We know. We know. It's January. Everyone just wants to sit at home feeling poor, fat and unloved....... Much more productive, and rewarding, would be a visit to an architecture and design exhibition, here five new exhibitions opening in January 2016 which particularly caught our attention. "The Inhuman Factor" at Falkenberg Museum, Falkenberg, Sweden If we're completely honest we have no idea where Falkenberg is. Or at least didn't. We've checked. It's a little bit south of Gothenburg. On
read more
Horribly denigrating as the term "Swedish Grace" unquestionably sounds, it is a well meant phrase coined to refer to the classicist art and design movement that developed in Sweden in the 1920s and 30s: a movement which served as a bridge between the Art Nouveau-esque national romanticism of the early 20th century and the approaching functionalism, and which thus in many respects paved the way for the Scandinavian interpretation of international modernism as so magnificently presented at the
read more
Obviously defining a "Best of" Dutch Design Week, or indeed any design week, is impossible, one can only hope to attempt to collate your personal highlights and thus provide an impression of how you experienced the event: which is exactly what DAD Galerie Berlin are currently doing with a presentation of some their highlights. Our highlight of their highlights is without question the new hanging lamp by Floris Wubben. When we spoke to Floris at his solo Low Tech Crafts exhibition at DAD
read more
In our post from the exhibition Schrill Bizarr Brachial. Das Neue Deutsche Design der 80er Jahre at the Bröhan Museum Berlin we noted that, for us at least, the greatest legacy of the 1980s post-modern neuen deutschen Design movement is and was the number of protagonists who have subsequently found teaching positions in Germany's leading design schools; protagonists such as Wolfgang Laubersheimer who since 1991 has been Professor of Production Technology at, and since 2013 Director of, the Köln
read more
Ever since supermarkets started filling their shelves with Christmas foodstuffs in September, view-on-demand has allowed us to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" when we choose rather than when the schedulers dictate and global warming robbed Europe of all its snow, it has become increasingly difficult to judge just when Christmas is due. Is it next week? Or do I have time before I start panicking about buying presents? Is that man dressed as Santa celebrating Halloween? Or is not a man dressed as
read more
The inclusion of a sheet steel bookend amongst our photos from the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts exhibition “Art Déco: Smart, Precious, Sensual” resulted in one or the other queried look in our direction, enquiries after our health and even questions as to if all our other photos were so unusable that, in our desperation, we had been reduced to using a shot of a piece of understatedly painted bent sheet steel. No, no we replied, all was good. As were the rest of our photos. That bookend
read more
The history of furniture design has an unignorable, if subtle and background, Hungarian accent; Marcel Breuer was one of the driving forces at Bauhaus and through his work with steel tubing, moulded plywood and sheet steel he helped advance ideas of contemporary furniture design, and continues to inspire; Paul László was one of the genuine pioneers of American industrial design and contributed to George Nelson's first Hermann Miller collection in 1948; and while Ernő Goldfinger may be best
read more
The WA 24 table lamp by Wilhelm Wagenfeld is without question one of the most instantly recognisable pieces of Bauhaus design, so much so that it is often referred to as simply "the Bauhaus Lamp". Designed by Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1923 the WA 24 was quickly followed by a series of variations on the theme, yet all maintaining the same pared-down grace and uncomplicated functional elegance of the original. Characteristics which can just as easily be applied to Bauhaus itself as to Wagenfeld's
read more
Established in Brussels in 2011 by the French born, Belgian based craftsmen Jean Angelats and Jonathan Renou, Ateliers J&J released their inaugural collection in 2013. Presenting a range of domestic furnishing items crafted from bent tubular steel and solid wood Ateliers J&J's Collection 01 did nothing particularly innovative - and did it with a self-assured grace and composure that raised it far above the average and reminded us all just how enriching honestly conceived, well-proportioned,
read more
As many of our regular readers will be aware, we don't like food design. We would say "we can't stomach it", however, that would draw more attention to the subject than it could ever deserve. We're particularly wary of Spanish food design, and the connections that invariably raises to some of the most senseless, egoistic and narcissistic episodes in the recent history of cuisine. Even writing that sentence brings us out in a rage. That said, we've long sought a chance to view the exhibition
read more
If we're completely honest, until now the only piece of wickerwork about which we have ever gotten truly excited is The Wicker Man in Robin Hardy's eponymous 1973 film. All other wickerwork leaving us somehow cold. Almost as cold as the heart of Lord Summerisle. That however was until we saw Diana Stegmann's woven baskets presented as part of the Modern Crafts Talents section at Tendence Frankfurt 2015. Yes with their protruding stalks and unfamiliar forms Diana Stegmann's woven baskets are
read more
Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Pepe Heykoop first reached an international audience when his flexible chair project, A Restless Chairacter, won the D3 award at IMM Cologne 2009, since then Pepe has gone on to achieve critical acclaim with projects such as the Chaos Chandelier, the Brick Series and the Skin Collection. And through his work for the Tiny Miracles Foundation. Established in 2010 by Pepe's cousin Laurien Meuter, the Tiny Miracles Foundation works with an impoverished inner-city
