In our Orgatec interview with Vitra CDO Eckart Maise we talked about the office system as the central component of the Vitra office furniture philosophy. One designer who has done more than most to establish Vitra's reputation in the office furniture sector is without question Antonio Citterio. Since his first collaborations with the company in the late 1980s Antonio Citterio has worked with Vitra on numerous key projects including the Ad Hoc system, the AC and ID office chair systems and most
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There are few things more pleasing in the world of furniture design than seeing a designer successfully replicating a winning form in a new object from another product genus. Seamlessly translating an idea developed for one project into a new context. A particularly good example of such a translation can be seen in the PS 07 bureau by Berlin based Delphin Design for Müller Möbelfabrikation. If we're honest, when we saw the PS 07 on the Müller stand at IMM Cologne 2013, although we noticed a
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As already said, we sadly won't make it to Stockholm Furniture Fair and Design Week this year. However, we still wanted to bring you a bit of Scandinavian design flair. Albeit Scandinavian design flair with a very strong Breton accent. Back at Orgatec 2012 one of the more surprising new product series on show was the so-called "A-Collection" by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for HAY. A truly delightful family of simple wooden objects, the collection principally surprised us because we had never
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In 2015 the London Design Museum will move to its new home in West Kensington. Ahead of the move the museum have taken the opportunity to re-design their permanent collection exhibition, and from Wednesday January 30th 2013 are presenting it in the context of a series of explorations of design themes under the motto “Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things” Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things is organised in 6 themed installations: Taste, Why We Collect, Icons, Identity & Design,
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Technically after IMM Cologne we should pack our kit bags and head of to Sweden for Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair + Stockholm Design Week. Technically. Sometimes however other things get in the way. Life, for example...... And so we'll sadly not make it to Stockholm this year. Sadly because Stockholm in February is just the most magical place. And sadly because of the wonders that we expect we'd find there. As Scandanavia's largest furniture and lighting trade fair, Stockholm is the
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In March 2012 we wrote about the Depot Basel show "Seats" which included a section devoted to the "Take a Seat" project run by Zurich based design studio Aekae in co-operation with the Zurich cafe "Z am Park" In essence "Take a Seat" involves commissioning contemporary designers to "re-work" four Horgenglarus 1-380 chairs. The results are then used for 6 months in Z am Park before being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The interesting aspect, or one of the interesting aspects, of the
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As we've said before, and will never tire of repeating, the Thonet back catalogue harbours an unparalleled treasure trove of design classics. And certainly enough interesting and challenging designs to keep half-a-dozen contemporary furniture companies in business for the next decade or two. Fortuitously just as Iceland's fisherman don't try to maximise profit by catching as many fish as possible as quickly as possible, so to do Thonet choose not to raid the archive every couple of months in
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It being January, IMM Cologne once again provided the backdrop for the presentation of the A&W Designer of the Year Award. Following on from Tokujin Yoshioka in 2011 and Patrica Urquiola in 2012 the 2013 accolade went to everyone's favourite Bretons Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec In addition to the undoubted kudos of winning, as part of the award the Brothers Bouroullec are also being honoured in an exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Featuring an overview of their more recent works the
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In our interview with Michel Charlot about his lamp U-Turn for Belux he told us that "I like it when people look at an object and find it “normal”, but that is something which is quite difficult to achieve...." Such an object is without question Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto. As so to help explain the complexity hidden in the simplicity, and celebrate the object's 80th anniversary, the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft are staging an exhibition during IMM Cologne 2013 devoted to this
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The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln (MAKK) opened in 1888, and so it is somehow fitting that it should start the celebrations of its 125th anniversary with an exhibition exploring Romanticism in contemporary design. Not just because a museal discussion of Romanticism refers neatly back to the prevailing atmosphere when the museum was being established; but because it also opens a window on our contemporary society and so potentially provides some pointers as to where the next 125 years will
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Back in the day the gentle flapping and choral honking of a snow goose skein heading south provided a comforting, aural background to the approaching winter. It meant our year was coming to an end and we could slowly wind down and enter a state of semi-hibernation. These days we dread the approaching Hitchcock cliche. The unrelenting, tuneless screeching reminding us it is time to decide: Should we travel to IMM Cologne in January? Really? And much like the migrating goose always follows the
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With over 100 members of the public getting in touch and 59 fake Wilhelm Wagenfeld WG 24 lamps being exchanged for licensed originals, Bremen based manufacturer Tecnolumen have declared themselves very satisfied with their recent "No Fake" promotion. Not least because they sense an increased and increasing awareness amongst consumers as to the problems associated with unlicensed copies; especially in association with Bauhaus era products Among the more interesting points made by the company
