In 1958 the French sociologist Roger Caillois opined that "L'esprit du jeu est essentiel à la culture"1, 'the spirit of play is essential to culture', an opinion that finds an echo in a Charles Eames' "toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the preludes to serious ideas".2 A position that, in many regards, underscores the argument made from and by Design for Children at the Bröhan Museum, Berlin, that design for the playful world of the child is the best location to
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Over the years Stockholm based design studio Front a.k.a. Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist (and, back in the day, also Katja Sävström and Charlotte von der Lancken) have oft employed chance as a design tool, have oft employed an essentially surrealist approach to design: they have, for example, let a rat gnaw wallpaper by way of creating a pattern, they've they let a fly buzz around a light bulb to create lamp shades, they've frozen an explosion in time to create a lounge chair, they've
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For all that nature is based on, dependent on, carefully formed patterns, repeating order, an efficiency of structure, it is invariably a lack of pattern, order or structure, a randomness and serendipity, that brings about the most fundamental changes, that drives developments in individuals, populations, communities, societies. And for all that the human spirit is naturally drawn to, and naturally delights in, carefully formed patterns, repeating order, and efficiency of structure, do we
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We all know that we should eat more healthily than we do. We all know that all packaged foods, regardless of type, contribute to our current ecological malaises. We all know we needs must do more ourselves, be more proactive and vigorous in questions of our food and nutrition and the environment. But it's all so complicated, all sooo difficult, all soooooooo time-consuming....... Really? Realised by Ebba Lönn in context of the project Earth 2 Earth at Lund University School of Industrial
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Woven cord of various types is a common material in furniture, has been used for generations, centuries, has more than proven its worth over those generations, centuries, not only as a structural material but as an aesthetic material and as an ambient material; however, when used woven cord is, invariably, used as a component of an object, as a means of providing a particular functionality, most probably a seat or storage option. And more often than not the woven cord is an interchangeable
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Amongst our reference projects, those projects to which we return whenever the relentless flood of lifestyle, t**** and commerce masquerading as design, being popularly acclaimed as design, pushes us to the edge of an existential crisis, those design projects that revive our spirts and our hopes, remind us that it is all worthwhile and there is a purpose in continuing, is Herbert Hirche's 1953 lounge chair, a work in steel tube and upholstery that not only carries that novel material of the
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In his 1973 article Mis on disain?, What is design? for the magazine Pioneer, the official organ of the Pioneer Organization of the Estonian SSR, Bruno Tomberg opined that “Kõikjal - kodus, koolis, tööl - oleme ümbritsetud esemetest, mis moodustavad meie keskkonna”1, ‘everywhere - at home, at school, at work - we are surrounded by objects that form our environment’, continuing, ‘the environment, however, must satisfy our diverse and very different needs. Almost all of these objects, from
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"Ich habe mit der Designwelt ja eigentlich nicht zu tun", opined once Luigi Colani, 'I have nothing to do with the design world', continuing that, 'I would locate what I do very close to the philosophy of form'.1 With Luigi Colani – Shapes of the Future, Marta Herford allow one to not only approach a better appreciation of Luigi Colani's formal philosophy, but in doing so to both question Colani's relationships with a design world he rejected, and that regularly rejected him, and to question
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In Fortnight, a tale of the solitary suffering of impossible love, a tale involving some truly unnecessary violent fantasies that don't seem to fit easily with friendship bracelets, glitter and rainbows, Taylor Swift laments, "All my mornings are Mondays, stuck in an endless February". If only that February were February 2025 Taylor!!! For then the wealth of new architecture and design exhibitions opening would not only lift your spirits, but through the stimulation and exploration thereby
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Among the myriad advantages of global industry that are also problems of global industry is, inarguably, that of centralised production with subsequent international distribution. And that of a popular unquestioning, unthinking, blithe acceptance of the products of global industry. Problems Essen based platform Verlag der Dinge allow one to better approach and challenge. Problems Essen based platform Verlag der Dinge approach and challenge. Established in 2021 by Maximilian Clauß, an
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Cologne's Design Post is, arguably, one those institution's that would have been shocked at the previously discussed cancellation of IMM Cologne 2025. Sited, one feels very deliberately, across the road from the Cologne trade fair complex, as a permanent showroom space for more design orientated furniture and lighting publishing houses, if one so will, a shop for contract customers, a B2B shop, Design Post exists during IMM and Orgatec as an unofficial exhibition hall, not only hosting those
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As all familiar with the annual cycle of the European furniture industry know, the first half of January is IMM Cologne, one of Europe's largest furniture trade fairs. It's an established, and inalienable, fact. January ≣ IMM Cologne There is no IMM Cologne in January 2025. News that came as a bit of a shock. Not least to a Cologne hotel industry that has long laboured under the impression that its rooms were a lot, lot, lot, more expensive to maintain and run in the first two weeks of
