Back in April 2010 we reported that Dutch design anarchos Droog were planning a hotel in Amsterdam. On September 16th 2012 Hôtel Droog will finally open for business. And because it's from Droog, Hôtel Droog has only one bedroom. Which is really an apartment. The majority of the complex is taken up with all those things that in a "normal" hotel would be of secondary importance to the accomodation: eating, drinking, shopping, being pampered or relaxing in a garden. Situated in a 17th century
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Irritating as they are, forgers are rarely daft. You only very occasionally find one purveying, for example, fake Billy Ray Cyrus albums. Or fake Greek State Bonds. They prefer to stick to things they are certain they can sell with ease. Which is why Bauhaus furniture is so highly regarded by professional forging gangs. Not only is everyone familiar with the important pieces, but it all looks so simple. Who can tell the difference? However, aside from the potential safety issues, a copy
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Browsing through the catalogue for the exhibition "Der Stuhl" in Stuttgart one item in particular caught our attention: "Der Federdreh by Albert Stoll, Waldshut (Baden)" - and not just because it is a delightful piece of woodworking. Loosely translated as "The Sprung Swivel" Der Federdreh does what it promises - swivels and has spring suspension. Might not sound that interesting, but back then Der Federdreh was the very first chair of its kind. Anywhere. Consequently Der Federdreh is, in
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Without wanting to sound too much like Dieter Rams, good design really, really doesn't have to be complicated or otherwise outrageous. One of the best examples of this is without question the coat hook system Knax from LoCa. Created by Thomas Harrit and Nicolai Sørensen the idea couldn't be any simpler nor the effect any more liberating. Through the integration of a series of self-retracting metal hooks in a piece of wood one creates a hanging system that takes up virtually no space, even
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Back in the day exhibitions demonstrating how modern flats and houses could, even should, be constructed and furnished were all the rage. Events such as "Die Wohnung" and the associated Weißenhofsiedlung Stuttgart, or post-War shows such as "Interbau 57" or "Wie Wohnen?" presented visitors a brave new world as visualised by the leading designers and architects of the day. Today we have glossy magazines full of wise words from "Trend Researchers" and a data Tsunami of "Style Blogs" which
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Back in January Benjamin Hubert was awarded the A&W Audi Mentorpreis 2012. Presented in conjunction with the A&W Designer of the Year Award the Mentorpreis can in many ways be considered as being the "Young Designer" category. The interesting aspect of the A&W Audi Mentorpreis is that the winner is nominated by that year's A&W Designer of the Year. So in 2012 Patricia Urquiola. After the award ceremony we caught up with Benjamin for a quick chat; however, we very cleverly managed to lose the
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Back in January we published a post looking at IMM Cologne 1962 and setting that year's exhibition in the context of what we could all expect at IMM Cologne 2012. Amongst the material we read and reviewed in preparing the post the page that made the biggest impression on us was an advert for Sesam-Bar by Oeseder Möbel-Industrie: a small corner unit containing a rotating interior compartment with bookshelves on the front and a mini-bar on the back. The name coming of course from "Open Sesame":
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"The exhibition will principally present simple, functional and comfortable chairs for the home, office and garden"1 With this clear note of intent opens the catalogue to the exhibition "Der Stuhl" that took place in Stuttgart from September 15th until October 15th 1928. Organised by the Württembergische Gewerbeamt - the trade office responsible for the greater Stuttgart region at that time - "Der Stuhl" featured some 400 objects from over 50 international producers and was conceived with
read moreIf there is a chair on the market at the moment that better symbolises how complex simplicity in design is than Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler for Moormann. We want to see it. At Milan 2011 Nils Holger Moormann told us of the literal and figurative mountain pass that had to be negotiated before Harry's idea could be transformed into a market ready, mass producible product. Then ahead of Milan 2012 Harry Thaler then told us about the long way from the original experiments with wood until he had
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Our views on Chemnitz are well known. Travel south of Chemnitz however and you'll come to an area of Germany that time didn't so much forget - it never even knew it existed. A bit like Bhutan, the Erzgebirge is an autonomous, inaccessible mountain region where the dearth of contact with the outside world means that popular knowledge about the area is largely dominated by myth, legend and the yellowing, travel logbooks of gentleman explorers of centuries gone. It is therefore all the more
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About a thousand years ago we asked our favourite Portuguese designerTM Rui Alves aka My Own Super Studio about the use of colour in his work and he answered "I try not be afraid of colour. Portuguese art and design has a tradition of using lots of colour and so for me it is natural to use colour." Anyone wanting to get a feel for what Rui means need only spend a day travelling on the Lisbon underground. While there are a lot of cities where using the underground system is more visually
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Shortly before the 11th Dutch Design Week kicks off in Eindhoven at the end of October, Holland's oldest auction house, Venduehuis in the Hague, will host its 1st Design Auction. Presumably the first of many. In addition to a general sale of design objects, prototypes and the like, the Venduehuis Design Auction also features a charity auction of specially created one-offs. Under the title "A Chair for Charity", thirteen leading contemporary Dutch designers have been invited to select an