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On December 15th 2012 Ray Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames would have celebrated her 100th birthday. Born in Sacramento California, Ray Kaiser attended the May Friend Bennet School in Millbrook before in 1933 she moved to Manhattan where she studied painting under the tutorship of the German Abstractionist Hans Hofmann; and consequently found herself at the centre of the burgeoning abstract art scene in late 1930s New York. A highpoint of which was her participation in the inaugural American
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In 1956 Arne Jacobsen was commissioned to create the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen; a contract he took on with great gusto and which, true to his understanding of an architect being responsible for the complete composition, saw him not only create a building, but all the fixtures and fittings. Right down to the bath plugs. While the most famous furniture pieces from the SAS Royal project are without question the Swan Chair and Egg Chair, those who take the time to investigate a little deeper
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After long, sober, consideration we have decided to end the "Christmas is coming.... " project. Simply put, in the wake of last years "Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat… if Verner Panton had ever visited us, that is where he would have sat" we couldn't see where to take the concept. We had reached a creative zenith. Mount Olympus was behind us, a distant speck on a snowy, cloudy horizon and ahead a sorry, meaningless, desert of repetition, emotional contortion and former East
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On Friday last week we were at a discussion in Potsdam where Nils Holger Moormann spoke as eloquently and convincingly as ever about the advantages of long lifecyles for furniture and the continual development that is possible when one understands furniture as an evolving entity and not as a quick, profit generating, commodity. Referring, for example, to the FNP shelving system he commented, something along the lines of: even after 25 years one always finds new ways of extending and developing
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From 2013 onwards Designers' Open Leipzig will be organised by Leipzig Messe. The current organisers and festival founders Jan Hartmann and Andreas Neubert will continue to assist with the content and conceptual planning; however, all legal and financial control has been taken on by Leipzig Messe. More observant readers will have noticed that we didn't report from Designers' Open 2012. The simple reason is that we saw little reason to visit it. And that despite it being staged about 10
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From Friday December 7th until Sunday December 9th the Wilhelmspalais in Stuttgart is hosting the 9th DEKUMO Art and Design Fair. Initiated in 2004 as a sales fair for local designers and artists DEKUMO has grown steadily over the years: both geographically as well as in volume. Whereas the original version featured the works of some 30 design studios, principally from Stuttgart, the 2012 edition presents 110 exhibitors from as far afield as... we'll to be honest that's really hard to tell
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As you know we don't generally react to, or even read, unsolicited PR E-mails. And so no one is more surprised than us to find us posting about StickBulb by RUX Design. A product we have only seen on a website and in a pdf. email attachment. While the "Big Bang" series dosen't really get our boat rockin' - for us there is somehow something too cluttered and needlessly obtuse in the construction and form - the "Torch" series is a joy to behold. We obviously can't comment on the quality of
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At Orgatec 2012 Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation introduced their new WORKSPACE product range(s). Developed in cooperation with Andreas Struppler and Sebastian Frank from Munich based Struppler Industriedesign, WORKSPACE is technically two ranges - WORK and SPACE, or "Labor et Spatium" for any scholars of historic furniture design who may be reading - that combine to create a modular office furniture system. WORK is represented by two height adjustable desks, one electronic the other
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Those of you who actually read what we write rather than simply enjoying our genre redefining photography * will know that we regularly bemoan the lack of design coverage in the serious print media. All too often it seems "design" is something to be entrusted to blogs featuring sugar sweet hymns to our cuddly, snuggy-wuggy world and all backed-up by Gaussian heavy, focus soft photos. Or worse, instagram photos. And so we raise our hats and our flagons to the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine for
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At the risk of upsetting furniture historians, wood is probably the longest serving material in furniture design. It is also one of the most deceptively complex and hard to work materials in furniture design. For all bending, shaping and moulding pieces of solid wood is a process that has long fascinated and infuriated designers and architects in equal measure. From Michael Thonet's ground breaking research in the 19th century, over the efforts of Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer or Charles Eames
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Wandering round the Vitra spaceship at Orgatec there was one product that you simply couldn't fail to notice. On every table, in every Workbay, in every Alcove stood a lamp. A Vitra lamp? Not technically. Technically a lamp from Swiss producer Belux. However since 2001 Belux has been part of the Vitra family and at Orgatec 2012 they made good use of their family connections to unveil the latest addition to their portfolio, U-Turn by ECAL Lausanne graduate Michel Charlot. Older readers will
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Cork. At the moment there is simply no getting away from it. A couple of weeks ago Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec unveiled their Cork Desk for Vitra at Orgatec. Back in April we had Cover by Daphna Laurens at Dutch Invertuals in Milan. And last year at Dutch Design Week we marvelled at Tiago Sá da Costa's Corkmatters Lamp exhibited as part of the Made Out Portugal #4 show. Might not sound like much, but given that before Eindhoven 2011 the last serious cork product we can remember seeing was
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