Everyone knows that the Nazis built Autobahnen. Everyone knows that the Nazis built an imposing and daunting parade ground in Nürnberg. And that they had outrageous, decadent, plans for Berlin. But the wider architecture and spatial planning projects of the NSDAP dictatorship are not only a lot less well known, but a lot less well understood, and certainly far less well popularly reflected on in wider contexts of the relationships between architecture, spatial planning, state, community,
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For all that the Schwarzwald is popularly known for its cuckoo clocks, as Mythos SABA - Memories of a Global Company at the Franziskanermuseum, Villingen-Schwenningen, helps elucidate, such aren't the only noise emitting precision technical objects, nor indeed the only harmonies, rhythms, melodies and metres, associated with the (hi)story of, and the cultural contribution of, the Schwarzwald. If alternative noise emitting precision technical objects and alternative harmonies, rhythms, melodies
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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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For the first time in its long and illustrious history Leipzig's Grassimesse will award a dedicated design prize at its 2023 edition. More specifically, will award the €2,500 smow-Designpreis. The call for entries is now open, and you are all cordially invited closed....... Tracing its history back to 1920, the contemporary Grassimesse began as an, if you will, response on the part of Dr. Richard Graul, Director of the, then, Kunstgewerbemuseum Leipzig, the contemporary Grassi Museum für
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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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"How did I end up going to technical school?" asked once the Finnish architect Wivi Lönn, rhetorically, "I had building in my blood, and it pulled me in."1 With the exhibition Long Live Wivi Lönn! the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, help elucidate not only how that innate urge expressed itself, but also that for all the apparent ease contained in Lönn's account of an innate urge being followed, for a Wivi Lönn, and for the great many Wivi Lönn's over the past 200 years, it wasn't
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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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"Der var en stolt Theepotte", "there was a proud teapot", so begins Hans Christian Andersen's 1863 tale, The Teapot, Andersen continuing by recording that said teapot was, "proud of its porcelain, proud of its long spout, proud of its broad handle"; the start of the biography of an everyday household object, the start of the biography of one of those anonymous goods with which we all surround ourselves, that is one of the first items one meets in the Werkbundarchiv - Museum der Dinge, Berlin,
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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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Launched in 2022 by Gothenburg based lighting manufacturer Oblure, Stair Lamp by, similarly Gothenburg based, Notchi Architects, is a freely dimmable desk/table/bedside lamp-cum-bookend which features two integrated USB-C ports on the side, an integrated two-pin plug socket unobtrusively, neatly, hidden within the base, exterior storage space for pens, USB sticks, chewing gum, lip balm, rings, loose change, very small cacti, etc, etc, etc..... and which screams 1980s Postmodernism at you.
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Based in Tauberbischofsheim in the extreme north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, VS Vereinigte Spezialmöbelfabriken have producing furniture for schools for over 120 years — the "S" in "VS" was for the greater part of that 120+years Schulmöbelfabriken, school furniture works — and while you can definitely see Stakki in educational establishments, not least thanks to the child sized versions on show in Stockholm, and which, one presumes are known in Tauberbischofsheim as Stakkli, or as
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The high-backed settle has been a furniture object since at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier, and has be re-interpreted numerous times over the centuries; including in the early 2000s by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec who, as far as we recall, introduced with their Alcove for Vitra the concept of the upholstered high-backed settle. A novel understanding of the high-backed settle that very quickly became a popular subject for manufacturers of acoustic furniture, and more gradually a subject
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Born in Tokushima, Japan, in 1920 as a scion of long line of Kendō equipment manufacturers, in the course of the 1950s Takeshi Nii increasingly became a handcraft practitioner, primarily in wood, and subsequently moving to furniture, for all chairs, a fascination with chairs that, as best we can ascertain, and if our Japanese is as good as we hope it is, was inflamed by post-War Danish chair design, and for all by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen's 1950 AX chair for Fritz Hansen; and
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Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! The rhythm of Stockholm Furniture Fair is given as much by the greetings ringing through the venue as by the layout of the halls or by the products on show; wherever one goes the background to everything is the sound of a simple, but potent, galvanising, word, concept, conveyed and returned....... 🧑 Hej! Hej! 👩🏾 👵🏽 Hej! Hej! 😀 🧔🏼 Hej! Hej! 🤝🏾 But it's been a while since we were last exposed to the joyous rhythm of Stockholm Furniture Fair. Or indeed to
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As any fule kno Italy has a long (hi)story in and of architecture, whereby it is predominately a (his)story of architecture: with Buone Nuove. Women Changing Architecture the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Stockholm, offer an introduction to an alternative narrative. And to alternative futures....... Buone Nuove. Women Changing Architecture, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Stoccolma Originally presented as a full exhibtion at MAXXI Rome in 2022, and now freshly pared down to an abbreviated
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"Design", opined textile designer Bernat Klein in 1976, "means to enjoy the exploration of new possibilities. It means to take pleasure in finding new solutions to old problems; or to have fun juggling with a number of old solutions until they suddenly click and coalesce into one, beautiful, new solution".1 With the exhibtion Bernat Klein. Design in Colour the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, allow insights into how Klein explored, discovered and juggled. And the new possibilities and
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According to Germanic folklore: A wet February brings a fruitful year. And that, we'd argue, not only in terms of vegetation, but also in terms of your individual personal development: a wet February meaning more time spent in museums and thus an enhanced opportunity to engage in meaningful and relevant and motivating discourses and discussions. An ideal environment in which to allow your appreciations of and positions to the world around you to optimally develop, swell, ripen and nourish. So
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