At Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023 we came to conclusion that furniture trade fairs aren't for the likes of us. They're not staged for the likes of us. And also aren't our thing. We're back in Stockholm for Stockholm Furniture Fair 2025. Why? As we left for Stockholm we were unsure ourselves. But if felt right, felt what we should be doing. And now we're here. And is it right? Is it what we should be doing? Is it what anybody should be doing? In the coming days and weeks we will bring you
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In his 1973 article Mis on disain?, What is design? for the magazine Pioneer, the official organ of the Pioneer Organization of the Estonian SSR, Bruno Tomberg opined that “Kõikjal - kodus, koolis, tööl - oleme ümbritsetud esemetest, mis moodustavad meie keskkonna”1, ‘everywhere - at home, at school, at work - we are surrounded by objects that form our environment’, continuing, ‘the environment, however, must satisfy our diverse and very different needs. Almost all of these objects, from
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"Ich habe mit der Designwelt ja eigentlich nicht zu tun", opined once Luigi Colani, 'I have nothing to do with the design world', continuing that, 'I would locate what I do very close to the philosophy of form'.1 With Luigi Colani – Shapes of the Future, Marta Herford allow one to not only approach a better appreciation of Luigi Colani's formal philosophy, but in doing so to both question Colani's relationships with a design world he rejected, and that regularly rejected him, and to question
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In Fortnight, a tale of the solitary suffering of impossible love, a tale involving some truly unnecessary violent fantasies that don't seem to fit easily with friendship bracelets, glitter and rainbows, Taylor Swift laments, "All my mornings are Mondays, stuck in an endless February". If only that February were February 2025 Taylor!!! For then the wealth of new architecture and design exhibitions opening would not only lift your spirits, but through the stimulation and exploration thereby
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Among the myriad advantages of global industry that are also problems of global industry is, inarguably, that of centralised production with subsequent international distribution. And that of a popular unquestioning, unthinking, blithe acceptance of the products of global industry. Problems Essen based platform Verlag der Dinge allow one to better approach and challenge. Problems Essen based platform Verlag der Dinge approach and challenge. Established in 2021 by Maximilian Clauß, an
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For all that interior design is often popularly considered as being about buying ever new things to place in a space, a popular appreciation of interior design many exhibitors at Passagen Interior Design Week Cologne appear determined to reinforce and encourage all to believe as an absolute truth, a lot of interior design is actually about creating custom solutions. And always was: as a concept, as a profession, interior design arises from the craft of the decorator, an individual who united
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Cologne's Design Post is, arguably, one those institution's that would have been shocked at the previously discussed cancellation of IMM Cologne 2025. Sited, one feels very deliberately, across the road from the Cologne trade fair complex, as a permanent showroom space for more design orientated furniture and lighting publishing houses, if one so will, a shop for contract customers, a B2B shop, Design Post exists during IMM and Orgatec as an unofficial exhibition hall, not only hosting those
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As all familiar with the annual cycle of the European furniture industry know, the first half of January is IMM Cologne, one of Europe's largest furniture trade fairs. It's an established, and inalienable, fact. January ≣ IMM Cologne There is no IMM Cologne in January 2025. News that came as a bit of a shock. Not least to a Cologne hotel industry that has long laboured under the impression that its rooms were a lot, lot, lot, more expensive to maintain and run in the first two weeks of
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"Man schnitzte das Holz nicht mehr, man spann nicht mehr, man webte nicht mehr die gute Leinwand wie früher"1, 'No-one carved wood, no-one spun, no-one wove the good linen as before', lamented Henry van de Velde in 1898 the English society of the second half of the 19th century that stood proxy for large parts of Europe as industrialisation became the established norm in ever more arenas, continuing, 'the machine, which turns imbecilically around itself and moves thanks to the pestilential
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In 2025 we will all be seduced by the elegant chocolate vibes of the Pantone Color of the Year "Mocha Mousse", a hue that, according to the Pantone Institute, stands for pure "mindful enjoyment". And the best news: as it is an interior trend and not a dessert, we can all snack on it to our heart's desire... And not only on that. The smow interior design experts have reflected on the coming year and on what else we can expect this year and which design classics, presented in a contemporary
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In the fickle and vainglorious world of cinema January is a so-called Dump Month, a month when all those films studios have lost faith in get released en mass without publicity in the hope that no-one will see them. Far less remember them. Which is not only extremely arrogant, a belief that just because you don't appreciate something no-one else will, but an outrageously decadent waste of a month when, certainly in the northern hemisphere, most people are looking for spaces in which to not
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In his ca. 75 CE work The Life of Theseus, the Greek biographer, historian and Delphi priest Plutarch notes that the ship with which Theseus returned to Attica having slain the Minotaur in its labyrinth on Crete, "was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place", meaning that over time the ship of Theseus "became a standing example among the philosophers, for the
