"The word 'document' which in the last few generations stood, and in many regards still stands for, papers relating to legal matters, such as deeds, contracts, affidavits and certificates, has in present-day professional usage reverted to its original meaning as derived from its Latin origin", opined Lucia Moholy in 1948, "and now applies to spoken, written, printed and other materials, produced and distributed for the purpose of imparting knowledge".1 With Lucia Moholy: Exposures Kunsthalle
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"Why are the sounds we play in our apartments always music?" asked the Danish architect and designer Verner Panton, "aren't the sounds of a chicken farm, waves, the wind and many other things just as beautiful?"1 Questions that force one to question the difference between 'sounds' and 'music', but for all to question our relationships with the myriad 'noises' that accompany daily life. With the exhibition Sound Sources. Everything is Music! the Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, provide a space
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"Everybody, except myself, have used, and admit to having used my photographs ... and often also without mentioning my name", lamented Lucia Moholy in 1956, "everyone – except myself – have derived advantages from using my photographs, either directly, or indirectly, in a number of ways, be it in cash or prestige, or both".1 The photographs in question being of and from the Weimar and Dessau Bauhauses, photos which played, and continue to play, a not unimportant role in mediating Bauhaus to a
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"The problem", elucidated Herman Hertzberger in 1973, in context of his project for the Centraal Beheer insurance company in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, "was to make an office building that would be a working place where everybody would feel at home: a house for 1000 people."1 How Herman Hertzberger sought to solve that problem not only helping explain aspects of the development of architecture in the course of the 20th century, nor only aspects of the development of office design in the
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"With every new building the first task is to clarify the needs that will arise in context of its use",1 opined Peter Behrens on December 10th 1912 at the official inauguration of the new administrative HQ for the Prussian industrial concern Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG. And while Peter Behrens was certainly not the first to opine such, with the so-called Mannesmann-Haus in Düsseldorf he realised one of the earliest large office buildings designed to evolve and develop as those needs evolved and
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In 1977 Ludwig Glaeser, curator of the Mies van der Rohe Archive at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opinioned that "it is certainly more than a coincidence that [Mies van der Rohe's] involvement in furniture and exhibition design began in the same year as his personal relationship with Lilly Reich."1 A statement that has in many regards come to define understandings of the furniture designs of both Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. An understanding that "is certainly more than a
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"Das tritt nach ...meiner Kenntnis ... ist das sofort, unverzüglich" "As far as I'm aware..... that applies .... with immediate effect, forthwith" Rarely has an almost sentence in a press conference had such consequences. With his confidently unconfident utterances on the evening of Thursday November 9th 1989, a statement concerning a relaxation on restrictions for those East Germans wanting to travel to West Germany, a statement made while distractedly flicking through papers looking for,
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On May 14th 2019 the European Court of Justice ruled that all employers are required "to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured." 1 On July 15th 1855 Johannes Bürk was granted a patent for just such a system. A system which, as the Uhrenindustriemuseum Villingen-Schwenningen's exhibition Time, Freedom and Control – The Legacy of Johannes Bürk explains, paved the way, certainly in spirit, for many of the
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Were it possible that there could be such a thing as a "lost" Bauhaus building, something wholly unimaginable this of all years, then the best candidate would, arguably, have to be the ADGB Bundesschule in Bernau bei Berlin. Yes, it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and so is not really lost; however as an object it only rarely features, and when then invariably passingly, in the popular Bauhaus discourse .... and that despite being built by a serving Bauhaus Director. With the exhibition
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"The role of the architect is one of organisation. The house is the considered organisation of our ways of life"1, opined the Austrian architect Margarete Lihotzky in 1921. And in the course of a long, varied career, she repeatedly demonstrated what she understood by such; including most famously, if somewhat narrowly, in a kitchen design............. Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000) (Photo 1997, Werner Faymann, source https://commons.wikimedia.org) Born in Vienna on January 23rd
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Multi-storey car parks are many things to many people. For skateboarders a playground, for love-torn teens a place of privacy, for authors and film-makers an all too easy metaphor, and for yet others ..... somewhere to park their car. For the German architect Paul Schneider-Esleben the multi-storey car park represents his career breakthrough. And one of his most defining projects. Lichtplatz Car Park (Hanielgarage), Düsseldorf by Paul Schneider-Esleben Paul Schneider-Esleben Born in
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Back in the day one of the joys of reading the British Yellow Pages was the entry for Boring: "See Civil Engineers"* Oh how we laughed! And still do! Partly to counter such negative associations, partly to explain what Civil Engineers do, and partly to explain just how fundamentally that what Civil Engineers do has contributed to our contemporary society, and the multitude of possibilities available to us, whether we choose to take them or not, the Oskar von Miller Forum Munich is staging the
