Ahead of Milan Design Week we received an email from a Belgian designer of our acquaintance letting us know where we could view their work. The email ended with a euphoric "This is finally Belgium's year!" A thought that really appealed to us, because as we wrote last year Belgium has the potential to be every bit as successful as Holland. And indeed should be. And so with an optimistic heart we set off to the Triennale di Milano to view the exhibition "Belgium is Design" And experienced our
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The concept of the so-called "Vertical Garden" or "Living Wall" is reasonably well established in architecture. In principle it involves cladding an exterior wall with plants in an integrated, self-sufficient system that requires little or no maintenance or external input. The theory is that the plants provide an efficient layer of insulation that keeps the temperature ambient in summer and reduces heating costs in winter. In addition such constructions reduce the impact of a building on
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Many of you will remember the exhibition "Great Taste for Waste" that was staged at Dutch Design Week 2011 AGF Class 3 Bowls by Renee Boute would have been a wonderful addition. AGF is an abbreviation of "Aardappelen, groenten en fruit" -"Potatoes, vegetable and fruit" - and Class 3 refers to quality Class 3, so damaged examples that can no longer be introduced into the food chain. Or at least not into the "individual" food chain. Utrecht School of the Arts' graduate Renée Boute took these
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Probably on account of all the wood, upcycling and back-to-basics on show at Milan Design Week 2013, Granoff Sofa by Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumna Scot Bailey, Taylor McKenzie-Veal, Ian Stell and Yumi Yoshida stood out like a burger bar in Rovaniemi on Christmas Eve. An unexpected, inignorable and ultimately very welcome delight. And that despite, or better put because, we completely misunderstood what was on display. Created for the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at
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As we believe we've said before it is always especially pleasing when a designer you first got to know as an unkempt, idealist student, finally signs their first serious contract with a major manufacturer and so sets of a, hopefully, long and successful career. Similarly it is always very pleasing to watch a newly established business grow and develop; especially when it's one established with the goal of advancing contemporary design and the designer's lot rather than simply generating a fab
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Although as a general rule we don't want to think about Vienna Design Week during Milan Design Week - as it means thinking beyond the summer, and that before we've really felt the warmth of the sun on our milk white skin - the touring exhibition Werkstadt Vienna showing at Ventura Lambrate is a delightful exception. Because it brought back so many memories and ultimately reminded us just why we put ourselves through this. Curated by Sophie Lovell and featuring an exhibition design by Studio
read moreBack at Saloni Milano 2010 Ronan Bouroullec told us about his feeling that the internet and new technology could, perhaps even should, eventually, replace the resources and time invested - and ultimately wasted - every year in an event such as Milan Furniture Fair. In 2013 everyone's favourite German conceptual contemporary furniture manufacturer Moormann, have made the start. And in doing so proved that even from the pastoral calm of Aschau im Chiemgau, one can still be part of the Milan
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For us one of the highlights of Saloni Milano 2013 was/is Italian manufacturer Mattiazzi. And not just because they have managed to eke a chair out of Jasper Morrison that, in our opinion, is one of his better, and certainly more interesting, of recent years. Established in 1978 Mattiazzi is, if we correctly understand, essentially a network of woodworking facilities in Udine. For three decades the company served as a supplier of wooden parts for other furniture manufacturers before
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Back at Designers Open 2011 Norwegian designer Caroline Olsson caught our attention with "Curious", a wooden lamp inspired by pencil cases. At Salone Satellite 2013 Caroline has gone one better and is presenting a wooden lamp that is a pencil case. Which seems like an obvious development. Nothing more complicated than an oblong birch box, the beauty with Pencil Light is the metal mechanism that allows the lid to be raised, lowered and positioned. The illumination is in the lid, set a little
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Those Milan Design Week visitors brave enough to venture north of Garibaldi Station, yes there is civilisation up there, will be rewarded by an exhibition that demonstrates just how easily architecture, art and design can co-exist without threatening one another's integrity. Design, architecture and art combined in a borderless display of unity, tolerance and respect. Which sounds like a nice response to the current political situation in Italy. It isn't meant as such, but.... Magic Moments
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As it was our first event of Milan Design Week 2013, we're honouring Artemide with the first post from Milan Design Week 2013. And in specific Empatia by Carlotta de Bevilacqua and Paola di Arianello, for us the stand out object in the Artemide 2013 collection. It will sound like damning Carlotta and Paola with faint praise when we say that the overwhelming majority of the new Artemide products are architectural lighting - all technically very interesting, just architectural lighting - and
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Before Milan Design Week and Furniture Fair really get started we took the opportunity to relax a little and to visit Milan's contemporary art fair, MIART, and for all their new "Object" section devoted to contemporary design. Curated by Michela Pelizzari and Federica Sala "Object" presents 10 design galleries from Italy, France, Israel and the Lebanon. Ten international galleries presenting an equally cosmopolitan pallet of objects, ranging from limited edition pieces from the 1950s over the