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Nadja Schulze once opined that "Licht ist die tollste aller Sprachen", 'light is the greatest of all languages', and the light her lamps LiLa and Bow spoke at Grassimesse 2024 so enamoured the Grassimesse Jury they awarded Nadja the 2024 Grassimesse smow-Designpreis....... Grassimesse smow-Designpreis 2024 winner Nadja Schulze (photo courtesy Nadja Schulze) Born and raised in Leipzig, Nadja Schulze completed her Bachelor in Innenarchitektur at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle in the
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Until the introduction of the Julian calender in 45 BCE December had but 29 days, meaning two less days to explore, challenge and enjoy architecture and design exhibitions. Imagine! How horrible!! We don't say it often, but Thank You Julius Caesar!!!" Our locations for taking advantage of all 31 glorious days of December 2024 can be found in Herford, Philadelphia, Bratislava, Berlin and Caesar's native Rome....... "Luigi Colani – Shapes of the Future" at Marta Herford, Germany While never
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There is an old saying that whoever has visions should consult a doctor.1 With Building Worlds. Visionary Architecture in the 20th Century the Archiv der Avantgarden – Egidio Marzona, Dresden, employ the visions of 20th century architecture as the basis for a probing examination of both the built environment and the condition of contemporary architecture....... Building Worlds. Visionary Architecture in the 20th Century, Archiv der Avantgarden - Egidio Marzona, Dresden Formally opened in
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Very much in keeping with Zagreb Design Week 2024's theme Breaking the Glass Ceiling Instituto Cervantes, Prague, used the occasion of Designblok Prague 2024 to open Diseñadoras. (Re)diseñando el mundo, a showcase introducing and discussing the work, positions, approaches of 12 contemporary Spanish diseñadoras, female designers, that is and was also an exploration of questions on and of contemporary design....... Diseñadoras. (Re)diseñando el mundo, Instituto Cervantes, Prague Or perhaps
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Much as design is a child of the late 19th/early 20th century so to is childhood, or perhaps more accurately so to is childhood as it is understood today. With the exhibtion Design for Children the Bröhan Museum, Berlin, explore the relationships between design, children and childhood over the century and a bit of their co-existence....... Design for Children, Bröhan Museum, Berlin For all that childhood is an unavoidable phase of every human life, over a great many centuries its was,
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In the exhibition al dente: Pasta & Design the HfG-Archiv, Ulm, explore, discuss and approach pasta in its myriad incarnations across a variety of cultural and creative contexts. But not in context of music. As so oft, that task falls to Radio smow....... The (hi)story of pasta is not only lost in the mists of time, but as with all that is similarly lost in those mists, much of that which is presented as fact is more probably myth and legend. And in the case of Marco Polo's place in that
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X-Base Chair An xpression; An xpansion; An xposition Whereas the English word 'furniture' has its origins in the middle French verb 'fournir', to furnish, the French 'meuble' and German 'Möbel' have their origins in the Latin 'mobile': capable of being moved. Much as with the so-called Curule Chair, one of the earliest known manufactured seating objects, a seating object so-called because the legs generally 'curuled', a seating object of the distant past that was as much a symbol of power as
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As the, then, still plain Walter Scott, so nearly opined in 1806: "November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear: Late, gazing down the steepy linn That hems our little garden in, I thought, what an excellent month to visit an architecture or design exhibition."1 Our five retreats from the chill and drear of November 2024 can be found in Chemnitz, Brussels, Winterthur, Krefeld and New York....... "Reform of Life" at the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz, Chemnitz, Germany
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Grassimesse Leipzig 2024 Compact: Aleksander Rasztawicki - Leichtigkeit 'Do we still need wood, metal and plastic?' asks Hochschule Wismar graduate Aleksander Rasztawicki in context of his Diploma project Leichtigkeit, Lightness. A rhetorical question for Aleksander doesn't believe that we necessarily do. For Aleksander all we need is paper. Or more accurately all we need is vulcanised fibre, a material first patented in 1859 that is produced from cotton via a process which, in many
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Budapest Design Week 2024 Compact: Alfréd by Szebedy Vajk When we first approached Alfréd by University of Óbuda student Szebedy Vajk at 360 Design during Budapest Design Week 2024 we interpreted it as an abstracted giraffe. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an animal had served as the basis for a piece of furniture design. Indeed shortly after meeting Alfréd we met the giraffe-esque library ladder 3½ by vondingen at Grassimesse Leipzig. Others would at this point speak of a t****
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Grassimesse Leipzig 2024 Compact: vondingen As discussed with Grassimesse Project Manager Sabine Epple, in order to stage Grassimesse during Covid it was necessary to place exhibitors in the permanent exhibtion spaces by way of guaranteeing the legally required distancing. A concept that exhibitors and visitors very much took to and which thus has continued post social distancing reality, and that very much not only to the agreement of exhibitors and visitors but to the benefit of the
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Grassimesse Leipzig 2024 Compact: Faculty of Angewandte Kunst Schneeberg - Me and My Chair The exhibition A Chair and You at the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig, may have ended but its traces can still be felt at Grassimesse 2024, being staged as it is to a large degree in the A Chair and You scenography. Or more accurately the A Chair and You colour and atmosphere scheme, the more extreme elements of Robert Wilson's scenography having been removed. And the soundtrack in the
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