With their WerkBundStadt project the Werkbund Berlin aim to redevelop an industrial site in northern Berlin into a future orientated inner-city quarter. How can be explored in a new exhibition. WerkBundHaus Berlin Established in 1907 as an amalgamation of designers and manufactures, primarily with the intention of improving the quality of German industrial production - "Made in Germany" being at the end of the 19th century more an insult and synonym for shoddy tat than the quality guarantee
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(a+b)÷a = a÷b ≡ harmony? Or, the contemporary relevance of the Golden Ratio In addition to those artificial laws decreed by state and church our lives are also defined by innate laws, those of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and Murphy. But is there a law of harmony? A law which defines perfect proportions and thus the ideal form of any object? Proponents of the Golden Ratio would answer yes. With their exhibition Divine Golden Ingenious. The Golden Ratio as a Theory of Everything?
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Such are the vagaries of the autumn/spring cycle in the global design exhibition industry, and it is an industry people, let's not fool ourselves otherwise, August is traditionally a very lean month: curators are on holiday, critics are on holiday, exhibition designers are on holiday, protagonists are on holiday. Who wants to open an exhibition? The following five museums. That's who.......... "Dream out Loud" at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland Whereas museum exhibitions generally
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If the (hi)story of 20th century architecture and design is unimaginable without the contribution made by Austria/Hungary/Austria-Hungary; then the contribution made by Austria/Hungary/Austria-Hungary is unimaginable without the contribution of Otto Wagner. Otto Wagner (1841–1918) Otto Wagner: An Architect's Journey from Viennese Historicism to..... Born in Vienna on July 13th 1841 Otto Koloman Wagner studied first at the Wiener Polytechnikum and subsequently the Berliner Bauakademie, before
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"Photography is the medium par excellence of our time. As a visual means of communication, it has no equal."1 So wrote the American photographer Berenice Abbott in 1941. How she set about proving such can be explored in the exhibition Berenice Abbott – Photographs at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin Berenice Abbott - Photographs at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1898 Berenice Abbott initially, and only very briefly, studied journalism at Ohio State University before
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Inaugurated in July 212 BC* the Ludi Apollinares were Roman games staged in honour of Apollo and featuring a mix of chariot racing, plays, dances and ritual sacrifice. The following five new exhibitions opening in July 2016 may lack the excitement of the chariot race, but in many respects are much more appropriate means by which to celebrate the Greco-Roman God of the arts, poetry, music and knowledge. And no gilded ox, goat or heifer need suffer. "Fast Forward: The Architecture of William
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Cities grow, mutate, evolve, a process which, as with human development, is rarely straightforward, rarely occurs without sacrifice and/or leaving one or the other scar. Physical as well as emotional. With the exhibition Stuttgart reißt sich ab - Stuttgart Demolishes Itself - the Architekturgalerie am Weissenhof aim to explore the nature of post-war urban development in Stuttgart, and to present what they refer to as a "Plea for the preservation of cityscape defining buildings" Co-curated by
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With the opening of the Vitra Schaudepot the Vitra Campus has not only grown by a further building, but the Vitra Design Museum has realised a long held dream, that of an exhibition space in which to present their collection in its full extent; or at least in a much fuller extent than has currently been possible. Vitra Schaudepot by Herzog & de Meuron The Vitra Design Museum collection traces its origins back to 1981 when the then Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum began buying historic examples of
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Our five recommendations for new design and architecture exhibitions opening in June 2016 feature four in Germany and one in Holland. That's not our fault. That is the honest result of our open minded search through the programmes' of numerous global architecture and design museums. The following are for us the best five. We know the decision is subjective. But are sticking with our five. And thereby accepting the suspicion that we have specially selected them on account of where they are being
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As an architectural theorist and experimental constructor Konrad Wachsmann played an important role in the development of architectural thinking in the decades following the Second World War, and thus by extrapolation in the development of our contemporary understanding of the built environment. Even if the majority of us cannot always follow his logic. Thus it is perhaps fitting that one of Konrad Wachsmann's first buildings should have been created for a man whose deliberations on the space
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The clearest sign that that things are changing in Berlin-Oberschöneweide is without question the new vegan Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of Edisonstrasse and Wilhelminenhofstrasse.* For all unfamiliar with Oberschöneweide, which we presume is everyone, the district in south eastern Berlin was never a particularly happy vegan hunting ground; yet as much as being a new culinary alternative the vegan Vietnamese restaurant is much more a sign that a new clientèle is active in the area, that
