April 2014, as every April we can ever remember, means Milanese purgatory. Apparently it is meant to cleanse the soul, purify our thoughts and generally mitigate for the sins of the past, and so allow us to proceed to higher plains and greater virtues. And boy must we have sinned. We can't remember exactly when, far less how. We just hope we enjoyed it at the time. Because now we are paying. When, if, we return these are the new design exhibitions we're planning on visiting to help us
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If we were to be completely honest we would have to admit that although we were aware of the name "Ferdinand Kramer", it wasn't until Frankfurt based manufacturer e15 launched a series of Kramer re-editions at Milan 2012 that we actually paid any serious attention to the man and his work. Something we are very thankful for. Born in Frankfurt in 1898 Ferdinand Kramer undertook a foundation architecture course in Munich before joining Bauhaus Weimar in 1919. Disillusioned by the lack of a
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Until May 8th 2014 the Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin is hosting the exhibition Visions of the Alhambra, a presentation of the new visitor centre/site entrance designed for the Alhambra palace/fortress/citadel complex in Granada, Spain by Álvaro Siza Vieira and Juan Domingo Santos. Originally constructed in the 9th century as a feudal fortress, the Alhambra served from the 11th century as a seat of power for Moorish rulers of Granada and subsequently as a citadel for the catholic conquerors
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One of the first telephone calls Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner made upon assuming leadership of the Vitra Design Museum in 2011 was to Konstantin Grcic to discuss the possibility of an exhibition. Grcic was, in principle, open to the idea, but, "I didn't want a static exhibition, something that froze my work in time, rather I wanted something dynamic" That "something dynamic" is the exhibition Konstantin Grcic - Panorama which opened at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein on Friday March
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It is a universally acknowledged fact that men only buy Playboy to read the articles. And we only visited the exhibition "Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979" at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt in order to, to, to, tttoooooooo see the Eames DCW that is on display.....mmmm...... its not a chair you see that often..... aaahhh......mmmmmmmm..... or the Bertoia Diamond Chair? [Audible nervous cough. Depart stage left.] Originating from a project by students at Princeton University
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Although these days talk of necessary redevelopment, renewal, reinvention and change of function in Bremen is often undertaken in context of the local football team Werder; generally the focus is the former harbour areas. With the relocation of the oversea harbours from their former city locations, Bremen has found itself with large areas of land and innumerate buildings looking for a new identity and new functions. Bremen of course isn't the only maritime metropolis having to come to terms
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Until June 10th the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin is presenting "New Architecture! Modern Architecture in Images and Books", an exhibition devoted to architecture photography and architecture publishing of the 1920s and 30s. And an exhibition that illustrates just how little the genres have evolved over the intervening decades. The central focus of New Architecture! is the life, work and archive of the architecture critic and art historian Walter Müller-Wulckow. In addition to his journalistic and
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On Friday March 14th blickfang Stuttgart opens its doors to the public for the 22nd edition of the consumer design fair. Inaugurated in Stuttgart in 1992 by "a couple of “"fools"" - their words, not ours - blickfang has gone on to grow beyond its native city and can now be found throughout the year in locations as varied and widespread as Basel, Zürich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Hamburg and, most recently, Munich. Blickfang Stuttgart remains however a special occasion. In addition to the usual mix
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On Thursday March 13th Leipzig Buchmesse 2014 opens to the public at the city's exhibition centre. And as ever (smow) Leipzig are participating in the annual Leipzig Liest public reading festival with a programme of readings by a specially selected triumvirate of authors, a programme that not only promises a diversity of styles, but guarantees visitors the best, most enjoyable, seating in Leipzig. (smow)liest 2014 begins on Thursday March 13th with the novel Der lange Atem by Stuttgart author
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"It is simple to prove that despite all distractions to the contrary from the cultural community in western Germany that also in the area of industrial design no real, definitive, new impetus can be expected; the foundation for such is missing and the wheel of development is being turned back, advancement stopped and that regardless if Germany - and the future in general - is thereby endangered..... We, the artists of the German Democratic Republic, are the opinion that owing to our
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The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, And what will poor robin do then, poor thing? He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm And hide his head under his wing, poor thing. Or, and much more sensibly, take himself off and visit one of the new design exhibitions opening during March. And so not only keep himself warm but also informed, entertained and inspired. Our selection from the new, robin friendly, openings in March features an homage to East German concrete architecture in
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The first post in our, hopefully short, new series "Things we missed at IMM Cologne 2014" is devoted to the new Pegasus Home Desk by Ippolito Fleitz Group / Tilla Goldberg for Munich based manufacturer ClassiCon. We know why we missed it in Cologne, call it youthful arrogance, we just can't believe we did. Not only does the Pegasus Home Desk exude a formal parity with a horse saddle, but it functions as a sort of home office saddle bag - the leather desk top can be rolled up from the left
