After the relative calm and civility of July and August, September sees a more than inconsequential upping of our professional pensum. In addition to our regular pilgrimage to Vienna Design Week, September 2013 also saw the opening of Lightopia at the Vitra Design Museum, Made in Slums - Mathare Nairobi at the Triennale Design Museum Milan, the International Marianne Brandt Contest in Chemnitz, and the acquisition of Finnish manufacturer Artek by Vitra......
read more
Visiting the HfG Karlsruhe Sommerloch exhibition was not just a memorable highlight of July 2013 - but also fitting as it marked the start of our own summer pause. Our own Sommerloch. In addition July 2013 saw us visit the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart Rundgang, Art & Design Fit for a King @ Ampelhaus, Oranienbaum and Aus allen Richtungen. Positionen junger Architekten im BDA at Wechselraum Stuttgart......
read more
Those still looking for a New Year's Resolution could do worse than to promise to try to maybe visit more design exhibitions this year. And January 2014 offers a few wonderful places to start. That January is once again IMM Cologne and the accompanying Cologne Design Week we make no apologies for having selected two Rhein-side exhibitions, in addition we have an investigation of the production process and a brace of exhibitions devoted to Denmark's more important design "old masters".....
read more
Following the pains and tribulations of Milan, June is a time to relax. To enjoy design once again. This year we did that at DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel at with the new Vitra(mini)Haus in Weil am Rhein....
read more
As a general rule May doesn't exist for us... it is just a fluid continuation of April. And of Milan. May 2013 was no different, did however end with a delightful Oskar Zieta show in Berlin......
read more
The biggest April fool is.... us, for always going to Milan! That said, as ever, we did find a few gems amongst the senseless corporate trash..... And after Milan we had the joy of viewing the latest addition to the Vitra Campus, the Factory Building by SANAA......
read more
March 2013 was a month of travelling: Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Weimar, Dessau..... its amazing we found time to actually write anything.......
read more
IMM Cologne kept us busy into February, but the month also saw the opening of an Eileen Gray retrospective in Paris, a visit to the Louis Kahn exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum and the sad passing of James Irvine....
read more
January 2013 was, as every January, dominated by IMM Cologne, and all that that entails. In particular IMM Cologne 2013 brought us Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's investiture as A&W Designers of the year and a delightful Alvar Aalto Stool 60 exhibition at Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft. January 2013 was in addition the opening of the exhibition "Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things" at the Design Museum London.....
read more
In our recent post from Florence we reported on the attempts being made there by the local authorities to help support and advance the local craftsfolk. Since 2008 the Chambers of Commerce from five of Florence's nearish neighbours have followed a different, though just as valid path towards achieving the same. Under the title "Rethinking The Product" the Chambers of Commerce from Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Terni pair young designers with local businesses and set them specific challenges.
read more
By way of an addendum to our 5 New Design Exhibitions for December 2013 post....... On Saturday December 14th 2013 SWING Gallery in South-Central Italian Benevento open a solo exhibition by the Berlin design collective Shapes in Play. Under the title Hidden Patterns Johanna Spath and Johannes Tsopanides, a.k.a Shapes in Play present the latest chapter in their exploration of both the borders between digital and analogue in contemporary society and the possibilities for increasing emotional
read more
While we can't be certain that the artist, designer and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer would have completely agreed with the claim that "Life is a cabaret", we do know where he placed cabaret in the great scheme of cultural happenings: a little lower than theatre, but slightly higher than varieté. ""Stage" in general", Schlemmer wrote in 1925, "encompasses all that lies between religious cult and naive public amusement, both are not that what the stage is; the calculated impact on man of
read more
On Wednesday December 5th the AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne open an exhibition devoted to the Guga Children`s Theatre construction project in Langa, South Africa. Established in the late 1990s the Guga S’Thebe cultural centre in the Langa township by Cape Town provides facilities and courses for adults and children alike and in addition to meeting rooms and a theatre/concert venue also houses rehearsal rooms and craft workshops. While over the years the work and scope of the centre has grown,
read more