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As with contemporary football the story of contemporary architecture and design begins on the British Isles; and as with football it didn't take long before the British nations were replaced at the forefront of the art(s) by their European neighbours. In both cases Germany and France moving with notable speed, diligence and grace past the UK. Inspired by this coming summer's EURO 2016 European Football Championships in France, the Bröhan Museum Berlin are celebrating the creative rivalry which
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Whereas April showers tend to make you wet, grumpy and late, May showers are much more agreeable - or more precisely, the Eta Aquarids meteor showers are much more agreeable: a celestial showcase which reach their peak in early May and which, and in a wonderful example of the democracy of nature, are visible from anywhere on the planet. For all who prefer to do their star gazing in the comfort of a museum or gallery, and without having to scan the evening sky for Aquarius, here our
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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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The term "post-war architecture" is for many a term of insult, an insinuation that something is of lesser value. Or just plain bad. And yes there was an awful lot of truly appalling architecture in the 1950s and 1960s. And in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1970s 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s. And will continue, ad nauseam, ad infinitum, as sure as night follows day. That the immediate post-war decades were also a period of invention, reinvention, experimentation and revival in global
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"All in the wild March morning I heard the angels call, It was when the moon was setting, and the dark was over all; The trees began to whisper, and the wind began to roll, And in the wild March morning I heard them call: "Stop romanticising and visit a design exhibition!!!!" (The May Queen by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. With apologies) Were Alfred, Lord Tennyson around in March 2016, here’s five new design exhibitions we could recommend..... Alexander Girard. A Designer's Universe at the Vitra
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"This is a job of work whose goal is precision, delicacy, amiability and attentiveness: being attentive to people, uses, buildings, trees, asphalt or grass surfaces, to what already exists. It's a matter of causing the least inconvenience or no inconvenience at all. It's a matter of being generous, giving more, facilitating usage and simplifying life"1 These words stand not only in the centre of the exhibition "Studio Plus. Druot, Lacaton & Vassal: Transformation as an architectural manifesto"
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Sand is not a material on which many architects would hope to successfully build a project, far less a career. In many ways however that is exactly what the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen did. Bellevue Strandbad Copenhagen Born on 11 February 1902 in Copenhagen, Arne Emile Jacobsen studied architecture at the city's Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - graduating in 1927. One of Denmark's first, and foremost, functionalists, Arne Jacobsen was
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As we've noted in the past, Hungarian architects and designers made a valuable contribution to the development of post war architecture and design. Made. For in recent years a Hungarian accent in the design discourse has been principally notable by its absence. By its stillness. Which of course doesn't mean there aren't Hungarians producing intelligent, interesting, relevant and innovative work. There are. Hungarians such as the Budapest based practice Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop
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In 1969 the then French President Georges Pompidou announced his desire that Paris should posses a large museum dedicated to art of all kinds and which in addition to nurturing and promoting creativity was itself a landmark of the architecture of our age. On January 31st 1977, and three years after George Pompidou's untimely death, that desire became reality with the official opening of the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris Le Centre Pompidou,
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2016 being as it is a leap year, February 2016 is graced with an extra day, and the global design and architecture museum community have jumped at the opportunity granted by the extra 24 hours to organise a record number of new design and architecture exhibitions. Reducing the selection down to five wasn't easy; but does mean that if you don't like our choices have a quick look at what is opening in Herford, New York, Zürich, Eindhoven, or, once again Zürich.... You're bound to find something!
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Following on from the exploration of Ferdinand Kramer's design work in the exhibition The Kramer Principle: Design for Variable Use at the Frankfurt Museum Angewandte Kunst, the Frankfurt based Deutsches Architekturmuseum is presenting Line Form Function. The Buildings of Ferdinand Kramer, an exhibition dedicated to the German functionalist's architectural output. In many ways the logical follow up. And an excellent extension and completion of The Kramer Principle. So much so it makes you
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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
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As we noted in our post celebrating Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle's 100th birthday, one of Paul Thiersch's first initiatives upon taking charge of the Handwerkerschule Halle, the future Burg Giebichenstein, was to establish workshops to connect art and trade and thus properly prepare his students for the demands of the emerging industries. It is therefore only fitting that to round off the institution's centenary celebrations an exhibition should be being staged celebrating the
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