"I want to create models for a different society, for a way of producing and living differently", announces Enzo Mari in one of several quotes presented in the exhibition "Who is Mari? at KPM Berlin World. A wonderful example of what can be achieved can currently be explored at DMY Berlin in context of the Berlin based organisation CUCULA. Established in 2013 CUCULA is, as the organisation's full name implies, a craft and design company run by refugees. Or at least all going to plan it
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Events such as Berlin Design Week naturally provide an attractive platform for countries and regions to present themselves and their creatives. Some shows do that very well. Some less so. The exhibition Reset Design - New working models currently showing at the Spanish Embassy Berlin belongs to the first category. Curated by Marcelo Leslabay Reset Design presents ten young Spanish companies, companies all founded in the last three years by designers looking for new ways to produce, market
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Since the late 1950s Bavarian porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal has cooperated with an impressive roster of international designers to create new objects and product families, notable cooperations including those with Raymond Loewy, Walter Gropius, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Jasper Morrison or Patricia Urquiola. One of the firms most recent collaborations is and was with Offenbach am Main based Sebastian Herkner. A graduate of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main, Sebastian Herkner
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Very much in keeping with the DMY Berlin 2014 focus on "Social Design" the DAD Galerie Berlin is currently presenting an exhibition devoted to works by the Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop created in context of the Mumbai, India, based Tiny Miracles Foundation. Founded in 2010 by Laurien Meuter the Tiny Miracles Foundation works with the Pardeshi community, a community of some 700 individuals who live rough in Mumbai's red light district, on a range of projects with the aim of helping them move
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Established in 1751 by Wilhelm Caspar Wegely and taken under royal control by Prussia's King Frederick II in 1763, the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin - the Berlin Royal Porcelain Factory - is not only Berlin's oldest handwork business but an undeniable symbol of Prussian pride and the unrestrained luxury of the fabled "white gold" And as such not the sort of place one would expect to find an old agitator such as the Italian designer, designer theorist and general design disdainer Enzo
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SOX is, in all probability, Berlin's smallest gallery. SOX is a circa 2m by 3m window. An oversized display cabinet in the heart of Berlin Kreuzberg. During Berlin Design Week 2014 SOX is hosting 4+1, the latest project from Berlin designer Mark Braun. A shelving/storage element constructed from pear, oak, ash and walnut the individual 4+1 units are accessible from both front and back and can be stacked on top of/next to one another to create the desired landscape. Each unit houses an
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If we’re honest we’re not entirely sure where or when we first saw the work of Gosia & Tomek Rygalik a.k.a Studio Rygalik, but it was certainly before their near legendary Baguette Table project at Vienna Design Week 2011 – yes, tables made from bread – and long before they shot their delightful short film celebrating 20 years of the Vitra Design Museum miniatures collection. What we are sure about is that the logical, uncomplicated nature of the products they create, the pairs commitment to
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"The purpose of an object is of secondary importance" claimed the German designer and artist Wilhelm Wagenfeld, "the use however is more relevant, explains the multi-faceted relationship of individuals to those objects which surround them. With use develops culture, the overcoming of a perceived raison d'etre"1 To celebrate their 20th anniversary the Bremen based Wilhelm Wagenfeld Foundation are currently hosting "Die Form ist nur Teil des Ganzen" - "The Form is Only a Part of the Composition"
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"The design is not the result of any especially deep consideration, but much more of random form finding through sketching."1 So remembers German architect and designer Sergius Ruegenberg the creation of the so-called Barcelona Chair; a chair that made its formal début with the opening of the Barcelona International Exposition on May 19th 1929. Barcelona Chair? Sergius Ruegenberg? Yes. Barcelona Chair. Sergius Ruegenberg. Born in St. Petersburg in 1903 Sergius Ruegenberg trained as a
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When Gil Scott-Heron announced that "The revolution will not be televised" he was of the opinion that this was because the revolution would take place at the grass roots of contemporary society, far removed from the corporate glare of popular global culture. The fact that television may have become an obsolete remnant of times past never occurred to him. And quite frankly why, in 1969, should it have? But today we know, the revolution won't be televised. The revolution will be streamed. And
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As previously noted the Werkbund Berlin Galerie is currently hosting an exhibition devoted to the ess.tee.tisch t-6500 from Swiss manufacturer Horgenglarus. Originally designed in 1951 by Jürg Bally the ess.tee.tisch is a height adjustable table operated by an ingeniously simple mechanism and a product that was awarded a Gute Form Award by the Swiss Werkbund in 1955 for its combination of practicality, functionality and aesthetic charm. The exhibition in Berlin presents an updated version of
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For many, the darkest, furthest removed edge of the (smow) universe is (smow) Chemnitz. (smow) however reaches further. Much further. To Manly, New South Wales, to be precise and (smow) Australia. More of a cousin than a member of the immediate (smow) family, (smow) Australia offer products by leading European manufacturers including Nils Holger Moormann, Richard Lampert, LoCa, Jonas & Jonas and Kabré-Leipzig to the good people of Sydney and, through their online shop, beyond. And now have