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On the train down to Kortrijk and the 2016 Biennale Interieur we started drafting this introduction. The talk was of the 25th anniversary edition, the relevance of the event in context of the European furniture and design market - then and now - and the strength(s) of contemporary Belgian furniture design Then we saw that organisers were charging 50 cents to use the toilet. In a fair. Ctrl A. Ctrl X. It may "only" be 50 cents, but.... having charged visitors €22,00 to enter a fair. You
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Henry van de Velde not only helped define Art Nouveau, he was also party to Art Nouveau's christening; even if the immediate reception didn't bode all too well for the fledgling movements longevity..................... Henry van de Velde meets Henry van de Velde, here as seen at the exhibition Henry van de Velde. Leidenschaft, Funktion und Schönheit, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, 2013 Born in Antwerp on April 3rd 1863 Henricus Clementinus van de Velde1 initially trained as a painter, studying
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According to Brigitte Eiermann her late husband, the German architect and designer Egon Eiermann, would work so long on a furniture design project until he could say "Das ist nicht besser zu machen" - "That cannot be improved". It was, so Frau Eiermann, rare that he said such, so great was his striving for perfection. Everything could, somehow, be improved.1 However we imagine Egon Eiermann would be very satisfied with the new table trestle Egon from Stuttgart based manufacturer Richard
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"The design is not the result of any especially deep consideration, but much more of random form finding through sketching."1 So remembers German architect and designer Sergius Ruegenberg the creation of the so-called Barcelona Chair; a chair that made its formal début with the opening of the Barcelona International Exposition on May 19th 1929. Barcelona Chair? Sergius Ruegenberg? Yes. Barcelona Chair. Sergius Ruegenberg. Born in St. Petersburg in 1903 Sergius Ruegenberg trained as a
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Until June 10th the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin is presenting "New Architecture! Modern Architecture in Images and Books", an exhibition devoted to architecture photography and architecture publishing of the 1920s and 30s. And an exhibition that illustrates just how little the genres have evolved over the intervening decades. The central focus of New Architecture! is the life, work and archive of the architecture critic and art historian Walter Müller-Wulckow. In addition to his journalistic and
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Given that Cologne is geographically closer to Brussels than Berlin, there probably should be more Belgian designers exhibiting at Cologne Design Week than there actually/normally are. Also because a Belgian Frites seller can be found on near every street corner, thus ensuring no Belgian - or indeed Dutchman, Scot or Australian - need go hungry. Among the Belgians who are here this year are old (smow) blog favourites Tim Baute and Stefaan De Croock aka Atelier Bonk who are presenting their
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The first object to attract our attention on Atelier Bonk's stand in the Ventura At Work exhibition in Milan was the candle stick holder. That is until it was pointed out to us that it is actually a potato masher. It's a very simple mistake to make. Especially if you're as daft as us. Bruges based Atelier Bonk is the result of a co-operation between designer Tim "Interror.be" Baute and graphic artist Stefaan de Croock, a.k.a. Strook. The name of the atelier may cause uncontrolled
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Ahead of Milan Design Week we received an email from a Belgian designer of our acquaintance letting us know where we could view their work. The email ended with a euphoric "This is finally Belgium's year!" A thought that really appealed to us, because as we wrote last year Belgium has the potential to be every bit as successful as Holland. And indeed should be. And so with an optimistic heart we set off to the Triennale di Milano to view the exhibition "Belgium is Design" And experienced our
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We were famously first drawn to the work of Belgian designer Tim Baute aka Interror.be via a lamp he showed at Designers Fair Cologne 2010. And his SevenUp, a moody and reduced down chandelier, remains one of our reference products. Tim is however a metalworker by training and so it was good to see him presenting a new steel product range for his debut at DMY Berlin. And although named after the B-2 Bomber, the range doesn't have its origins in the secretive world of military aviation, but
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Although we know better, sometimes we could almost believe that this blog is planned. In our "Belgium is Design" post from Milan we wrote "Tim Baute from interror was for several years one of the true highlights at Designers Fair in Cologne." And a couple of weeks later in pops the information that he will be making his debut at DMY Berlin. If his new "Stealth" product range will be a highlight remains to be seen. And certainly the competition is tough. New Zealand designer David Trubridge,
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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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For the last in our series of EuroDesignExhibition previews we travel to the spiritual home of Europe. Belgium. Aside from quite possibly Luxembourg, which only Luxembourgians would be cheeky enough to contend even counts, there can no country that has become more identified with the founding ideals of the European community than Belgium. But has it lost its culture identity? Or is a cultural stronger than politics? The question of creating a piece that represents your country wasn't that
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