Ask most people to name a Danish furniture designer and they will probably reply Verner Panton or Arne Jacobsen. Ask them to name a Swedish furniture designer and the answer will probably have four letters - three of which are vowels. Flat pack furniture is in itself no bad thing, but it is a little bit sad when a country that has so much furniture design talent to offer, is represented in the public consciousness by a universal brand. Sweden are the partner country at this year's Vienna
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We didn't make it to SaloneSatellite at this years Milan furniture fair. We we're, somewhat ironically, to busy getting wound up at the fact that Milan is now so big and expensive it's all but impossible to find anything. Fortunately Thomas Geisler from the Vienna Design Week organising team doesn't let such things annoy him and did go to SaloneSatellite. Where he saw Antoinette Bader and her LacesLamp. With whom he spoke. Who then applied for a space on the Carte Blanche programme at
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For us the Wiener Palais Liechtenstein is a building with almost religious meaning. For it was, in many ways, the place where Michael Thonet got his first big break - and so the point from where the Thonet story starts to turn and to become a success story. Some have Mecca, others Bethlehem - and we have a 17th century garden residence in north Vienna. All of which speaks volumes for the quality of our social lives. For the Vienna Design Week, in contrast, the Liechtenstein Museum is the
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"What, another design week?!" While the rest of the (smow)HQ tried to work out which city we hadn't been to this year; we quietly packed our cameras for yes, another design week. And certainly design weeks are the new film festival - every self-respecting city has to have one. Which is fine by us. And this week it's Vienna Design Week. The 2010 Vienna Design Week programme features - in addition to the usual array of exhibitions - a series of workshops, installations and talks with and
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When most people get itchy feet they go the podiatrist. We go on tour. For attractive as late summer evenings here in Lower East Plagwitz Village undoubtedly are, they pale against the charms of Thonet in Frankenberg(Eder), CODE 10 in Copenhagen, Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and Vienna Design Week in ... Vienna. Reports, photos, videos - and cake reviews - to follow.
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