The exhibition Divine Golden Ingenious. The Golden Ratio as a Theory of Everything? at the Museum for Communication Berlin featured two projects by Berlin based designer Mark Braun, projects which, largely, if not exclusively, owe their form to deliberations on and experimentation with the Fibonacci number. A state of affairs, we considered, makes Mark Braun an ideal person with whom to speak to about the role, attraction and relevance of the Fibonacci number and Golden Ratio in product design.
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The Bayerischer Staatspreis für Nachwuchsdesigner is one of the more interesting international design prizes. Not only because it is biennial and thus steadfastly refuses to play with the "every year new" ethos of the contemporary design industry, nor only because it is exclusively for young designers, but also because in addition to the "usual" categories it also recognises Design Research and Applied Crafts. And thus promotes a pleasingly healthy and positive understanding of the term
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For George Orwell nothing heralded spring quite like the re-appearance of toads, emerging from their subterranean hibernation and setting off, once again, on life's great cycle. Our toads are the flurry of new design and architecture exhibitions which open globally every March, as the international museum and gallery community awake from their winter slumber. Our highlights for March 2017, featuring new exhibitions in Bielefeld, Helsinki, Weil am Rhein, Utrecht and Paris "Partners in
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Ambiente Frankfurt 2017 allowed an all to seldom reunião with Portuguese brand Vicara. And an occasion which served to remind us that we really should catch up with them more often..... Vicara at Ambiente Frankfurt 2017 In many respects we've been admirers of Portuguese brand Vicara since before Vicara even existed: Back at Dutch Design Week 2010 we met Spore Vase by Paulo Sellmayer, an object which instantly spoke to something deep within us and has become one of those reference objects we
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Amongst all the fake flavours at Ambiente Frankfurt 2017 the Umami of Japanese design studio Bouillon was a genuine delight. In 1909 the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda defined Umami: the fifth taste sense, the savoury, that little touch of sensory magic which enables us to enjoy food rather than simply experiencing it. It also paved the way for Monosodium Glutamate and all those other "flavour enhancers" with which the food industry not only convince us to eat more processed food than is
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"Have you ever met a robot?" asks the Vitra Design Museum. The answer is yes. The answers to the other 13 questions posed by the exhibition Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine are not necessarily so easily answered: but are important for defining our relationship with digital technology. Vitra Design Museum presents Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine Vitra Design Museum opens one of its major exhibitions this week called ''Hello, Robot. Design between Human and
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Our picks from the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in February 2017, featuring showcases in Weil am Rhein, Falkenberg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Berlin and Groningen. 5 New Design Exhibitions for February 2017 "Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?", enquires Don Pedro of Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare gives the impression that Benedick's mood is somehow related to
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As a fair IMM Cologne 2017 didn't impress, but one or the other product did. Our IMM Cologne 2017 High Five!! And a few words of comfort from Epictetus. IMM Cologne 2017: High Five!! Staged as it in mid-January IMM Cologne is not only the first event in our new diaries, but, coming as it does after a period when we've been distracted by life in its full technicolour glory, often the hardest. How quickly have we come out of the post-holiday starting blocks? Are we mentally and physically
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With the exhibition 5 Years kaschkasch Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider aka studio kaschkasch celebrate, well, five years of studio kaschkasch. 5 Years kaschkasch, Cologne 5 Years kaschkasch The foundations for kaschkasch were laid by Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider in context of a joint graduation project at the Akademie für Gestaltung Münster, and became reality with the opening of their own studio in Cologne in 2011. An early diet of trade fairs and competitions resulting in
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The 1973 film Ceremony by Italian architecture group Superstudio features individuals who inhabit the "Invisible House", a house devoid of not only a physical structure but, we are told by the narrator, all forms of furniture. The inhabitants of the invisible house are happy. Despite this and their other regular very public pronunciations against architecture and design, from their earliest days Italian architecture group Superstudio also designed furniture and lighting: a selection of which
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Passagen Design Week Cologne 2017 is playing host to Naked Objects, the fifth edition of the exhibition series "Nieuwe German Gestaltung" - and an exhibition which as with the previous four is an unashamed celebration of the diversity and vitality of contemporary German product design. Naked Objects: Nieuwe German Gestaltung #005 Naked Objects - Nieuwe German Gestaltung #005 Tracing its origins to the 2009 exhibition “Nullpunkt. Nieuwe German Gestaltung” curated by the Belgian critic and
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With the exhibition 21 Common Things designer Thomas Schnur explores his personal relationship with everyday objects. And in doing so the concept of functionality. Thomas Schnur - 21 Common Things "The whole world's going home with blue plastic bags" observes Malcolm Middleton in his 2008 song, "Blue Plastic Bags" The blue plastic bag as a unifying object. The blue plastic bag as a metaphor for contemporary urban life. The blue plastic bag as a symbol of our social homogeneity. "The whole