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"Man schnitzte das Holz nicht mehr, man spann nicht mehr, man webte nicht mehr die gute Leinwand wie früher"1, 'No-one carved wood, no-one spun, no-one wove the good linen as before', lamented Henry van de Velde in 1898 the English society of the second half of the 19th century that stood proxy for large parts of Europe as industrialisation became the established norm in ever more arenas, continuing, 'the machine, which turns imbecilically around itself and moves thanks to the pestilential
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In the fickle and vainglorious world of cinema January is a so-called Dump Month, a month when all those films studios have lost faith in get released en mass without publicity in the hope that no-one will see them. Far less remember them. Which is not only extremely arrogant, a belief that just because you don't appreciate something no-one else will, but an outrageously decadent waste of a month when, certainly in the northern hemisphere, most people are looking for spaces in which to not
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In his ca. 75 CE work The Life of Theseus, the Greek biographer, historian and Delphi priest Plutarch notes that the ship with which Theseus returned to Attica having slain the Minotaur in its labyrinth on Crete, "was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place", meaning that over time the ship of Theseus "became a standing example among the philosophers, for the
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Nadja Schulze once opined that "Licht ist die tollste aller Sprachen", 'light is the greatest of all languages', and the light her lamps LiLa and Bow spoke at Grassimesse 2024 so enamoured the Grassimesse Jury they awarded Nadja the 2024 Grassimesse smow-Designpreis....... Grassimesse smow-Designpreis 2024 winner Nadja Schulze (photo courtesy Nadja Schulze) Born and raised in Leipzig, Nadja Schulze completed her Bachelor in Innenarchitektur at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle in the
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Until the introduction of the Julian calender in 45 BCE December had but 29 days, meaning two less days to explore, challenge and enjoy architecture and design exhibitions. Imagine! How horrible!! We don't say it often, but Thank You Julius Caesar!!!" Our locations for taking advantage of all 31 glorious days of December 2024 can be found in Herford, Philadelphia, Bratislava, Berlin and Caesar's native Rome....... "Luigi Colani – Shapes of the Future" at Marta Herford, Germany While never
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Very much in keeping with Zagreb Design Week 2024's theme Breaking the Glass Ceiling Instituto Cervantes, Prague, used the occasion of Designblok Prague 2024 to open Diseñadoras. (Re)diseñando el mundo, a showcase introducing and discussing the work, positions, approaches of 12 contemporary Spanish diseñadoras, female designers, that is and was also an exploration of questions on and of contemporary design....... Diseñadoras. (Re)diseñando el mundo, Instituto Cervantes, Prague Or perhaps
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Much as design is a child of the late 19th/early 20th century so to is childhood, or perhaps more accurately so to is childhood as it is understood today. With the exhibtion Design for Children the Bröhan Museum, Berlin, explore the relationships between design, children and childhood over the century and a bit of their co-existence....... Design for Children, Bröhan Museum, Berlin For all that childhood is an unavoidable phase of every human life, over a great many centuries its was,
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X-Base Chair An xpression; An xpansion; An xposition Whereas the English word 'furniture' has its origins in the middle French verb 'fournir', to furnish, the French 'meuble' and German 'Möbel' have their origins in the Latin 'mobile': capable of being moved. Much as with the so-called Curule Chair, one of the earliest known manufactured seating objects, a seating object so-called because the legs generally 'curuled', a seating object of the distant past that was as much a symbol of power as
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As the, then, still plain Walter Scott, so nearly opined in 1806: "November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear: Late, gazing down the steepy linn That hems our little garden in, I thought, what an excellent month to visit an architecture or design exhibition."1 Our five retreats from the chill and drear of November 2024 can be found in Chemnitz, Brussels, Winterthur, Krefeld and New York....... "Reform of Life" at the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz, Chemnitz, Germany
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Grassimesse Leipzig 2024 Compact: Aleksander Rasztawicki - Leichtigkeit 'Do we still need wood, metal and plastic?' asks Hochschule Wismar graduate Aleksander Rasztawicki in context of his Diploma project Leichtigkeit, Lightness. A rhetorical question for Aleksander doesn't believe that we necessarily do. For Aleksander all we need is paper. Or more accurately all we need is vulcanised fibre, a material first patented in 1859 that is produced from cotton via a process which, in many
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Budapest Design Week 2024 Compact: Alfréd by Szebedy Vajk When we first approached Alfréd by University of Óbuda student Szebedy Vajk at 360 Design during Budapest Design Week 2024 we interpreted it as an abstracted giraffe. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an animal had served as the basis for a piece of furniture design. Indeed shortly after meeting Alfréd we met the giraffe-esque library ladder 3½ by vondingen at Grassimesse Leipzig. Others would at this point speak of a t****
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Grassimesse Leipzig 2024 Compact: vondingen As discussed with Grassimesse Project Manager Sabine Epple, in order to stage Grassimesse during Covid it was necessary to place exhibitors in the permanent exhibtion spaces by way of guaranteeing the legally required distancing. A concept that exhibitors and visitors very much took to and which thus has continued post social distancing reality, and that very much not only to the agreement of exhibitors and visitors but to the benefit of the
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