In the past couple of years we have often referred to, but never actually shown, the shelf "Das Brett" by Belgian designer Kaspar Hamacher. A shelf that is one of our abbiding memories of Milan 2010. That and nearly drowning..... The release of Watn Blech by Bernhard Osann for Moormann however provides the perfect opportunity to right that wrong. What attracted us to Das Brett, and has always remained with us, was the very simple principle behind the piece. By gently inclining the shelf
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A couple of years ago N.W.A. frontman Ice Cube shot a short celluloid tribute to Charles and Ray Eames. Without even having to use his AK ... We didn't think anything more culturally acontextual could happen to the pair. And now ? On Thursday March 7th the exhibition "Eames by Vitra" opens at the Wasserschloß Klaffenbach in Chemnitz. A Charles and Ray Eames exhibition. In Chemnitz. The story of Charles and Ray Eames as furniture designers starts with their collaborations with Hermann
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From February 20th until May 20th 2013 the Centre Pompidou Paris is presenting a major retrospective devoted to the Irish artist, designer and architect Eileen Gray. As someone who once claimed "The future projects light, the past only clouds" we're not 100% certain the subject herself would approve; however, for us it is a welcome and long overdue Eileen Gray retrospective, and fittingly one being staged in the city that more than any other influenced and defined her life, character and
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Older readers will be aware that we have often held up the absence of some of Germany's most important designer furniture manufacturers as an unmissable indicator of an inherent weakness in the IMM Cologne brand. Those same readers will therefore understand the confusion we felt on seeing that Wilde+Spieth would, finally, be attending IMM Cologne in 2013. We were delighted they were participating. We however now have one argument less. Based in Esslingen near Stuttgart, Wilde+Spieth were
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In our Orgatec interview with Vitra CDO Eckart Maise we talked about the office system as the central component of the Vitra office furniture philosophy. One designer who has done more than most to establish Vitra's reputation in the office furniture sector is without question Antonio Citterio. Since his first collaborations with the company in the late 1980s Antonio Citterio has worked with Vitra on numerous key projects including the Ad Hoc system, the AC and ID office chair systems and most
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There are few things more pleasing in the world of furniture design than seeing a designer successfully replicating a winning form in a new object from another product genus. Seamlessly translating an idea developed for one project into a new context. A particularly good example of such a translation can be seen in the PS 07 bureau by Berlin based Delphin Design for Müller Möbelfabrikation. If we're honest, when we saw the PS 07 on the Müller stand at IMM Cologne 2013, although we noticed a
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As already said, we sadly won't make it to Stockholm Furniture Fair and Design Week this year. However, we still wanted to bring you a bit of Scandinavian design flair. Albeit Scandinavian design flair with a very strong Breton accent. Back at Orgatec 2012 one of the more surprising new product series on show was the so-called "A-Collection" by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for HAY. A truly delightful family of simple wooden objects, the collection principally surprised us because we had never
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As we've said before, and will never tire of repeating, the Thonet back catalogue harbours an unparalleled treasure trove of design classics. And certainly enough interesting and challenging designs to keep half-a-dozen contemporary furniture companies in business for the next decade or two. Fortuitously just as Iceland's fisherman don't try to maximise profit by catching as many fish as possible as quickly as possible, so to do Thonet choose not to raid the archive every couple of months in
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It being January, IMM Cologne once again provided the backdrop for the presentation of the A&W Designer of the Year Award. Following on from Tokujin Yoshioka in 2011 and Patrica Urquiola in 2012 the 2013 accolade went to everyone's favourite Bretons Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec In addition to the undoubted kudos of winning, as part of the award the Brothers Bouroullec are also being honoured in an exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Featuring an overview of their more recent works the
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In our interview with Michel Charlot about his lamp U-Turn for Belux he told us that "I like it when people look at an object and find it “normal”, but that is something which is quite difficult to achieve...." Such an object is without question Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto. As so to help explain the complexity hidden in the simplicity, and celebrate the object's 80th anniversary, the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft are staging an exhibition during IMM Cologne 2013 devoted to this
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With over 100 members of the public getting in touch and 59 fake Wilhelm Wagenfeld WG 24 lamps being exchanged for licensed originals, Bremen based manufacturer Tecnolumen have declared themselves very satisfied with their recent "No Fake" promotion. Not least because they sense an increased and increasing awareness amongst consumers as to the problems associated with unlicensed copies; especially in association with Bauhaus era products Among the more interesting points made by the company
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In 1956 Arne Jacobsen was commissioned to create the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen; a contract he took on with great gusto and which, true to his understanding of an architect being responsible for the complete composition, saw him not only create a building, but all the fixtures and fittings. Right down to the bath plugs. While the most famous furniture pieces from the SAS Royal project are without question the Swan Chair and Egg Chair, those who take the time to investigate a little deeper