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In little under a week the Doors of Hell will once again open to release Milan Design Week on our unsympathetic, unapologetic world. The normally pleasant, quiet and reasonably priced Lombardian metropolis will be overrun by molten rivers of corporate greed and naive student hope, transforming the canals, parks and former industrial sites into burning pits of contradiction, imitation and pure gold. Survival is a question of ignoring reality and convincing yourself that everything is brilliant
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We're almost at the end of our Milan 2012 coverage. Not because we've run out of themes; but have run out of time. In the coming weeks we've got the opening of the Gerrit Rietveld exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum, the opening of the Marcel Breuer Exhibition at Bauhaus Dessau, Belgrade Design Week, DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel, and all in addition to a couple of further interviews in connection with "British Design" at the V&A London and "Bauhaus: Art as Life" at the Barbican Art
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As reported elsewhere in these pages, there is a great deal of hope in the UK that the 2012 Summer Olympics will provide fresh impulse for the UK design industry. Something we doubt. But then, what do we know. No honestly. What do we know? And so we've taken the opportunity in recent weeks to talk to some people who are much better placed than us to asses the situation, not just in terms of the opportunities presented by the Olympics, but more generally about the state of the UK design
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Back in October one of our highlights at Vienna Design Week 2011 was the exhibition kidsroomZOOM! Essentially a mid-town Vienna apartment kitted out entirely in furniture for children, we were not only impressed by the objects on display, but by the concept. Forget adults! We're doin' it for the kids! Being the message we got. And one we wholeheartedly approved of. kidsroomZOOM! originated in Milan, and so this year we not only visited the new 2012 show, but also spoke to curator Paola Noè to
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It's probably fair to say the biggest surprise at Salone Satellite 2012 was seeing Rui Alves aka My Own Super Studio. Because we thought 2011 had been the last year he was allowed to exhibit. Turns out we can't count. And that the rules for Salone Satellite are a lot more complicated than even we were aware. Fortunately. For in addition to the chance to catch up with Rui, he also had new projects with him. While most industry attention of late has been focused on his Lapa chair, for us the
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We bow to no man in our admiration for the people of Belgium. Not only have they common sense to make chips their national dish, but they have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that politicians are no pre-requisite for a functioning state in 21st century Europe. We've just always found it a real shame that the various parts of the country have never got on. It's so unnecessary in such a small nation. Fortunately, at least in design, that is starting to change, and in the last couple of
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As regular readers will know one of our favourite design festivals is Vienna Design Week. And one of our all-time favourite Vienna Design Week projects is LacesLamp by Antoinette Bader. Because it delt so playfully with statics. And believe us, we've suffered for statics. And so anything that presents it as something to be enjoyed is to be celebrated. Consequently it was a particular joy to discover Antoinette at Salone Satellite 2012 with three new projects: projects which although
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At Milan 2011 Moormann presented the prototype of Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler. At Milan 2012 the market ready version was/is being officially unveiled. Last year Nils Holger Moormann enthused at great length about Pressed Chair. And so to complete the story, ahead of Milan 2012 we caught up with Harry Thaler in his London studio to learn more about both him and the background to Pressed Chair. (smow)blog: To begin with maybe a little to your background. If we're correctly informed you
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As anyone involved in the designer furniture industry will confirm; it's a secretive old world. Probably only matched in its inherent furtiveness by the Freemasons, Papal Conclaves or the committee responsible for setting petrol prices. Simply saying that you might have heard that designer X may be considering a possible future cooperation with producer Y is to risk a long interrogation by a Product Manager wanting to know who told you what. The situation is even more clandestine when it
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As we've already admitted the first time we saw a Dutch Invertuals exhibition we didn't hang around very long. Since then however we have matured a lot and the show has become a regular feature of our visits to Eindhoven and Milan. Simply put, one always finds something challenging, exciting and beautiful at a Dutch Invertuals show. And invariably something you don't really understand, no matter how often it is explained to you. But that itself is for us reason enough to go. In 2012 Dutch
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Although proud of the number of "issues" we have with Milan design week and furniture fair. It does of course also have its positive sides. Most of which are to be found down quiet, unassuming side streets. Last year we discovered Azucena. This year Villa Necchi. Built in the first half of the 1930s by Italian architect Piero Portaluppi on behalf of a (very) rich Milanese industrial family, Villa Necchi is just about the most "In-your-face" building you are ever likely to set foot in. In
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Once a month we visit a trade fair. We don't always want to - but we always have to. We look at furniture. We think up some cheap jokes. We take some out of focus photos. We come home. But what is actually involved in organising a trade fair stand? How important are trade fair stands? Is our weak humour and poor photography disrespectful? In an attempt to try to answer these and similar questions we helped Moormann with the construction of their stand at Milan 2011 Although "helped" is
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