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"When", we asked in context of the Grassi Leipzig exhibition Sitting – Lying – Swinging. Furniture from Thonet, "does an exhibition about Thonet chairs become a sales promotion for Thonet chairs?" In the case of the Grassi exhibition, we concluded, it doesn't. When however does a blog post about a Thonet exhibition becomes an advertisement for Thonet chairs. Round about now. For by way of celebrating the Sitting – Lying – Swinging, an exhibition on "home turf" as it were, (smow) have teamed
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"It helps you save a considerable amount space, then it is a dinning table and a tea table in one. With a single hand movement you can set its height as you choose; and that without needing to first clear the table" So introduced Swiss furniture manufacturer Horgenglarus the so called Bally-Verstelltisch, or S.T. Tisch, on its launch in 1954. Designed by the Swiss architect Jürg Bally the S.T. Tisch is one of those products that without question would have found its way into our Lost
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We round up our Milan 2014 coverage with a company we admire, but about whom we find it all but impossible to write. Because their products and their collection so rarely change. Ever since commencing with the commercial production of the modular USM Haller furniture system in 1969 USM have done little else. Save the introduction of the USM KITOS system in 1989. But that's it. That's all they do. Which is also one of the principle reasons we admire them. They do what they do, do it well
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By way of a 1st of May, International Workers' Day, special...... in Milan Ronan Bouroullec told us that the brother's new chair Uncino for Italian produce Mattiazzi was inspired by and loosely based on the very first wooden office chairs. An excellent example of what he meant can currently be enjoyed at the exhibition Sitting – Lying – Swinging. Furniture from Thonet at the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts, Leipzig. A comparison: Uncino by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi vs. an 1875
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Mayday! Mayday! Don't panic. It's just a public holiday. You'll survive. Barbecue something...... And afterwards, when everyone else is back at work and things have calmed down a little, why not enjoy one or more of the following design and architecture exhibitions opening around Europe this coming May. "Fritz Haller. Architekt und Forscher" at the S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum, Basel, Switzerland Everyone knows Fritz Haller. He designed one of the few truly iconic and genuinely
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The best form of recycling is not to produce things in the first place. However, until every one understands that, things will continue to be produced in senseless quantities, and senseless quantities of things will eventually reach the end of their useful life. And then? Largely, though not exclusively, based on projects submitted for the annual Recycling Designpreis, the exhibition "Transformations - Concepts of Re-using Things" currently showing at the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge in
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Standing in the shadow of his gargantuan lamp, "The Worker", Pascal Howe is well aware of how easily his work can be misunderstood. "Many people think it is just a lifestyle product or similar", he smiles, "but it has a strong concept behind it and isn't just about the aesthetic, the material or the functionality" The exhibition "Pascal Howe - VDI 2860" at the DMY Design Gallery Berlin is part of process to correct such misinterpretations and to introduce the real Pascal Howe. Following a
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Milan is awash with churches. Milan is awash with monasteries. Basilica. Friaries. And other suitable locations for submitting penitence. We go to Salone Satellite. Last year you may remember we had to apologise to Karolin Fesser for our failure to publish a post on the from Karolin co-curated Objects for the neighbour exhibition. Not that we were obliged to publish anything on the exhibition; it was just so good it deserved one and we were negligent in not doing such. This year it was
read more"We have a World's Fair opening in New York again today and it will, as always with fairs, offer the opportunity for looking forward into the future and backward into the past", announced the New York Times on April 22nd 1964 with the unmistakable self-confident bluff of a journalist racing to meet a deadline and struggling to make the patently obvious sound anything but. Although not officially sanctioned as a "World's Fair" the 1964/65 New York World's Fair attracted some 66 nations -
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One of the stand out objects for us in the Young Perspectives exhibition shown in Boffi's Cologne flagship store during Cologne Design Week 2014 was the clothes stand Blanche by Frankfurt based Meike Langer. And so it was a real joy not only to be reacquainted with Blanche in Milan, but to see Blanche's new shoes. Or more precisely put, new foot. Crafted from ash and steel tubing Blanche has an abstract trombone feel about it and is, in many ways, a refinement of the excellent Beaugars
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Standing in the Leipzig Grassi Museum for Applied Arts, surrounded by 150 years of Thonet chair history, Peter Thonet, x-times-great grandson of company founder Michael Thonet and until his recent retirement company CEO, is clearly a very satisfied man, "It makes one proud to be able to look back on a collection of objects that have not only been important for the company, but which have also, occasionally, written design history" Few visiting the new Grassi Museum exhibition "Sitting – Lying
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If we're honest, we really, really, should have seen it coming. We didn't. Having been acquired in 2013 by Vitra, Artek have now begun working with leading designers from the Vitra roster. Specifically, in Milan Artek launched a new chair from Konstantin Grcic and new colour and textile schemes from Hella Jongerius for the classic Alvar Aalto 400 and 401 armchairs and Stool 60. We just hope no-one is tempted to over egg this particular pudding. In the Milan press release Artek CEO Mirkku
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