read more
As we noted in our post on the 2015 Garden Unique Youngstars competition winner "snak" by Gunnar Søren Petersen, the contemporary outdoor furniture market is largely a forgotten world as far as quality design is concerned. But, and as we also noted, it needn't be. The 2015 edition of the Garden Unique Youngstars competition staged as part of the spoga+gafa garden fair in Cologne presented 15 projects by young designers which showed that "design for outdoors" is no contradiction. We're not
read more
In 1960 Enzo Mari designed "16 Animali" for Italian manufacturer Danese. Comprising 16 wooden animal shapes "16 Animali" is simultaneously a child's jigsaw and 16 individual wooden toys to be played with and thrown about as wished. In 2014 with his son's second birthday approaching Prague based industrial designer Jakub Gurecký faced the question of what to give him? Yes, he could buy something, but surely as a qualified and experienced industrial designer he could also create something? But
read more
It is a fact, if not a universally known fact, that the New York Museum of Modern Art's 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition included a category “Furniture for Outdoor Living”. While much of what that now legendary competition instigated remains as relevant and contemporary as ever, the design of outdoor furniture has, regrettably, fallen somewhat by the wayside. A state of affairs ably demonstrated at the catchy titled "spoga+gafa garden fair 2015" in Cologne. Featuring hall
read more
As we noted in our recent review of contemporary creativity in Berlin, the creative landscape in the German capital is not just an eclectic composition of genres and philosophies but for all of nationalities: in addition to a, relatively, low number of native Berliner the Berlin creative community is characterised by a goodly mix of German and international creatives. International creatives such as the Danish architect Sigurd Larsen. Following completion of his studies at the Royal Academy of
read more
On the evening of Thursday June 9th Bauhaus University Weimar formally opened the 2015 edition of their annual Summaery end of year exhibition; thus, and equally formally, launching our 2015 summer tour of student showcases. For all in or near Weimar this weekend, Summaery 2015 runs at the Bauhaus University Weimar, and at locations throughout the town, until 6pm on Sunday July 12th, full details can be found at www.uni-weimar.de/summaery, and here three design projects which particularly
read more
In our recent post "Blurred Lines or What if Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke designed furniture?" we took a stroll along the very fine border between being inspired by a piece of furniture design and plagiarising a piece of furniture design. One of the most popular sources for both inspiration and plagiarism is Charles and Ray Eames: for inspiration because of the many ground breaking designs, processes and theories the pair developed over the decades, for plagiarism because of the
read more
Much as we adore our pets they can be troublesome. Be it the cat the refuses to move from your bed, the dog that chews your shoes, pillows, newspapers et al, or the sweary parrot embarrassing us at every (inopportune) moment. If only we could distract them. Maybe we should treat them better? Or at least treat them to better possessions, to objects that meet a standard of functionality and design quality that we demand from our objects. We’re not averse to claiming our pets are family members,
read more
As we believe we've said before, and assume we will repeat in the future, contemporary Dutch design is largely, though not exclusively, about the research, and the subsequent processes invariably developed. If it leads to a product, that's good. But it needn't. That it however often does can be experienced in the exhibition Contemporary Creation Processes in Design on show at DAD Galerie Berlin. Curated by Berlin based, Eindhoven graduate Ruben der Kinderen Contemporary Creation Processes in
read more
On Thursday June 11th the 2015 DMY International Design Festival opens its doors to the public, and Berlin will once again be the focus of the global design community. But is Berlin the creative city many assume it to be? Beats the creative heart genuinely with a different rhythm, and with more fervour, on the banks of the Spree than elsewhere? Or is "Berlin Design" just a nice bit of location marketing behind which stands little more than non-stop parties and endless cheap lifestyle
read more
On March 10th 2015 a jury at the Central District Court of California in Los Angeles concluded that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke had relied a little too heavily on Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" when composing their track "Blurred Lines". For infringement of Gaye's copyright the court ordered Williams and Thicke to pay Marvin Gaye's estate $7.4 million dollars. Responding to the judgement Pharrell Williams mused in the Financial Times that "the verdict handicaps any creator
read more
"The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler", confided the American author, ecologist and conservationist Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book "A Sand County Almanac", "The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa." The following five new design and architecture exhibitions are our prothonotary warblers: proving as they, hopefully, do that abstract ideas
read more
"Rare is the human backside that hasn't found solace and support in Mr. Day's most famous creation", thus, with just a touch of music hall sauciness, begins Bruce Weber his obituary to the British designer Robin Day in the New York Times from November 20th 2010, before continuing, "a molded polypropylene shell fastened to an enameled bent tubular steel base that has become familiar seating in schools, churches, offices, auditoriums, home patios, kitchens, dens, bedrooms and basements around the
read more
