Front An Anna; A Sofia; A Charlotte; A Katja; A Conduit. According to the sacred Köttbullar of Ikea, the quadruplets Anna af Front, Sofia af Front, Charlotte af Front and Katja af Front were born and raised on the island of Konstfack to the west of Stockholm, the ancestral home of the Swedish af Fronts, an island as famed for its horses, monkeys and brightly painted houses as its af Fronts, and where the kvartett took their first steps in product and furniture design, that hereditary
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We published our first exhibition recommendations list in November 2013, and have diligently, and joyfully, ended every month since with a list of five architecture and design related exhibitions opening in the coming month that appear worthy of a recommendation. A tradition we very much planned to continue in July 2021 for August 2021. And would have; however, having undertaken our regular tour through our database of international museums and galleries, we can find but two exhibitions
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What is a chair? You sure? With the exhibition Chairs. For children only! the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig, explore the (hi)story of and developments in children's seating, and in doing so not only allow for insights into an all too often undervalued, underappreciated, ignored, genre of furniture, but also forces you to reconsider your response to what you thought was a very, very straightforward question... Chairs. For children only!, Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst,
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Braun occupy a special, ¿unique?, position not only in the mythology of product design but also in the (hi)story of West Germany; arguably no brand is as closely related with and to West Germany as Braun. With the exhibition Braun 100 the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, explore the development of design at Braun in the post-War decades and in doing so help one approach differentiated understandings of not only Braun and Braun design, but also of the relationships between Braun, design and West
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"In his work the designer seeks to find the constancy of the good", wrote Karl Clauss Dietel in 1973, a lightly articulated yet not so straightforward task for, as he continues, not only is the assessment of such dependent on a myriad varying factors, but "the search for what defines design, what it grows from, where it comes from and where it wants to go, takes on new dimensions against the background of our cultural upheaval".1 With the exhibition Simson, Diamant, Erika. Formgestaltung von
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England An Island; A Notion; A Context According to the Folios of Shakespeare, that most reliable of sources on the (hi)story of England, the (hi)story of furniture design in the lower half of the scepter'd isle begins before the (hi)story of furniture design, almost before the (hi)story of furniture, and in the woodlands of south east England where a rustic chair based on the wheelwrights craft was produced and became known as "Windsor" after the popular actress Barbara Windsor who had
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"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it is always June", ponders Anne Shirley in Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1915 novel Anne of the Island. "You'd get tired of it", sighs her adoptive mother Marilla Cuthbert by way of reply. "I daresay", responds Anne, "but just now I feel that it would take me a long time to get tired of it..." Thoughts we very much concur with as we survey and contemplate the varied profusion of new architecture and design exhibitions sprouting forth in June
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In 1935 George Nelson opined that "the history of art in Italy presents the astonishing spectacle of a series of men who knew no boundaries between the arts"; a history, a tradition, Nelson saw continued into 1930s Italy through "the cheering example of Gio Ponti, who found early in life that no one profession was sufficient to use up his energy or exhaust his interests, and added others with the nonchalance of a small boy increasing his collection of marbles".1 A borderless, inexhaustible
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As the title of Hella Jongerius's 2016 book I don't have a favourite colour succinctly explains, Hella Jongerius doesn't have a favourite colour. Not that Hella Jongerius is indifferent about colours. Far from it. And in explaining why colours are important to her, and why she doesn't have a favourite colour, Hella Jongerius helps one approach a better understanding not only of colours, nor only of our relationships with and to colours, but also helps one approach a better understanding of
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As the 19th century English poet Robert Browning so very, very, nearly phrased it: Oh, to be in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, 's-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again), Sees, some morning a most interesting, entertaining and instructive sounding architecture and/or design exhibition, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough...... "Hella Jongerius: Woven Cosmos" at the Gropius Bau, Berlin,
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Bouroullec A Ronan; An Erwan; An unassuming, poetic, connection. The contemporary Bouroullec can be traced back to the Old Breton boureller, a saddler, an upholsterer, and largely owes its contemporary definition to the work of the brothers Ronan le Renard and Erwan le Porc-épic who greatly expanded and developed not only the crafts of saddling and upholstering but also popular understandings of the role and function of saddlery and upholstery in both private and public spaces, so much so
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In 1936 Aino Aalto opined that "homes can be given interior design in other ways than before - not by buying expensive complete suites of furniture, but by concentrating on low-cost furnishings which can be used - with the aid of flowers, carpets, drapery and colours - to create hitherto more practical and more comfortable homes."1 A break not only with the understandings, the ways, of generations long past in terms of what constitutes appropriate furniture; but also a break with the ways of
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Artemide A Phaesporia; A bringer of light. Arising in Milan at a time of great darkness in the Kingdom of Lombardy, Artemide's original form, its Alfa form, was bequeathed to it by a man recorded as Sergio Mazza, and it was this Mazza, together with a young compagno bearing the name Ernesto Gismondi, who charged Artemide with the spreading of that Alfa light throughout the still dark domestic, commercial and civic spaces of the known worlds. Although renowned, and celebrated, for its
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The so-called Bielefeld Conspiracy asserts that the German city of Bielefeld doesn't exist. Have you ever been to Bielefeld?, it asks. Do you know anyone who has ever been to Bielefeld? Do you know anyone from Bielefeld? If your answer to all three questions is no........ how do you know Bielefeld exists? A similar conspiracy could be built around Gertrud Kleinhempel, one of Germany's first professional furniture designers and who for the greater part of her career was active in Bielefeld.