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The much discussed experiment Bauhaus reaches its first conclusion with the opening of its own institute in Dessau on December 4th 1926. The impact, if any, which this group of architects, to which Gropius belongs, will have on our building culture is something we can leave to history to decide. This new style, a style which a large percentage of our population is not accustomed to, and to which the majority wont take, doesn't offer any room for traditional architecture, but plenty of space for
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Until April 16th the DMY Design Gallery Berlin is presenting the exhibition "Lifetimes" by Berlin based designer Birgit Severin. The inaugural exhibition in the new DMY Design Gallery. Following the demise of the "original" DMY Gallery in Berlin's stilwerk "design shopping centre", DMY appeared to have decided to concentrate on their global series of exhibitions and running Germany's most important design contest, the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Silence can however be
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On Thursday February 13th the 2014 Designpreis Halle jury met to peruse the entries submitted for this years competition. And select the winners. Initiated in 2007 the Designpreis Halle is an international, inter-disciplinary design competition staged every three(-ish) years. Following the theme "Electricity" in 2007 and "Travel" in 2010, entrants for the 2014 Designpreis Halle were set the challenge of "Water". How who approached the topic and why wont however be unveiled until the awards
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By way of unwinding ahead of his forthcoming solo exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, German designer Konstantin Grcic is currently presenting an absolutely beguiling collection of glass furniture objects at Galerie Kreo Paris. We've not actually seen the objects, we've only seen the press photos, and as any fool know press photos are not the most reliable media for assessing design objects. But..... Created in collaboration with a sadly unnamed Frankfurt glass workshop - why must the
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On Saturday March 22nd the third edition of the Munich Creative Business Week formally opens. We know, we know, that's what we thought when they launched in 2012. Munich? Creativity? No wonder they're concentrating on the business aspect, we chortled into our banana milkshakes. Typical Bavarians! Which of course is very, very unfair. For in a manner similar to Stuttgart, Munich is home to a lot of creativity. Just a creativity that is a lot more self-assured and so reserved than the brash
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In the context of his Paimio Sanatorium project Finnish architect Alvar Aalto is reported as once saying, "The main purpose of the building is to function as a medical instrument".1 Among the ways Aalto expressed this position in Paimio was, for example, through the fact that illumination, wall colours, heating systems et al were designed not only for the patients comfort, but with the patients position in mind i.e. offering different conditions depending on if the patient was expected to be
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On the 10th February 1932 "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition" opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Much more than simply being the very first architecture exhibition staged in and by the MoMA, Modern Architecture represented the first exhibition ever specifically devoted to the new architecture of the day and perhaps most importantly bequeathed said architecture a name: The International Style. If you will, with Modern Architecture, modern architecture had officially
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By way of an addendum to our addendum to our "5 New Design Exhibitions for February 2014" post...... Until June 8th 2014 the Villa Esche in Chemnitz is presenting a special exhibition devoted to the artist and industrial designer Marianne Brandt. Built in 1903 by Henry van de Velde for the Chemnitz textile magnate Herbert Eugen Esche, the Villa Esche is not only a wonderful example of Henry van de Velde's approach to architecture and his understanding of his responsibilities in context of the
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By way of an addendum to our "5 New Design Exhibitions for February 2014" post.... The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is currently showing "Pinned Up at the Stedelijk, 25 years of design", the first major retrospective of the work of Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. Presenting over 400 objects the exhibition promises to cover Marcel Wanders' complete career since the release of the Set Up Shades lamp in 1989 and in doing so present a chance to better understand the man, his thinking and his works.
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Fate may have been hard on February by abstractly depriving it of its rightful quotient of days, taunting it indeed by giving it a 29th every four years as if to say "....it could be soooo good....": fortunately the museums of this world are less divisive, treat February as if it was any other month and February 2014 sees a wealth of interesting new exhibitions. In an architecture heavy selection our recommendations from the new openings include Arabian architecture at the Louisiana Museum of
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During the 2014 Passagen design festival the Cologne flagship store of Italian kitchen and bathroom manufacturer Boffi presented an exhibition of objects by six young(ish) designers. And no we're not being deliberately provocative or derogative with our (ish). We know a couple of the designers involved. And know that they would admit they're not the youngest cats in the park any more. Presented under the title "Young Perspectives" and curated by the Cologne based "Design Services Agency"
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"Wood will be driven out of living spaces; even metal and glass, although much newer in domestic situations, are losing their importance. Plastics are on the advance....."1 What had caused the German magazine Stern to pronounce in February 1970 so unequivocally on the future of home furnishings? Stern had seen Verner Panton's Visiona 2 exhibition at Cologne Furniture Fair. And knew it had seen the future. "It is certain that a new age is rolling through our homes. What is coming is not just
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