When we met up with Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler aka mischer’traxler ahead of the exhibition Castling. Designers meet the collection at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden, we also briefly discussed their "It takes more than one" project which was presented at Design Miami Basel 2014 by Victor Hunt Designart Dealer. Created in context of the studio's tenure as the 2011 "W-Hotels Designer of the future", It takes more than one is a mirror that requires two people for it to function. And as
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While the art world is awash with anecdotes of cleaners disposing of installations having confused them for rubbish, we're not aware of any works of designer furniture having suffered a similar fate. At Design Miami Basel 2014 however Milan based Erastudio Apartment-Gallery made a very good effort to initiate just such a première with their presentation of a 1950s bedroom ensemble by Ettore Sottsass: piled ungraciously, almost out of hand, in the corner of their stand the bed, chest of
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Following the pains and tribulations of Milan, June is a time to relax. To enjoy design once again. This year we did that at DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel at with the new Vitra(mini)Haus in Weil am Rhein....
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Established in 2010 by the architects Pascale Wakim and Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, Beirut based Carwan Gallery is and was the first contemporary design galley in the Middle East. After neigh-on three years as a Pop-Up Gallery, at the end of June Pascale and Nicolas will formally open their first permanent space in Beirut. Which sounds like confirmation that all is going well. We first came across Carwan Gallery in Milan at MiArt 2013, and were greatly taken with not only the objects
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As we noted in an earlier post, the team behind Depot Basel were recently awarded a highly coveted Swiss Design Award in the category Design Mediation. A very well deserved and very welcome recognition for all the work invested. And parallel to Design Miami Basel 2013 Depot Basel opened their latest exhibition, Craft & Drawing. We're a bit late with this post, Craft & Drawing only runs until June 29th 2013; however, as the largest part of our readership are and were unlikely to be in Basel
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In our post about Diogene by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Vitra we noted that a Jean Prouvé house could currently be marvelled at Design Miami Basel 2013. And we obviously don't want to deny all who weren't there the chance to do just that. Presented by Galerie Patrick Seguin the "Maison des Jours Meilleurs" was conceived in 1956 as a response to the campaigning French priest Abbé Pierre's call for low cost emergency housing for the Paris homeless. While the rich Italians and super
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If you thought you'd seen the epitome of kitsch, we give you..... An olive bowl in the shape of Celine Dion's swimming pool. Just writing that sentence makes us want one. And of course the accompanying bowl for sun-dried tomatoes in the shape of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's swimming pool. Created by Zurich based designer Damian Fopp the Celeb Bowls collection is a series of porcelain bowls based on celebrity swimming pools, or to be more precise the swimming pools of Frank Sinatra, John
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There's nothing quite like a invitation to a vernissage to remind you that you really should get round to finishing of typing up an interview. At Neue Räume Zurich in October 2011 we didin't just speak to Nikolas Kerl and Jürg Scheidegger But also with Moritz Schmid and Rebekka Kiesewetter. And yes the last two interviews have yet to be published. We are working on them. Promise. Back at Neue Räume, Rebekka told us that it was almost certain that she would be co-organising a "Depot Basel -
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Last week we, finally, made our first visit to Design Miami Basel. Featuring 43 international design galleries, Design Miami Basel is a curious mix of those featuring "old" objects and those featuring new contemporary designs. Those galleries who concentrate on new contemporary design generally make their money in that they organise limited editions of concept pieces by designers - which they then sell. Or they buy up "first editions" of pieces of new works that may, they hope, eventually go
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Among the projects at Design Miami Basel 2011 that most appealed to us was without question Cloud by London architect Asif Khan. Conceived within Asif's tenure as one of the 2011 W Hotels Designers of the Future Award winners, Cloud can, at the most primitive level, probably be best described as floating foam. But as with all good design Cloud hides its true genius behind a facade of primitive simplicity. Cloud employs a mixture of Helium, soap and water to create irregular forms that rise
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This year we are finally going to make it to Design Basel. In the past something else always seemed to get in the way; be it illness, other appointments or a feeling deep in our stomachs that it was all just a touch too elitist and too far removed from the world of the normal designer furniture customer to justify the trip. But this year we're healthy, free and a little older and wiser. It in its 6th year Design Basel features exhibitions from 43 international design galleries showing an
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