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Remaining in celebratory mood..... Twenty five years after the young guns of European modernism gathered in Stuttgart to open the Weissenhof Siedlung, a "somewhat ageing" Danish architect, who as a student had been greatly influenced by the works of European modernism, was about to make his global breakthrough with a chair design which as much as any represents the post-War break with modernism and the fearless march into the new, uncertain, world. Happy 60th Birthday the Ant Chair by Arne
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On July 23rd 2012 the Weißenhofsiedlung Stuttgart celebrates its 85th "birthday". An anniversary which provides a near-perfect excuse to relive one of the most important moments in the development of European Modernism. As if we really need an excuse. Initiated by the Deutscher Werkbund in cooperation with Stuttgart City Council the Weißenhofsiedlung comprised some 63 flats in 33 buildings designed by a truly stellar collection of international architects and was just one part of a larger
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If we're honest when we initially saw Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn at the Bauhaus University Weimar 2012 Diploma exhibition we kept on walking. It just didn't tickle us. Didn't seem that interesting or relevant. But when we approached it a second time we stopped and considered it properly. Thankfully! Back in the day fruit and vegetables were stored in cellars, garages and similar naturally cool, dark spaces. Today they are stored in heated kitchens and as most of us only go shopping once a
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Back in April we asked Pascal Berberat, Head of the Vitra Airport Division why airport seating always has armrests. And thus denies us all the chance to lie down and snooze. A flippant question we concede, but such issues of course take on a very real significance when your flight is delayed and you find yourself with an unexpected overnight stay in the airport. What ya gonna do? Currently airports have either nothing to offer, meaning passengers have to find a way to make themselves
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Among a decent if not especially vintage selection of Diploma projects on show at the Bauhaus University Weimar Summaery 2012 exhibition, the one that was getting the least attention when we were there was also, in our opinion, the best. Schwarz auf Weiss by Jenni-Fee Hahn. Modern communication is all well and good. It's quick, it's easy, it's universal. But we all know it is also, as Blur so very nearly put it. Rubbish. It doesn't satisfy us. It doesn't motivate us. It doesn't inspire us.
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When we mentioned it last year it was just intended as a cheap pun. But slowly we can see a lot of sense in changing the name of the annual end of year exhibition at the Bauhaus University Weimar to Autumnery. For as with Summaery 2011, Summaery 2012 wasn't. And although we had the feeling that this years show was less extensive than last years, we still found plenty to distract us from the unseasonal weather. Among the highlights for us were the results of the classes "Falter" which
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One of the objects that has been following us around the international designer furniture circus this past year or so has been Flatmate by Michael Hilgers. The idea is very simple. Much like the chair project "The Half" by Studio Sailing to Mars, Flatmate takes the standard storage sideboard we all know - and reduces its dimensions. And in doing so creates a very familiar object in an equally unfamiliar scale. Unlike "The Half" the reduction is not geared towards ergonomic efficiency but
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As we always say one of the joys of visiting design festivals is the chance they offer to explore different parts of the host city. Normally it is the visitors who travel. In Leipzig, it's Designers' Open that travels. The true minstrel under the European design festivals, Designers' Open has been annually packing its kit bag and moving on ever since leaving its, figurative, family home in the Grassi Museum in 2006. Designers Open 2012 will be held from October 25th to 28th in the
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Green Lamp by Zuzanna Malinowska is essentially a plant pot with an integrated growing frame. Clearly intended for climbing plants, the beauty of the growing frame is that it is a lamp shade. And below the lamp shade is, naturally enough, a bulb. The plant grows, takes on the form of the growing frame and before you know it you have a lamp formed from a plant. Now we are assuming that Zuzanna has checked and the plant can't get burned by the bulb; or indeed catch fire. And if she has, then
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The history of furniture design is strewn with works that briefly graced the public stage before vanishing without the honour of a curtain call. Crawl through the cellar of any major furniture producer and you'll find them; the perfectly mummified remains of genuine design classics that failed to transform their creative majesty into hard cash. Such as the so-called "Girard Group" by Alexander Girard. Although best known for his textile and wallpaper designs Alexander Girard wasn't averse to
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Post-DMY commitments in Berlin sadly meant that we couldn't attend the "Confrontations – Contemporary Dutch Design Live" event at the Vitra Design Museum. Fortunately the Vitra Design Museum and their partner, the Dutch design platform Premsela, have released videos of the five projects, through which of course one also gets a feel for the sixth project - the exhibition design by catalogtree. Shot by the experienced hands at designguide.tv the films offer a wonderful insight into the
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There is a 1961 poster by the Stuttgart designer Hanns Lohrer for Porsche which depicts a Porsche 356B framed by pair of skis and a fur hat. The image cries out Sean Connery era James Bond. Refined, exclusive, self-confident, a little bit cheeky .... and highly desirable. Together with the other works in the "The Perfect Sporting Partner" series the poster is a delightful testament to Lohrer's ability to produce work that perfectly matched the client's brief without compromising himself
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