"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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Our coverage of IMM Cologne 2014 may be reaching its conclusion, but we still have a few gleaming gems to bring you, the brightest of which was to be found on the Thonet stand: the new S 1200 desk by Randolf Schott from and with the Thonet Design Team. While classic Thonet desks such as Marcel Breuer's S 285 can work very well in a contemporary home office and/or as an informal place of work in a living room, they do bring with them a certain formal heaviness owing to their abstraction from
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It may have been because at IMM Cologne 2014 they were given a larger stand than in previous years. It may just have been that the time was ripe. The "why" is however ultimately unimportant, what is important is that at IMM Cologne 2014 Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation presented a series of new products that decisively extended the company's portfolio, a series of new products that, in our opinion, make Müller Möbelfabrikation a more rounded, more complete company. And which achieved
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Following on from "Modernes Japanisches Design" in Cologne - contemporary Korean Design in Berlin. Organised by the Korean Trade Ministry and the Korean Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), Korea Design is a touring showcase presenting projects from 15 Korean designers / design studios. Following its premier in London during the 2013 London Design Festival, Korea Design is currently showing in Berlin. Amongst an entertaining collection of lighting, furniture, accessories and more conceptual
read moreAside from the ability to accurately focus light, Richard Sapper had a further motivation in designing his Tizio lamp: "Another problem was that I am a very disorganised person. On my desk there is no space to place a lamp, or at best one is forced to place it on the very edge, the rest of the table being covered with things that I probably don't need, but which I can only store on my desk. In such a situation one needs a lamp with a long boom arm. To effortlessly move such a lamp one has the
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A few years ago the (smow) blog telephone rang..... "Good morning is it possible to speak to Philippe Starck please?" enquired the caller. "I'm sorry he's not here at the moment" we replied, truthfully, if not altogether helpfully. "When will it be possible?" came the inevitable follow-up. "We're not really sure, he's not here in Leipzig that often", we responded, truthfully if, again, not altogether helpfully, "you're probably better phoning the Paris office they tend to be better
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Revolutions in design and architecture invariably involve a new material. The oldest examples of this phenomenon being found in the context of metals: the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. And in the 6000 years since man first learnt to mix tin and copper the fascination for and desire to work with metal remains as primordial as ever. To celebrate the variety and durability of metal in design Frankfurt based Trademark Publishing recently released "Objects: Alle Metalle" an homage to classic and
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When in our preview of IMM Cologne 2014 we referred to it as marking the opening of the European design circus, we had no idea that it was a circus with a fairground. Sadly the carousel incorporating Zeitraum's Pelle chair seat shells was not there to provide adrenaline rushes. Only visual thrills as part of the 2014 Featured Editions programme. Premièred as a concept at IMM Cologne 2013 and curated by the online portal Stylepark, Featured Editions is a collection of installations in which
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When we spoke with Nik Back and Alexander Stamminger aka maigrau back in 2010 they told us that in the context of developing the, then, fledgling companies collection "...on the one hand as designers we naturally want to continue designing products ourselves, but on the other we can also imagine developing products for maigrau in cooperation with other designers." The new maigrau products being launched at IMM Cologne 2014 perfectly demonstrate this binary approach: two new products from
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With the winter solstice behind us and the days growing noticeably longer, the Vitra Design Museum exhibition Lightopia draws slowly towards its natural end. But before the lights finally go out on March 9th there are still a few genuine highlights in the Fringe programme to be enjoyed, including on Thursday January 23rd a talk with and about the Milan based designer Richard Sapper. Born in Munich in 1932 Richard Sapper has worked with and for companies as varied as Daimler-Benz, Kartell,
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What would IMM Cologne week be without the official enthronement of the A&W Designer of the Year? One day shorter and one exhibition poorer say we. Following on from Patricia Urquiola in 2012 and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in 2013 the 2014 A&W Designer of the Year is Werner Aisslinger. And as tradition demands his work is currently being celebrated in an exhibition in the Kölner Kunstverein. In summer 2013 the Berlin gallery Haus am Waldsee presented a Werner Aisslinger solo exhibition under
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In 1949 the Swedish publishing house Bonniers folkbibliotek organised a competition asking for designs for a bookcase system that was easy to ship, easy to assemble and easily affordable. The background is fairly obvious: the more book storage space your average Swede has, the more books they can buy. In the late 1940s the Swedish Industrial Designer Nils Strinning had enjoyed notable success with plastic coated steel wire designs - first as crockery drying racks and subsequently as storage
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For their now traditional IMM Cologne exhibition Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft is presenting an exhibition devoted to one of the more interesting characters in the story of German furniture design, Stefan Wewerka. Born in Magdeburg on October 27th 1928 Stefan Wewerka studied architecture at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst Berlin under, amongst others, Max Taut and Georg Leowald, left however without formally graduating. Something which in those days was no hindrance to a
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In numerous mythologies heroes are whisked through space and time on a magic carpet. The carpet project that took Alexander Seifried to Afghanistan may or may not have been magic, but it has treated us to one of the most unique, and hardest to ignore, moments at IMM Cologne. The full story is a little long for a compact blog post; however, in brief, researching carpets Alexander Seifried came across North Afghani yurt designs and was suitably inspired to develop his own yurt, the Kargah Tent.
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Aside from death, taxes and heartbreak, the only other certainty in life is that you will, with an unnerving regularity, need new furniture. Not because the old furniture is damaged or no longer en vogue, but simply because your needs and requirements have changed. A furniture system that can adapt to these changing needs is thus obviously advantageous. Developed in the early 1960s by Fritz Haller and Paul Schärer, System USM Haller is such a system. Composed of a steel tube frame
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On Monday January 13th the European design circus rolls into the new year with the opening of IMM Cologne 2014 and Passagen 2014, and against our natural inclinations we'll be there, or as Ride so nearly put it; "If we've seen it all before, Why's this train taking us back again? If we don't need anymore, Why's this train taking us back again?" Yes, the rent has to be paid. But there are easier ways to earn a living than spending a week in January on the banks of the Rhein questioning your
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What with mince pies to be eaten, Glühwein to get drunk and travel plans to misco-ordinate, December is generally a very quiet month. However despite all other distractions, in December 2013 we still managed to visit the opening the exhibition "Mensch Raum Maschine Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the far to brief Rethinking The Product – Design “Made in Italy” showcase in Berlin. In addition December 2013 saw the launch of the Vitra Design Museum's book "The
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With autum's algid wind in our faces and the promise of mince pies and Glühwein in our tails we approached November and a design tour through Brandenburg, met Napoleon in Erfurt and discovered that the Eames plastic armchairs and plastic side chairs used to be steel......
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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......
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A summer silly season with 360 degree product images and handmade bottle openers explaining the difference between craft and design assumed a veneer of normality thanks to a fairytale presentation of vintage furniture in Berlin, contemporary porcelain at the Bauhaus Archiv and a little thinking about architecture in Stuttgart.........
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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".....
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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....
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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......
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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......
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