It being that time of year when the only exhibition most of us are interested is the one displaying "presents with my name on them", there are only very few design exhibitions opening this December. Very few. But some. Here a selection of the more interesting ways to work off that extra roast potato or twelve........ "Mensch Raum Maschine. Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Germany Despite the current theatre surrounding the decision not to renew Stiftung Bauhaus
read more
With the haze that has been mercilessly hanging over Potsdam these last few days finally giving over to an unpleasant background moisture level somewhere between rain and mist, the season for indoor activities has indubitably arrived. And so it is timeous that the Villa Schöningen in Potsdam is opening a new exhibition celebrating the creativity of graduates from the FH Potsdam Product Design Department. Curated by current FH Potsdam students under the guidance of Professors Jörg Hundertpfund
read more
Until Monday February 24th 2014 the Bauhaus Archive Berlin is presenting the exhibition "Mein Reklame-Fegefeuer. Herbert Bayer. Werbegrafik 1928 – 1938." Born in Haag, Upper Austria on April 5th 1900 Herbert Bayer joined Bauhaus Weimar in 1921 and moved with the institution to Dessau in 1925 where Walter Gropius appointed him head of the newly established Print and Advertising Workshop. In 1928 Herbert Bayer departed Bauhaus and established his own commercial graphic design studio in Berlin
read more
On Friday November 22nd Depot Basel open their new exhibition, Changes – Chancen. At the beginning of September 2013 the Depot Basel collective brought together five Swiss creatives for a discussion aimed at exploring aspects of Switzerland as a location for "work, production and design." Consisting of product designer Jörg Boner, Stefan Rechsteiner from footwear company Velt, architect and author Claude Lichtenstein, product designer Meret Probst and interior designer & author Verena Huber
read more
As part of the bi-annual Europalia Arts Festival the Belgian cultural institute Grand Hornu is currently presenting the exhibition "Living Objects - Made for India" Curated by London based design studio Doshi Levien "Living Objects" is, as the title cleverly implies, an exploration of everyday Indian objects, everyday Indian design as it were, and an exhibition that in the words of Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien should be seen as "...a vehicle to discuss Indian culture, Indian values and
read more
As we are sure you will appreciate we tend to shy away from recommending anything we haven’t seen and/or tested ourselves. That said, the following five exhibitions, all opening in November, caught our attention. And certainly seem worth checking out..... "mein reklame-fegefeuer. herbert bayer. werbegrafik 1928 - 1938" at Bauhaus Archiv Berlin, Germany Appointed in 1925 as the first director of the printing and advertising workshop at Bauhaus Dessau the Austrian artist and typographer
read more
When the yellowing leaves of passing like a carpet over Leipzig lie..... it must be time for "Leipzig Creative Autumn", as the town's marketing bods will no doubt eventually get round to calling it. On Friday we'll be at Designers' Open, the start shot however is traditionally made by the Grassimesse at the Leipzig Museum for Applied Art. Which is only fair. On the one hand Grassimesse is older - tracing its history as it can back to the 1920s and counting many a Bauhaus student and
read more
We’re almost too late, almost, but until November 8th the AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne is presenting the exhibition, Alison and Peter Smithson – The Art of Inhabitation. A reworked version of the London Design Museum’s 2003 exhibition “Alison and Peter Smithson – From the House of the Future to a House of Today”, “The Art of Inhabitation” explores the work and legacy of two of the most important post-war British architects through just one facet of the extensive canon: private houses. A facet
read more
One of the take home messages from the Vitra Design Museum's Lightopia exhibition is that lighting design is rarely about the form of the final object - that is often little more than an expression of the designers artistic sensibilities - and much more is about, for example, the utilisation of materials in the construction or the method by which the light is generated and the luminescence distributed. This reality was wonderfully underscored by Austrian designer Sebastian Zachl's Passionswege
read more
When we spoke to Marc Zehntner and Mateo Kries, the joint heads of the Vitra Design Museum, they told us that they hoped to make the institution "... a much more vibrant location that doesn’t just present exhibitions exploring the most important design themes and topics but much more asks question of the visitors and so becomes more of an experience." The fringe programme to the current Vitra Design Museum exhibition Lightopia wonderfully demonstrates just what they meant, featuring as it does
read more
Vienna's fine, the sun shines most the time The feeling is "laid back" Plane trees grow and Herr Gruber's beer prices are low But you know we keep thinkin' about Making our way back Well we're Leipzig City born and raised But nowadays, We're lost between two shores Vienna's fine, but it ain't home Leipzig's home, But it ain't ours no more......... Which, and with obvious apologies to Niel Diamond, is a somewhat long, involved and frankly unnecessarily depressive way, of saying that the time
read more
