Front An Anna; A Sofia; A Charlotte; A Katja; A Conduit. According to the sacred Köttbullar of Ikea, the quadruplets Anna af Front, Sofia af Front, Charlotte af Front and Katja af Front were born and raised on the island of Konstfack to the west of Stockholm, the ancestral home of the Swedish af Fronts, an island as famed for its horses, monkeys and brightly painted houses as its af Fronts, and where the kvartett took their first steps in product and furniture design, that hereditary
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We published our first exhibition recommendations list in November 2013, and have diligently, and joyfully, ended every month since with a list of five architecture and design related exhibitions opening in the coming month that appear worthy of a recommendation. A tradition we very much planned to continue in July 2021 for August 2021. And would have; however, having undertaken our regular tour through our database of international museums and galleries, we can find but two exhibitions
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What is a chair? You sure? With the exhibition Chairs. For children only! the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig, explore the (hi)story of and developments in children's seating, and in doing so not only allow for insights into an all too often undervalued, underappreciated, ignored, genre of furniture, but also forces you to reconsider your response to what you thought was a very, very straightforward question... Chairs. For children only!, Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst,
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Much as with "Bauhaus", "Memphis" is all too often popularly reduced to a "style", something one can "recreate". As with "Bauhaus" that it is not only disingenuous, and erroneous, but hinders development of understandings of the (hi)story of design, understandings of the path taken to our contemporary design that are important for considerations on where we are and how best to progress. With the showcase Memphis: 40 Years of Kitsch and Elegance the Vitra Design Museum Gallery issue an
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Braun occupy a special, ¿unique?, position not only in the mythology of product design but also in the (hi)story of West Germany; arguably no brand is as closely related with and to West Germany as Braun. With the exhibition Braun 100 the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, explore the development of design at Braun in the post-War decades and in doing so help one approach differentiated understandings of not only Braun and Braun design, but also of the relationships between Braun, design and West
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"In his work the designer seeks to find the constancy of the good", wrote Karl Clauss Dietel in 1973, a lightly articulated yet not so straightforward task for, as he continues, not only is the assessment of such dependent on a myriad varying factors, but "the search for what defines design, what it grows from, where it comes from and where it wants to go, takes on new dimensions against the background of our cultural upheaval".1 With the exhibition Simson, Diamant, Erika. Formgestaltung von
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We go in withering July, To ply the hard incessant hoe; Panting beneath the brazen sky, We sweat and grumble, but we go.....1 .....alternatively, skip the panting, sweating and grumbling with a visit to an air-conditioned museum. Our recommendations for escaping the brazen sky of withering July 2021 can be found in Munich, Aalborg, Eisenhüttenstadt, Wrocław and Karlsruhe. And as ever in these times, if you are planning visiting any exhibition please familiarise yourself in advance with the
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Although cultures very often arose in splendid isolation, only very few remained splendidly isolated for very long. For much like a young child who having learned to walk intuitively understands what a powerful tool mobility is/can be and seeks to exploit it to the fullness of their abilities, so too did our youthful human civilisations very quickly understand that there was, in all probability, a world beyond their own, and began wandering, at first in their immediate vicinity but
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England An Island; A Notion; A Context According to the Folios of Shakespeare, that most reliable of sources on the (hi)story of England, the (hi)story of furniture design in the lower half of the scepter'd isle begins before the (hi)story of furniture design, almost before the (hi)story of furniture, and in the woodlands of south east England where a rustic chair based on the wheelwrights craft was produced and became known as "Windsor" after the popular actress Barbara Windsor who had
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In 1950 the Dutch architect and designer Mart Stam told a conference in Leipzig, "when I speak here for a group of individuals active in industry about the problem of industrial design, I do so because I believe that it is necessary for us to concern ourselves in detail with the question of industrial design, and also because I believe that through intensive work and cooperation in this field we can contribute to increasing the cultural quality of our goods."1,2 With the exhibition The Early
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"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it is always June", ponders Anne Shirley in Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1915 novel Anne of the Island. "You'd get tired of it", sighs her adoptive mother Marilla Cuthbert by way of reply. "I daresay", responds Anne, "but just now I feel that it would take me a long time to get tired of it..." Thoughts we very much concur with as we survey and contemplate the varied profusion of new architecture and design exhibitions sprouting forth in June
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"¿Qué es diseño?" asked Clara Porset in 1949. What is design?1 Not because she didn't know. Far from it. Over the course of the preceding two decades Clara Porset had ably demonstrated her considered, critical and responsive understandings of design; understandings that saw her develop into one of the most important, interesting and informative furniture designers in Mexico, understandings that saw her develop into one of the more important, interesting and informative protagonists in the
