th 1926. The impact, if any, which this group of architects, to which Gropius belongs, will have on our building culture is something we can leave to history to decide. This new style, a style which a large percentage of our population is not accustomed to, and to which the majority wont take, doesn't offer any room for traditional architecture, but plenty of space for
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Until April 16th the DMY Design Gallery Berlin is presenting the exhibition "Lifetimes" by Berlin based designer Birgit Severin. The inaugural exhibition in the new DMY Design Gallery. Following the demise of the "original" DMY Gallery in Berlin's stilwerk "design shopping centre", DMY appeared to have decided to concentrate on their global series of exhibitions and running Germany's most important design contest, the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Silence can however be
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On Thursday February 13th the 2014 Designpreis Halle jury met to peruse the entries submitted for this years competition. And select the winners. Initiated in 2007 the Designpreis Halle is an international, inter-disciplinary design competition staged every three(-ish) years. Following the theme "Electricity" in 2007 and "Travel" in 2010, entrants for the 2014 Designpreis Halle were set the challenge of "Water". How who approached the topic and why wont however be unveiled until the awards
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If you visit the Bussalp restaurant above the Swiss resort town of Grindelwald you can experience a curious, inconspicuous, almost underwhelming, piece of furniture design history. USM window fittings. Just don't expect steel tubing and chrome plated brass balls, that all came much, much later...... The story of the USM Haller modular furniture system starts in 1885 in the Swiss village of Münsingen with the establishment of a locksmith and ironmonger business by Ulrich Schärer, a
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In 1982 Danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen acquired the rights to the complete works by the designer Poul Kjærholm. In 2003 Fritz Hansen ceded their rights to selected objects, mainly tables. In January 2014 Fritz Hansen reacquired said rights from Poul Kjærholm's son Thomas Kjærholm who had not only administered the rights in the intervening decade, but had also established a company who produced and distributed the "discarded" objects. Although the decision to reacquire the
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By way of unwinding ahead of his forthcoming solo exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, German designer Konstantin Grcic is currently presenting an absolutely beguiling collection of glass furniture objects at Galerie Kreo Paris. We've not actually seen the objects, we've only seen the press photos, and as any fool know press photos are not the most reliable media for assessing design objects. But..... Created in collaboration with a sadly unnamed Frankfurt glass workshop - why must the
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On Saturday March 22nd the third edition of the Munich Creative Business Week formally opens. We know, we know, that's what we thought when they launched in 2012. Munich? Creativity? No wonder they're concentrating on the business aspect, we chortled into our banana milkshakes. Typical Bavarians! Which of course is very, very unfair. For in a manner similar to Stuttgart, Munich is home to a lot of creativity. Just a creativity that is a lot more self-assured and so reserved than the brash
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Since 2013 the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft Köln has been a member of the organisation "Iconic Houses", a platform that aims to network architecturally important 20th century residential houses and so not only raise awareness of contemporary architectural heritage but also promote and encourage preservation and innovative use of such. True to this aim in 2013 the curators of the van Schijndel Huis in Utrecht started a series of events in which a house is presented by its director
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It is almost certainly more by chance than design, but in the week that Verner Panton would have celebrated his 88th birthday the Vitra Design Museum Gallery opened an exhibition devoted to his inimitable Visiona 2 exhibition from 1970. Presented as part of the warm up to the forthcoming "Panorama" exhibition from and by Konstantin Grcic, "Visiona 1970: Revisiting the Future" explores the background to and realisation of the Visiona 2 showcase, including an accessible, usable, sitonable
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