Is there anything left to say about Bauhaus? Have we not all seen, read, written enough? We all know the important points of the story. We all know the famous art works and design classics. Most of us can name three or four Bauhäusler, the cleverer among you might reach a dozen. There's nothing new to be said. Were it only that simple.... Some 1200 students attended Bauhaus Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, add to that number the teaching and workshop staff and one reaches not only an
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We're almost at the end of our Milan 2012 coverage. Not because we've run out of themes; but have run out of time. In the coming weeks we've got the opening of the Gerrit Rietveld exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, the opening of the Marcel Breuer Exhibition at Bauhaus Dessau, Belgrade Design Week, DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel, and all in addition to a couple of further interviews in connection with "British Design" at the V&A London and "Bauhaus: Art as Life" at the Barbican Art
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As reported elsewhere in these pages, there is a great deal of hope in the UK that the 2012 Summer Olympics will provide fresh impulse for the UK design industry. Something we doubt. But then, what do we know. No honestly. What do we know? And so we've taken the opportunity in recent weeks to talk to some people who are much better placed than us to asses the situation, not just in terms of the opportunities presented by the Olympics, but more generally about the state of the UK design
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On May 3rd the exhibition "Bauhaus: Art as Life" opens at the Barbican Art Gallery London. Organised in co-operation with the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar, "Bauhaus: Art as Life" presents some 450 works by the likes of as Marianne Brandt, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius et al and is the first major Bauhaus exhibition in the UK since 1968. We'll have a full report on the exhibition shortly. But ahead of the official opening we
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Back in October one of our highlights at Vienna Design Week 2011 was the exhibition kidsroomZOOM! Essentially a mid-town Vienna apartment kitted out entirely in furniture for children, we were not only impressed by the objects on display, but by the concept. Forget adults! We're doin' it for the kids! Being the message we got. And one we wholeheartedly approved of. kidsroomZOOM! originated in Milan, and so this year we not only visited the new 2012 show, but also spoke to curator Paola Noè to
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Until September 16th the Grassi Museum Leipzig is showing the Vitra Design Museum exhibition The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction. And so keeping with the theme, we'll keep our post reduced and simply link to our post from The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. Paul Weller is famously of the opinion that it's ludicrous to expect him to sing songs today that he wrote as an 18 year old. His world view having,
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The V&A Museum London exhibition "British Design 1948-2012" pretty much does what it says on the tin. It reviews British Design from 1948 to 2012. But how does the future look ? Where is British design going ? What issues are important? Where do the coming generation of designers see their futures ? Answers to these and similar questions can be found in the newly published "21 Designers for twenty-first century Britain" by Gareth Williams. Profiling designers and design studios such as Raw
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It's probably fair to say the biggest surprise at Salone Satellite 2012 was seeing Rui Alves aka My Own Super Studio. Because we thought 2011 had been the last year he was allowed to exhibit. Turns out we can't count. And that the rules for Salone Satellite are a lot more complicated than even we were aware. Fortunately. For in addition to the chance to catch up with Rui, he also had new projects with him. While most industry attention of late has been focused on his Lapa chair, for us the
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We bow to no man in our admiration for the people of Belgium. Not only have they common sense to make chips their national dish, but they have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that politicians are no pre-requisite for a functioning state in 21st century Europe. We've just always found it a real shame that the various parts of the country have never got on. It's so unnecessary in such a small nation. Fortunately, at least in design, that is starting to change, and in the last couple of
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As regular readers will know one of our favourite design festivals is Vienna Design Week. And one of our all-time favourite Vienna Design Week projects is LacesLamp by Antoinette Bader. Because it delt so playfully with statics. And believe us, we've suffered for statics. And so anything that presents it as something to be enjoyed is to be celebrated. Consequently it was a particular joy to discover Antoinette at Salone Satellite 2012 with three new projects: projects which although
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At Milan 2011 Moormann presented the prototype of Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler. At Milan 2012 the market ready version was/is being officially unveiled. Last year Nils Holger Moormann enthused at great length about Pressed Chair. And so to complete the story, ahead of Milan 2012 we caught up with Harry Thaler in his London studio to learn more about both him and the background to Pressed Chair. (smow)blog: To begin with maybe a little to your background. If we're correctly informed you
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As anyone involved in the designer furniture industry will confirm; it's a secretive old world. Probably only matched in its inherent furtiveness by the Freemasons, Papal Conclaves or the committee responsible for setting petrol prices. Simply saying that you might have heard that designer X may be considering a possible future cooperation with producer Y is to risk a long interrogation by a Product Manager wanting to know who told you what. The situation is even more clandestine when it
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As we've already admitted the first time we saw a Dutch Invertuals exhibition we didn't hang around very long. Since then however we have matured a lot and the show has become a regular feature of our visits to Eindhoven and Milan. Simply put, one always finds something challenging, exciting and beautiful at a Dutch Invertuals show. And invariably something you don't really understand, no matter how often it is explained to you. But that itself is for us reason enough to go. In 2012 Dutch
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Although proud of the number of "issues" we have with Milan design week and furniture fair. It does of course also have its positive sides. Most of which are to be found down quiet, unassuming side streets. Last year we discovered Azucena. This year Villa Necchi. Built in the first half of the 1930s by Italian architect Piero Portaluppi on behalf of a (very) rich Milanese industrial family, Villa Necchi is just about the most "In-your-face" building you are ever likely to set foot in. In
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We suspect the reason we write so much about designer furniture in an airport context is simply because of the amount of time we spend in airports. And consequently the amount of time we spend thinking about and analysing what we are being offered. If you're going to be delayed at Frankfurt for five hours. You want to make sure that your seat is comfy. If you're going to have to spend the night at Copenhagen Airport. You want to make sure your seat is comfy. If you're... you get the idea.
