Arising in the early 1950s from a collective, a community, who had been ardently opposed to the NSDAP, their world view and their warmongering dictatorship, the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm understood itself very much in context of the post-War re-development of society, the post-War development of a new democratic, future-resilient, society. In West Germany and further afield. Thus it is little wonder that synthetic plastics, that material class which post-War offered, embodied,
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Summer Break!!! As in August 2022!! And once again, not us, we're here, we're busy, we're keen, we're chomping at the bit; but the international architecture and design museum community have very clearly decided amongst themselves not to open new exhibitions in August. Whereby, yes, August always was a slow month for new openings but that in August 2022 and August 2023 we should find but one new showcase is a signal of something more than a coincidence. And, as with August 2022, one
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As we were preparing for our trip to Halle and the 2023 Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Jahresausstellung one of those people on the edge of the smow Blog, one of those people who are so important to its operation, asked us how many summer exhibitions we'd seen at Burg Halle. A question that caused a terror to develop within us as the enormity of the number forming before our eyes became ever more distinct and discernable; but then, before we gave vocal form to such an improbable,
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As we noted, almost exactly 12 months ago, although we here at smow Blog are more or less fully up and running again after the Covid enforced disruption, the extremely complex nature of the smow Blog machinery means that there are still a few elements of the whole that are awaiting a proper re-boot, including, as we noted almost exactly 12 months ago, our famed, and falafel fixated, annual #campustour through European design school summer exhibitions. Which doesn't mean that we aren't visiting
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Of all the novel technological developments of the past century or so, or more specifically those novel developments in context of mobility, arguably, none have approached the human species' imagination, spoken to the human species' fantasies nor so tantalisingly promised that limitless future we all innately know is possible, to quite the degree of the airship; arguably a form of transport that today, all those decades after reaching its zenith as a commercial enterprise, still has an appeal,
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Rowac A Rivet; A Crimp; A Schemel According to the Trabant Sagas, a component of the Erzgebirge Hoard, that earliest of all documentations of life in the contemporary Sachsen, the Rowac was developed by a Wagner by the name of Robert, a young man who although a member of that renowned Sächsische Wagner community which had brought motorised mobility to the peoples of the known worlds, had chosen to follow the trade of the Windowsmith, an, at that time, relatively new profession that had
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In July 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and as Neil Armstrong stepped from the Eagle lunar module he announced it was, "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind". And inarguably it was. And was. But what has it brought mankind? Apart from an awful lot of conspiracy theories. And an ongoing fascination with space that drives the irrational belief that in the 21st century we urgently require everything which appeared in 1950s and 1960s science fiction comics and films in order
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While the Art Nouveau of the late 19th/early 20th centuries was without question inspired and informed by nature, for all by plants, one thinks, for example of the many representations of alliums, liliums, vitaceae et al, it was a moment that was led by humans, and for all one that placed human needs, human demands, human comforts at its core. Certainly above the needs, demands, comforts of plants. With the exhibition Plant Fever. Towards a phyto-centred design Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden, or
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"Customs turn into habits, some modest, some all-powerful", opined Le Corbusier in 1950, a reference to that inexplicable way humans have of passing through life blithely accepting all that has come before, accepting all that existed when they were born, as fixed and immutable and unchallengeable; an acceptance of the familiar, the existing, as fixed and immutable and unchallengeable that, for Le Corbusier, represented a major hindrance to the "free play of the mind". However, Le Corbusier
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According to Germanic folklore, A cold and wet June spoils the whole year. For farmers possibly, but not for the rest of us, as a cold, wet June is a perfect excuse to visit an architecture or design exhibition, an experience that can only enrich and enliven and invigorate the rest of the not only your year, but your life. Our recommendations for new showcases opening in June 2023 can be found in Värnamo, Ljubljana, East Lansing, Vienna and Ulm....... "Front: Design by Nature" at
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Quercus An oak; A cultural good; A material Furniture has been made from Quercus since it was developed in a far gone epoch by the Eocene, one of a great many important and innovative inventions of the Eocene which remain relevant and necessary, and avant-garde, today; if, as can be read in the Cupule of A.C. Orn, a development of Quercus not motivated by a desire to develop a new material for the production of furniture but by a desire to develop a contemporary, future-proof, housing
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In the northern Hemisphere May is a month of ritual; rituals primarily associated with the awakening of nature, the approaching of summer with the associated hope of a successful and bountiful harvest. And rituals which include, amongst many others, maypoles in various contexts, bonfires for various reasons and a myriad dances, including the traditional English children's dance/game Nuts in May, with its repetition of the line "Here we come gathering nuts in May"... which obviously raises the