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On Friday last week we were at a discussion in Potsdam where Nils Holger Moormann spoke as eloquently and convincingly as ever about the advantages of long lifecyles for furniture and the continual development that is possible when one understands furniture as an evolving entity and not as a quick, profit generating, commodity. Referring, for example, to the FNP shelving system he commented, something along the lines of: even after 25 years one always finds new ways of extending and developing
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As you know we don't generally react to, or even read, unsolicited PR E-mails. And so no one is more surprised than us to find us posting about StickBulb by RUX Design. A product we have only seen on a website and in a pdf. email attachment. While the "Big Bang" series dosen't really get our boat rockin' - for us there is somehow something too cluttered and needlessly obtuse in the construction and form - the "Torch" series is a joy to behold. We obviously can't comment on the quality of
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At Orgatec 2012 Augsburg based Müller Möbelfabrikation introduced their new WORKSPACE product range(s). Developed in cooperation with Andreas Struppler and Sebastian Frank from Munich based Struppler Industriedesign, WORKSPACE is technically two ranges - WORK and SPACE, or "Labor et Spatium" for any scholars of historic furniture design who may be reading - that combine to create a modular office furniture system. WORK is represented by two height adjustable desks, one electronic the other
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At the risk of upsetting furniture historians, wood is probably the longest serving material in furniture design. It is also one of the most deceptively complex and hard to work materials in furniture design. For all bending, shaping and moulding pieces of solid wood is a process that has long fascinated and infuriated designers and architects in equal measure. From Michael Thonet's ground breaking research in the 19th century, over the efforts of Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer or Charles Eames
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Wandering round the Vitra spaceship at Orgatec there was one product that you simply couldn't fail to notice. On every table, in every Workbay, in every Alcove stood a lamp. A Vitra lamp? Not technically. Technically a lamp from Swiss producer Belux. However since 2001 Belux has been part of the Vitra family and at Orgatec 2012 they made good use of their family connections to unveil the latest addition to their portfolio, U-Turn by ECAL Lausanne graduate Michel Charlot. Older readers will
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Cork. At the moment there is simply no getting away from it. A couple of weeks ago Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec unveiled their Cork Desk for Vitra at Orgatec. Back in April we had Cover by Daphna Laurens at Dutch Invertuals in Milan. And last year at Dutch Design Week we marvelled at Tiago Sá da Costa's Corkmatters Lamp exhibited as part of the Made Out Portugal #4 show. Might not sound like much, but given that before Eindhoven 2011 the last serious cork product we can remember seeing was
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In February 1991 the grand doyen of Italian design Ettore Sottsass approached Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum with a suggestion for a joint project looking at the nature and being of life and work in the office. The project wasn't aimed at developing office furniture, simply exploring the microcosmos "Office" in its multifarious facets. Rolf Fehlbaum willingly agreed and together with Michele de Lucchi, Andrea Branzi and James Irvine, Sottsass and Vitra set off an exploratory journey: researching,
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As more loyal readers will be aware we like nothing more than attempting to undermine Italy's claim to be the cradle of contemporary European architecture and design. It's all show and deliberate misinformation being our war cry. And so the exhibition L'Italia di Le Corbusier currently showing at the MAXXI in Rome is not the sort of show we really want to see presented. Because it seems to imply that Italy played a significant role in both the development of the young Le Corbusier's
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Anyone who had anything to do with the UK childrens toy market of the 1970s - either as a user (child) or consumer (adult) - will be well aware that no matter how hard you try, how hard you push them and how devilish you are, Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down. Stand-up by Thorsten Frank applies a similar logic, albeit in the more urbane world of furniture. The concept isn't new, indeed it could even be said that stools that rock and flow with your body are a fully established furniture
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Established in 1996 by three friends with a shared passion for classic metal furniture, Müller Möbelfabrikation has grown steadily over the last decade and a half into one of Europe's most interesting contemporary furniture manufacturers. They don't do anything especially revolutionary, and there is certainly no danger of them ever redefining the fabric of furniture design. However, they are currently producing some of the most interesting, brash and accessible furniture on the market, and
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This past week it's been hard to escape images of a bentwood bike purporting to have been created by a London based artist for German furniture manufacturer Thonet. We choose not to run the story. Something about it troubled us from the beginning. The fact that only computer generated, rendered, images were available, for example. Plus knowing what we know about Thonet, it just didn't make sense. Didn't feel like Thonet. Wasn't right. And now the confirmation from Frankenberg, it's all a
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Was it not Pulp who in 1995 prophesied that the world would soon be dominated and controlled by mis-shapes, mistakes and misfits: the great silent majority who feel themselves intimidated by their alleged imperfections and deviations from society's norm. If only they could realise that they were so numerous, that they have something to offer and that society's imposed ideas of perfection were our modern golden calf, their future would be so promising..... Under the title "Misfits Revisited"
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