December can be a trying month: always having to think of others; always having to patronise bars and restaurants you've spent the rest of the year wishing would return to the parallel hell from whence they came; eating, eating and eating as if trapped in some culinary Groundhog Day.
Do yourself a favour, gift yourself a few hours and visit one of the following new design and architecture exhibitions opening in December 2015. We can't guarantee they'll be good, but can guarantee they'll be more pleasurable than a visit to the Christmas market.....
"The New Map" at the Nationalmuseum Design, Stockholm, Sweden
As any clear thinking individual knows the existing global trade model isn't sustainable: socially, economically nor environmentally and must be changed.
As any clear thinking individual knows the existing global design industry model isn't sustainable: socially, economically nor environmentally and must be changed.
And so, wonders any clear thinking individual, could we change both simultaneously and to the benefit of all?
The New Map is intended as an exploration of how that might be possible.
Organised by the Nationalmuseum Design Stockholm and the Form/Design Center in Malmö The New Map paired designers with local business in the Skåne region of southern Sweden with the brief of developing a new product.
In itself nothing new, the idea behind The New Map is a much loved and well used tool, yet a tool which is never boring because it must always produce completely new experiences, and with every new experience comes new insights and the realisation that where will meets creativity sensible results can occur and that high quality, local production and distribution is possible. And is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
The New Map opens at Nationalmuseum Design, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Sergels torg, Stockholm on Friday December 4th and runs until Sunday February 14th
"Josef Frank. Against Design" at the MAK Vienna, Austria
Unquestionably one of Europe's finest classic residence cities Vienna is also one of Europe's most interesting cities in context of modernist housing experiments; projects such as the Heubergsiedlung, Winarskyhof or the Werkbundsiedlung helping advance and cement ideas of modernist house construction and urban planning in the inter-war years. One of the leading protagonists of this movement was the architect Josef Frank, notable also as the only Austrian architect invited to contribute to the 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung project in Stuttgart. Following his Nazi enforced emigration to Sweden in 1933 Josef Frank, in effect, began a second career as a product designer, concentrating for all on furniture, textiles and household accessories. Under the title "Against Design" the MAK in Vienna aim to present not only a comprehensive retrospective of Josef Frank's oeuvre but also analyse his philosophy of good design being as little design as possible and of creating objects geared towards the comfort of and practicality for the end user rather than striving for constant innovation or meeting the abstract demands of an all-encompassing design philosophy or design concept. A furrow that Josef Frank largely trod alone, and a philosophy which today makes him one of the more interesting architects and designers of his generation
Josef Frank. Against Design opens at the MAK, Stubenring 5, A-1010 Vienna on Wednesday December 16th and runs until Sunday April 3rd
"Community: Italy Architecture, city and landscape from the postwar period to 2000" at the Triennale Design Museum, Milan, Italy.
Museum's aren't just there to collect, store and display the past, but also to critically analyse the contemporary and thus force us to face up to the realities of our age. The Italian architecture tradition isn't something that stopped with the end of Rococo but is something which is continually evolving, developing and is as contemporary and relevant for Italian society as corruption, questions surrounding the relationship between church and state, or corruption; consequently it is only sensible that a museum presents a critical exploration of contemporary Italian architecture. Promising some 120 works from the likes of Ludovico Quaroni, Renzo Piano or Arturo Mezzedimi Community seeks to explore the development of Italian architecture from the end of the second World War until 2000 and in doing so explain how Italian architecture has developed in the five decade since the war and thus help us understand where Italian architecture finds itself today. And why.
Community: Italy Architecture, city and landscape from the postwar period to 2000 opened at the Triennale Design Museum, Viale Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milan on Saturday November 28th and runs until Sunday March 6th
"Wild sites . Thomas Rustemeyer: Wilde orte in Rotterdam und Stuttgart" at the Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof, Stuttgart
In addition to formal, political, architecture and urban planning programmes our towns and cities are also subject to architecture and urban planning interventions of a much less formal, if often ever bit as political, nature. Presenting examples of such autonomous, grass roots projects from Rotterdam and Stuttgart Wild Sites..... well we don't know. So sparse, vague and generally confuse is the available information. However a combination of experience of and with the protagonists and a lot of good stomach feeling tells us it will be worth viewing should you find yourself in Stuttgart.
Wild sites. Thomas Rustemeyer: Wilde orte in Rotterdam und Stuttgart opens at the Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof, Am Weißenhof 30, 70191 Stuttgart on Wednesday December 2nd and runs until Sunday January 24th
"Prototypes and Experiments VIII" at The Aram Gallery, London, UK
The eighth edition of The Aram Gallery's "Prototypes and Experiments" exhibition series promises in many respects exactly the same as the previous seven. Which is of course exactly why it is to be recommended. Presenting works from design studios as diverse as, for example, Mischer’Traxler, Tomoko Azumi or Custhom, Prototypes and Experiments promises to present commented explanations of how products are developed - if you like, to show the workings and thinking on the long development path and thus help explain how products arise, the work that goes into creating a product and that yes design is work. And because each and every product has its own unique story to tell no two exhibits, nor exhibitions, can be the same, rather each is a, potential, gem of its own.
Prototypes and Experiments VIII opens at The Aram Gallery, 110 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5SG on Monday November 30th and runs until Saturday January 16th