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"My work was... How would I put it?", asks Yrjö Kukkapuro. "Constant contemplation" he answers.1 With the exhibition Yrjö Kukkapuro – Magic Room Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA, invite us all to contemplate on Yrjö Kukkapuro's contemplations....... Yrjö Kukkapuro - Magic Room, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, EMMA Born in Vyborg, then Finland, now Russia, on April 6th 1933 Yrjö Kukkapuro enrolled in 1955 at the Institute of Industrial Art, Helsinki, a school, then, housed in the city's
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The 2023 edition of the Grassimesse Leipzig will see the inaugural awarding of the €2,500 smow-Designpreis. The first dedicated design prize in the institution's long (hi)story. Entries are were open until Friday May 12th. But what if that first Grassimesse smow-Designpreis had been awarded not in 2023, but 1923? Who might have won? Who would the 1923 Grassimesse jury have selected from the many possible candidates? ???? A smow Blog fantasy final four....... Back in 1923 the
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It is, we'd argue, fair to say that most people in western Europe still have a very stereotypical, skewed, if not prejudiced view of late 20th century design in and from those nations that form the eastern half of the European continent. With Retrotopia. Design for Socialist Spaces the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, in cooperation with numerous museums and institutions from across eastern Europe, provide an introduction to post-War 20th century architecture and design in and from Croatia, the
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What is the popular understanding of the contribution of women to the mural of design (hi)story? Exactly. Thus, and with very good reason, and a degree of necessity, urgency even, the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur invite us all to consider The Bigger Picture....... The Bigger Picture: Design – Women – Society, Gewerbemuseum, Winterthur As an exhibtion The Bigger Picture: Design – Women – Society is based on, essentially is, the Vitra Design Museum's exhibition Here We Are! Women in Design 1900
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Although the etymology of "April" is lost in the mists of time, one of the more likely, and more satisfying, theories as to its origins is to be found in the Latin verb aperire, to open, which itself can be considered as being, possibly, related to the ancient Greek ἄνοιξις, ánoixis, opening. And thus the very obvious connotations to spring springing forth in April, to the natural world opening for another season. What is much better recorded are the new architecture and design exhibitions
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Amongst the great many things the experiences of the last couple of years have brought to the fore, and have unequivocally reinforced, is the importance to humans, collectively and individually, of outdoor spaces; not just for fresh air, movement, relaxation and physical well-being, but also for mental well-being. With Garden Futures. Designing with Nature the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, explore the garden as such an outdoor space, and also as a cultural space, as a design space, as a
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Paris An Île; A Commune; A Context For all that the contemporary island of Paris has a long tradition of furniture production and usage, the greater part of that history, as can be read in the Bossu de Notre Dame, the oldest relic and most reliable witness of Paris, is one of either extreme decadence and frivolous ostentation, or of extreme poverty and destructive corruption. The (hi)story furniture of Paris very much reflecting the (hi)story of the island. And the (hi)story of its hotels.
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The return of an old favourite, and no not (smow) introducing, although Welcome Back!!!, but the Rowac-Schemel, the Rowac stool, a work initially launched in 1909 as one of the world's first sheet steel furniture objects, a work that once graced not only innumerable industrial workshops, craft ateliers and educational institutes, but the workshops and ateliers at Bauhauses Weimar and Dessau, a work that became lost in the confusions of post-War eastern Germany. A work returning in 2023, some
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"March is the Month of Expectation. The things we do not know", opined once the American poet Emily Dickinson.1 Easily enough resolved!!! And no, not by "Persons of prognostication", whom one should definitely always "show becoming firmness"; but by visiting an architecture or design exhibition and approaching that which you don't know via your own inquiry and questioning and reasoning. Our five recommended locations for transforming expectations into knowledge in March 2023 can be found in
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When is an ironing board, not an ironing board? When it's Cinderella by Anna Kraitz for Design House Stockholm. Cinderella by Anna Kraitz for Design House Stockholm, as seen during Stockholm Design Week 2023 In our (brief) introductory post to Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023 we said we didn't visit any of the myriad flagship store presentations staged during Stockholm Design Week 2023. Turns out that was wrong. Turns out we did. Turns out we visited the in-store presentation in Design
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Amsterdam based manufacturer Lentala, a.k.a. Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Boris Lancelot, is, if one so will, a commercial expression of a research and experimentation begun in Eindhoven in context of Lancelot's 2018 graduation thesis Techno Motion, and continued post-Eindhoven in the project Active Classroom undertaken by Lancelot in conjunction with movement science researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and UMCG, University of Groningen. Research and experimentation which,
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As noted in our (brief) introductory post from Stockholm 2023, alongside all the problematic aspects of furniture fairs, one of the advantages, one of the joys of the format, is the chance to catch up with folks, the opportunity they offer to meet with, if oft all too briefly, individuals whose paths you don't cross on a regular basis; individuals such as Budapest based András Kerékgyártó, a designer who we greatly enjoy talking to, or more accurately who we greatly enjoy listening too,
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