Space is, as any Trekkie will tell you, the final frontier. For designers and architects it is certainly a very challenging frontier. Not only do the normal physical laws not apply thus requiring new considerations in terms of materials or construction, but functionality takes on whole new meanings: “comfort” being replaced by “need to survive”, “ergonomics” being replaced by “need to survive”, “adaptability” being replaced by “need to survive” And does the interior of a spaceship need to be
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As previously reported, Bauhaus Dessau are currently presenting “The coop principle – Hannes Meyer and the Concept of Collective Design”, an exhibition devoted to the second Bauhaus Director and for all his belief in the strength of the collective in almost all aspects of life, but especially in design. Hannes Meyer himself never completed projects alone, but always as part of a collective, the Dessau exhibition celebrates that fact and Meyer's unshakeable belief in the power of the
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As we have often noted in these pages, a combination of increasing automation, advancing technology, the changing nature of industry and commerce and the associated evolution of the term "office work" will increasingly enforce changes in office furniture design. And we're not being particularly clever or perceptive when we say such, its simply how the process works, how office furniture design has always progressed: be it the evolution of the office chair in the 19th century as ever more
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"The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler", confided the American author, ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book "A Sand County Almanac", "The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa." The following five new design and architecture exhibitions are our prothonotary warblers: proving as they, hopefully, do that abstract ideas
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Given that Bauhaus is often perceived as having been an incubator for the creative talents of the 1920s, it is perhaps fitting that windows salvaged from Bauhaus Dessau should have been upcycled into a greenhouse for the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin. Or at least into a greenhouse-esque structure for the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin. Conceived, planned and realised by Berlin architectural practice zukunftsgeraeusche GbR together with the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin, Technischen Universität Berlin and Wagner
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How can the urban environment be improved with new housing? Which spatial constellations foster interaction? Which strategies reduce costs but still produce a high quality? How can we initiate a new era of house building? Such and similar questions are posed, and possible answers presented, in the exhibition URBAN LIVING - Strategies for the Future currently on show at the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ in Berlin. URBAN LIVING - Strategies for the Future at the Deutsches Architektur
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The biggest, and certainly highest budget, new architecture and design exhibition open in May 2015 is without question the World Expo 2015 in Milan which begins on May 1st. Staged under the central theme of "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" Expo Milan 2015 will feature presentations from some 140 countries in an equal or greater number of pavilions by some of the world's leading architectural practices, and promises to present an unrivalled exploration of future strategies for feeding an
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For us one of the few genuine joys of Milan Design Week is observing visitors to the furniture fair perching on the simple metal benches to be found on the peripheries of the exhibition halls, benches which resemble safety barriers more than public seating Our joy stemming not from the irony that they find themselves surrounded by chairs in whose collective development millions of Euros have been invested, but because it is the most poetic reminder that a chair is a purely functional object.
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"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" asks Obi-Wan Kenobi, more or less rhetorically, in Star Wars. Chewbacca understood. And the Wookie warrior also understood that foolish as the fool who follows the fool is, he is less foolish than the April fool who misses the following five new design and architecture exhibitions opening in the coming weeks.............. "Somewhat Different. Contemporary Design and the Power of Convention" at the Museum of Decorative Arts and
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How to celebrate the birthday of a man all celebrate? What words can one find to honour the birthday of the German architect, designer and ex-Bauhaus Director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe? When in doubt we invariably turn to the man who has words for every occasion, George Nelson. Following his graduation from Yale University George Nelson won the so-called "Rome Prize", a fellowship awarded by the American Academy in Rome for particularly talented individuals from across a range of disciplines
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Following the necessary disruption of their permanent exhibition to accommodate the recently ended exhibition Sensing the Future: László Moholy-Nagy, die Medien und die Künste, the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin have taken the opportunity afforded to redesign their exhibition concept. And in doing so have allowed a very welcome fresh wind to blow through their museum. Bauhaus Archiv Berlin: Sammlung Bauhaus Presented under the title Sammlung Bauhaus - The Bauhaus Collection - the new permanent
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In our 5 New Design Exhibitions for January 2015 post we noted with dismay, and an unmistakable hint of accusation, that System USM Haller appeared not to be included in the exhibition SYSTEM DESIGN. Über 100 Jahre Chaos im Alltag at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln. We were wrong. Of course System USM Haller was included in the exhibition. Anything else would have been absurd. And while the actual object on show is and was a less than ideal example of the genius of the system, the essay