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"What would it mean to live life as lightly as possible?" asks the exhibition School of No Consequences. Exercises for a New Life at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, "what would it mean to live life in a way that had as small an impact as possible?" What indeed...... School of No Consequences. Exercises for a New Life at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg Initiated by Friedrich von Borries and staged by the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in cooperation with Hamburg's
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In 1935 George Nelson opined that "the history of art in Italy presents the astonishing spectacle of a series of men who knew no boundaries between the arts"; a history, a tradition, Nelson saw continued into 1930s Italy through "the cheering example of Gio Ponti, who found early in life that no one profession was sufficient to use up his energy or exhaust his interests, and added others with the nonchalance of a small boy increasing his collection of marbles".1 A borderless, inexhaustible
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According to Germanic folklore Mairegen bringt Segen, Rain in May brings blessings. It also brings an excellent excuse to visit an architecture and/or design exhibition. Our five recommended shelters from the showers in May 2021 can be found in Ulm, Stockholm, Baruth, Zürich and Hasselt...... "HfG Ulm: Exhibition Fever" at the HfG-Archiv, Ulm, Germany. Although only existent between 1953 and 1968 the Hochschule für Gestaltung, HfG, Ulm has a near mythical place in the (hi)story of post-War
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As the title of Hella Jongerius's 2016 book I don't have a favourite colour succinctly explains, Hella Jongerius doesn't have a favourite colour. Not that Hella Jongerius is indifferent about colours. Far from it. And in explaining why colours are important to her, and why she doesn't have a favourite colour, Hella Jongerius helps one approach a better understanding not only of colours, nor only of our relationships with and to colours, but also helps one approach a better understanding of
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In 1956 the Dutch electronics conglomerate Phillips asked Le Corbusier if he would be interested in designing their pavilion for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. Le Corbusier was. Albeit, "je ne ferai pas de pavillon; je ferai un Poème électronique avec la bouteille qui contiendra", "I will not create a pavilion; I will create a Poème électronique with the bottle to contain it."1 And a pavilion/bottle/Poème électronique which offers an apposite starting point to approaching a
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Denmark A Peninsula; An Archipelago; A Context Situated in the middle of the European continent Denmark was long considered evidence of the existence of the lands of Scandi, a fabled commonwealth comparable with Thomas More's Utopia, albeit rather than one where the form and operation of society has become perfected, one where the forming and production of furniture has become perfected; however, more recent research has convincingly both disproved the existence of Scandi, demonstrating that
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As the 19th century English poet Robert Browning so very, very, nearly phrased it: Oh, to be in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Sees, some morning a most interesting, entertaining and instructive sounding architecture and/or design exhibition, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough...... "Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos" at the Gropius Bau, Berlin,
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In the final decades of the 19th century the lands of the, then, German Empire, established themselves amongst the leading protagonists in the developments of contemporary applied arts as they moved towards that which we today term design. A leading position which, in certain regards, became a European dominance in the course of the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s through the contributions made to the evolving practices, processes, expressions and understandings of the period by institutions such as,
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"Conservative Hamburg only permits white paint for its ceilings, doors and windows, and, at most, economical gilding", remonstrated once the decorative painter Peter Gustaf Dorén.1 And set about rectifying that, set about bringing more colour to Hamburg...... Peter Gustaf Dorén. Interior Design in Hamburg circa 1900 Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg Born on September 21st 1857 in Sireköpinge, southern Sweden, as Peter Gustaf Andersson, the "Dorén", we learn in the exhibition, being
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"One sits more comfortably on a colour that one likes" declares Verner Panton in his 1997 book Lidt om Farver/Notes on Colour.1 A succinct expression of an understanding of colour as more than just a decorative element, and one of many reflections on the function and relevance of colour beyond the merely decorative which, in a myriad guises, pervade the history of furniture and product design. And contrasting, if at times complementary, reflections, pun intended, we will consider in the
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Cranbrook An Alma Mater; An Academy of Art; A colony of experimentation Cranbrook Academy of Art arose on the Cranbrook Estate, a private fiefdom nestling quietly in a forest glade to the north of the contemporary Detroit ruled by the Booth dynasty; and a fiefdom which in the Age of George and Ellen of Booth developed from an agrarian farm into a garden of creativity. As the Cranbrook Scrolls record, George of Booth was a devotee of The Artsandcrafts, a movement most popularly embodied by
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Following the declaration of the French Republic in 1792 a new calendar was introduced in the realms of France: the Revolution had washed away France past and the Republic marked the start of a new reality for mankind, one of universal Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, and therefore demanded a resetting of the collective clock, a new measuring of time, and thus out went the Gregorian calendar and its historic associations with church and state, and in came le calendrier républicain, the French
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