Depot Basel: MUSTERZIMMER & No Function – No Sense?

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 invariably find everything marvelous; neither of which however present us with anything that might cause us to think outwith our comfort zones or otherwise question the nature and sense of the decisions we have made until now.

As a balance to the modern and to prove that when it comes interior design “trends” and “lifestyle” aren’t the be-all and end-all, Depot Basel have invited ten Swiss design studios to present their vision of the room of the future in context of form, function, material and construction.

The results can be viewed in the exhibition Musterzimmer which opens this coming Friday, August 17th.

Parallel to Musterzimmer Depot Basel are also showing the exhibition No Function – No Sense?

Taking the design maxim “Form follows Function” to its extreme, eighteen expatriate Swiss designers were asked to create objects without function.

Objects which, if the theory is correct, must also have no form. Or at least only a very badly defined, insufferable, form.

Which of course raises the question, how important is form? And what role do concepts such as “context”, “purpose” or “beauty” play?

Deliberately setting out to force a discussion on the nature and fluidity of the border between art and design “No Function – No Sense?” is one of those design exhibitions where the presented objects themselves are less important than how they came to be and what one can learn from them.

We haven’t seen either exhibition yet and so cannot comment on the success or failure of their realisations: and looking at our calendar it is unlikely that we will find time to make it down to Basel to form an opinion. So if anyone does make it, we’d certainly be interested in your views and reaction.

MUSTERZIMMER & No Function – No Sense? can be viewed at Depot Basel from Friday August 17th until Friday September 14th 2012