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With the exhibition Full House: Design by Stefan Diez the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, MAKK, present the first museal overview of the canon of the German designer Stefan Diez. And an exhibition which in many respects also helps explain industrial design. Or at least the contemporary industrial design process. Yard by Stefan Diez for emu, as seen at FULL HOUSE: Design by Stefan Diez, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne Full House: Design by Stefan Diez Born in 1971 into a
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Our pick of the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in January 2017, with showcases in Cologne, New York, Rotterdam, Atlanta and Helsinki. 5 New Design Exhibitions for January 2017 Offering as it does the perfect opportunity for reflection on what has been, and the chance to quietly place hope in what may yet come, January is in many respects the perfect month for visiting an architecture or design exhibition: the very best presenting as they do just such a mix, and thus
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Five recommendations for new architecture and design exhibitions opening in December 2016, featuring shows in Copenhagen, Weimar, Nürnberg, London and Munich 5 New Design Exhibitions for December 2016 2016 has been an awful year. As in proper awful. Which my explain the unusually high number of expressionist-esque art exhibitions opening globally in December 2016: the bright colours and supportive warmth and encouragement such works tend to radiate being just what we all need after a tough
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With the exhibition Stapeln. Ein Prinzip der Moderne the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus in Bremen celebrate the complex diversity of one of design's simplest principles .... Stacking. Stackable Chairs, as seen at Stapeln. Ein Prinzip der Moderne at the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus Bremen Placing one object on top of another is one of the more innate of human actions. Is something we start to do before we can talk, and an action so simple, so self-explanatory, we generally pay it no heed. Why should we?
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Back in February we spoke with Richard Lampert and he told us he was planning exhibiting at Orgatec. Had a few ideas he said. Boy, did he have ideas......... Orgatec Cologne 2016: Richard Lampert Established in Stuttgart in 1993 the first product in the Richard Lampert portfolio was Eiermann table frame, and thus, in many respects, the company began as an "office furniture" manufacturer. If largely furniture for architects' offices. The great architect's table frame quickly establishing
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Although one primarily goes to Kazerne Eindhoven to experience experimental, challenging, yet invariably accessible and pertinent design, during Dutch Design Week one also gets the chance to experience young, emerging, furniture brands. At Dutch Design week 2016 we were particularly taken with the presentation by Dutch brand Functionals. Tracing its origins back to 1972 and the establishment of a metal workshop in Goirle, near Tilburg, by Henk van Esch, the contemporary Functionals was
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Whereas 3D printing is omnipresent in the media, and a ubiquitous tool in contemporary research and development, in most daily realities it remains scarcelypresent. Save for tablet holders, cosplay accessories and Star Wars chess sets. Or put another way, as a popular activity 3D printing is still very nerd niche. Often very, very trivial. And certainly not a widespread, commercial, industrial process. Yet. But will be. Of that we are certain. How that will be in context of the furniture
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With The Wall, Nieuwe German Gestaltung #004, the 2016 Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk presented an overview of contemporary German design. The Wall: Nieuwe German Gestaltung @ Biennale Interieur Kortrijk 2016 All who know us will understand just how much it tickles us that one of the most ardent proponents of German contemporary design is a Belgian, Max Borka. Not per se that Max is Belgian. But that Max isn’t German. That it takes a non-German to explain to Germans how good contemporary
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It goes without saying that picking a "best of" from an event such as Dutch Design Week is impossible. Too varied are the projects, too wide the scope, too incomparable the works be that classic product design, classic architecture, classic craft, or more conceptual and/or research projects in and across genres. Rarely does urban planning sit so comfortably and naturally alongside pottery, high-tech and politics. While everywhere in Eindhoven one finds people 3D printing with all manner of
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According to Axl Rose, "...it's hard to hold a candle, in the cold November rain." The question is surely, why you would want to? It sounds like a thoroughly foolish thing to do. The clocks have changed, it's dark, cold, we're all a little down, but honestly Axl, standing outside with candles ain't going to make things better. Visiting one of the following five new architecture and design exhibitions however might just.... Fear and Love – Reactions to a complex world at the Design Museum,
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We must start with a confession . This High Five! is a High Four! Not because there weren't good products on show at Orgatec Cologne 2016, there were. But much more Orgatec is an office furniture fair, and therefore: a) most manufacturers offer, in essence, the same range, it is all very homogeneous. Generally of very good quality, but otherwise uninspiring, all very generic, safe and overtly commercial. One reason is that in the contract, so wholesale, business, decisions as to which
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When we spoke with Vitra's Chief Sales Officer Josef Kaiser at NeoCon Chicago he told us that at "Orgatec 2016 we will be trying to be more interesting for architects, without losing the focus on the dealers, which will be challenge, but one we’re looking forward to, not least because this year we have our own hall" What that meant in practice could be experienced in Hall 5.2 at Cologne Messe. Or in the Vitra Messe - Vitra Trade Fair - as we've taking to calling it, seeing how it was,
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