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Ostensibly established as a location for presenting and archiving Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum's private collection of designer furniture, the Vitra Design Museum has developed into one of Europe's most important centres for design, design history but for all, for explaining design and making design accessible. A large part of the museum's success can be credited to founding Director Alexander von Vegesack who led the institution from its opening in 1989 until the end of 2010. In January 2011 Marc
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At the end of March the V&A Museum London opened the exhibition "British Design 1948-2012. Innovation in the Modern Age", their major summer exhibition and a central pillar of their celebration of all things British throughout 2012. Documenting the story of design in the UK since the last London Olympics, "British Design 1948-2012" begins in an era when Britain as a nation was recovering from the trauma of the Second World War, yet understood that in the rubble of the war lay the chance to
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A common misconception is that the term "designer" in "designer furniture" means "exclusive". It doesn't. It just means that a designer has invested time in creating a product that does something new or which represents a further development of existing concepts. Designer furniture is however meant to be used everywhere, everyday, by everyone. Such as the Tom Vac by Ron Arad for Vitra. You could just use it in your dinning room or on your balcony. Or.....
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Much like those who doubted that the Stone Roses would ever get back together; there are also those who doubt we will ever make it to a Depot Basel show. Until now it was the case that the shows inevitably fell at periods when we were otherwise engaged. And the opening of Depot Basel No. 5 on March 23rd was no different. However, this time we're hopeful we can make it, because the show runs until May 5th. Longer than usual, but then they are also showing more than usual. The "main"
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Back in September droog "released" a diamond studded car tyre as part of their Fantastical Investments project. We fear the good folks at ECAL/University of Art & Design Lausanne may have taken the project a bit too literally, for as we learned the other day they offer a Master of Advanced Studies in, wait for it, you won't believe us: Luxury Industry & Design Honestly. Luxury Industry & Design Forget everything you learned from our post on "Warum Gestalten ?" at the HFBK Hamburg. The
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On March 20th the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin opened their spring exhibition "Stühle ohne Beine - Chairs without legs" Dedicated to the development and diversity of the cantilever chair, Stühle ohne Beine is a fairly simple exhibition concept with an equally simple message: designing a chair without legs doesn't mean limiting your possibilities. Less is more not being just a design maxim but also a design challenge. Featuring 25 chairs from the collection of Die Neue Sammlung - The International
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Although we regularly use the term "furniture market", one must technically speak from two furniture markets; domestic and office. OK you could also add retail, hotel, airport etc... but for the sake of convenience let's consider them as genre-crossing mongrels. Like folk-rock. Regardless however of how one categorises the industry, its probably fair to say that the past four years have been no real fun for European furniture producers. Especially not for those involved in the office
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On Thursday and Friday March 15th/16th the ETH Zurich is holding a two day symposium looking at the life and work of Fritz Haller. And we won't be there. Scunner. There are a lot of reasons to want to be there; but the principle one for us is that despite his universally recognised System USM Haller, Fritz Haller himself remains something of an enigma. And so the chance to spend two days listening to experts discuss the man and his work in detail is technically something we shouldn't miss.
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On March 4th 2012 the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts Leipzig opened the final part of their permanent exhibition. An exhibition very close to our hearts. Now you know us, we 've nothing against baroque or ancient Japanese furniture and objects. But our hearts do beat a little faster when we get to the late 19th century. Mies van der Rohe bending metal. Alvar Aalto bending wood. Verner Panton bending plastic. Axel Buether bending light. It's all there in “Art Nouveau to Present” Plus a
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