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By way of an addendum to our 5 New Design Exhibitions for March 2015 post, until March 28th the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is presenting an exhibition devoted to the German artists, architect, designer and all round multi-talent, Peter Behrens. Born in Hamburg on April 14th 1868 Peter Behrens was not just one of the earliest product designers and first proponents of corporate design but also played a decisive role in the development of European modernist architecture. Yet very much like his
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March is a month for caution. Yes, the sun shines. Yes, the days are getting longer Yes, one can smell spring in the air. But March has a temper. Meteorologically March is fickle with a hang to petulance and so it takes bravery and fortitude to expose oneself to March's harsh, unforgiving vagaries. Snowdrops risk it. And often regret it. The following five museums have also taken that risk.... and we feel should be rewarded and applauded for their bravery. "Making Africa: A Continent of
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Munich Creative Business Week 2015 is being staged under the motto "Metropolitan Ideas", a banner under which the organisers aim to explore themes such as urban mobility, urban planning and the future of urban spaces generally. A central component of this focus is the exhibition Hit the Future - Metropolitan Design. Munich Creative Business Week 2015: Hit the Future - Metropolitan Design Much as it may often appear that demographic and technological changes have awoken our cities and urban
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Premièred in 2012 as a platform to help connect design with business and to encourage greater design thinking by and acceptance of the value of design for industry, and as a sort of supporting fringe event to envelop and accompany the iF Design Award ceremony following the decision to host the event in the Bavarian capital, Munich Creative Business Week has developed over the years into a very interesting event which, although still largely promotional in character, does from time to time
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Much as the hardest move in yoga is unrolling your yoga mat, so to is the most challenging facet about most design and architecture exhibitions actually getting round to visiting them. Especially when it involves going out into February's cold air. The following five however seem well worth the effort. If unrolling your yoga mat is worth the effort is of course another question. And not one we have any intention of ever trying to find an answer to.................... Architecture of
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Much as we tend to shy away from "Designer of the Year" awards, the presentation of German architecture and design magazine A&W's Designer of the Year award is always an early highpoint of the Passagen Cologne Design Week. Principally because it invariably results in a compact yet informative exhibition from and about the selected designer. An exhibition that is perhaps never independent nor critical, but which always provides an accessible overview of the designers oeuvre. Following on from
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As we noted in our post from the exhibition Der entfesselte Blick – Die Brüder Rasch und ihre Impulse für die moderne Architektur at the Marta Herford, the (hi)story of architecture and design is often more about the protagonists you don't know than the ones you do. Such as the pioneering Dutch architect and designer Piet Klaarhamer: an early teacher of and influence on Gerrit T. Rietveld, one of the intellectual forefather's of Dutch modernism, and a man largely forgotten by history. In an
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As any fool know, Germany's most important contribution to art, architecture and design education was established in Weimar in April 1919. However, some three and half years before Walter Gropius welcomed the first students to his Bauhaus college, a further Germanic education institution was established, an institution which just as with Bauhaus took a new, modern, progressive, approach to art, design and architecture education yet an institution which in comparison to Bauhaus is still
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With ever more of our fellow train passengers displaying acute symptoms of over exposure to cheap Glühwein it can only mean that December is upon us. And the end of one the genuinely more enjoyable smow blog years. Indeed its fair to say 2014 was one of those years that makes you consider if its not time to hang up the old travelling socks and seek a more sedate, sedentary, existence. A fitting moment perhaps, but the correct decision? We've a couple of days to decide. And to accompany us
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Such was the quality of the new products we saw during our autumn tour they kept us going well into November; indeed it wasn't until a cold dank Friday in Chemnitz ahead of the opening of the exhibition Andy Warhol – Death and Disaster at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, that we even realised it was November.
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......and continued over Budapest and on to Berlin - where amongst other delights we partook of the exhibitions Sensing the Future: László Moholy-Nagy, die Medien und die Künste at the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin and Schrill Bizarr Brachial. Das Neue Deutsche Design der 80er Jahre at the Bröhan Museum - and onto Cologne for the Orgatec office furniture trade fair.
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Following on from the relative inactivity of August September saw us wind back up towards the 2014 autumn design festival season. But before everything kicked of in Vienna, we enjoyed the exhibitions Okolo Offline Two – Collecting at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, Useful Exhibition by Sanghyeok Lee at the DMY Design Gallery Berlin, Alvar Aalto – Second Nature at the Vitra Design Museum and enjoyed a lovely chat with architect Eberhard Lange on the restoration of Egon Eiermann's Wohnhaus
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