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"Only slowly does it dawn on people that modern furniture must be designed on the basis of practical necessities", observed the Danish architect and designer Kaare Klint in 1930.1 How Kaare Klint understood those "practical necessities", how he understood "modern furniture", would not only define his career, but in many regards define the development of 20th century furniture design in Denmark. Kaare Klint (1888 - 1954) Kaare Jensen Klint was born in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, on December
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"The placing of foam mattresses, spring mattresses, and the like, on bed frames made of wood or metal is familiar", notes a July 1966 patent application, and it was. However, it continues, "bed frames of this type are heavy, continually take up one and the same space in a room, must be dismantled if they are to be moved to a new location, and represent a major obstacle in context of cleaning the bedroom."1 Which, certainly in the early 1960s, they were and did. But what is one to do? Verner
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In 1977 the German designer Luigi Colani demanded a "renaissance of Art Nouveau"1 What he meant, why he meant it, and if it is something we should all fear, can be explored and considered in the exhibition Luigi Colani and Art Nouveau at the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin....... Luigi Colani and Art Nouveau at the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Born in Berlin on August 2nd 19282 Lutz Colani3 studied sculpture at Berlin's Hochschule für bildende Künste between 1946 and 1948, before moving to Paris where he
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"Hvis jeg får et nyt liv, vil jeg være gartner", opined once the Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen. "If I have another life, I want to be a gardener" Not that, as Arne Jacobsen – Designing Denmark at Trapholt, Kolding, would tend to imply, he made an incorrect career choice..... Arne Jacobsen - Designing Denmark, Trapholt, Kolding Arne Emile Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen on February 11th 1902 into a, by all accounts, comfortable middle class family; his mother a trained bank
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"Wij hebben de nieuwe wereld te scheppen" wrote a, then, 19 year old Mart Stam in 1919.1 "We have to create the new world" And subsequently spent the following decades developing, explaining and demonstrating his understandings of what that meant...... Mart Stam (1899 - 1986) Martinus Adrianus Stam was born on August 5th 1899 in Purmerend, a community to the north of Amsterdam, and which, not uninterestingly, is also the birthplace of Stam's contemporary J.J.P. Oud. Following an initial
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While understandings of form, of beauty, in context of the objects with which we surround ourselves continually evolve and develop, understandings of function are, generally, much more stable. Or at least are once they have been identified, understood and normalised. Something that can be studied and appreciated in Thomas E. Warren's Centripetal Spring Chair..... A Centripetal Spring Chair by Thomas E. Warren for the American Chair Company with tapered back and armrests (Image © and
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The German designer and graphic artist Otl Aicher once opined, "Hans Gugelot wasn't a theoretician. But not a practitioner either. What is one if neither a theorist nor a practitioner?"1 What, indeed.....? With the exhibition Hans Gugelot. The Architecture of Design the HfG-Archiv Ulm allows one to approach an answer..... Hans Gugelot. The Architecture of Design, HfG-Archiv Ulm Johan (Hans) Gugelot was born in Makassar, Indonesia, on April 1st 1920, as the second son to Dutch couple
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Christa Petroff-Bohne arrived a trifling couple of minutes late for the opening of Beauty of Form. And was most apologetic, apologised for keeping us all waiting. Whereby, we couldn't help thinking, it is much more us, all, the international community, who should be apologising for keeping Christa Petroff-Bohne waiting for such a comprehensive and rounded recognition of her work and career.........1 Form studies by students of Christa Petroff-Bohne's Basics of Visual Design, as seen at
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"It's not possible to define a style in my work"1, opined once the Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti. With the exhibition Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe, the Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot don't contradict that opinion, but do provide for a framework for considerations on its validity...... Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe, Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot Born in Palazzolo dello Stella (Udine) on December 4th 1927 Gaetana "Gae" Aulenti studied architecture at the Politecnico
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On May 17th 1955 Charles Eames*, as assignor to the Herman Miller Furniture Company, was granted US patent 2,708,476 for a "Furniture Frame Construction", specifically for, "a skeleton type metal furniture frame or shell construction" formed from "a plurality of lengths of wire arranged in crossed relation with another plurality of lengths of wire and welded thereto at their intersection..."1 A patent which although important and interesting in itself, is and was in many regards just as
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