On the evening of Wednesday June 24th the winners of the 2015 aed neuland young designer competition were announced in a ceremony in Stuttgart. Organised by the design/architecture/engineering association aed Stuttgart, neuland is a biennial international competition open to students or recent graduates under the age of 28 and according to the organisers the 2015 competition attracted some 330 entries across the five categories. An exhibition featuring all 23 nominated and prize winning
read more
Erected in 1927 in context of the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition "Die Wohnung" the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart aimed to achieve "…. a reduction in house construction and running costs, in addition to a simplification of housework and a general improvement in living standards" But did it? Or is it just a collection of buildings by Max Taut, Hans Poelzig, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Mart Stam, Peter Behrens and their ilk? A chance for a close connected group of modernists to show off?
read more
"Colours have an important, positive, psychological effect", so explained Verner Panton the polychromatic nature of his Visiona 2 showcase. But not just psychological effects. Colours can also produce physical effects, can influence the way we perceive and understand objects. The decision to paint the exterior of the VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein anthracite, for example, was not a popular one with local residents and councillors; however, according to architects Herzog & de Meuron was a decision
read more
What with the sweet afterglow of Vienna Design Week behind us we entered October 2013 full of enthusiasm - not least because it meant the opening of the new (smow) Cologne store. The month nearly nose-dived on account of a hideous plagiarism in Leipzig, but was more than rescued by Alison and Peter Smithson at the AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne.......
read more
"How did the elephant get its trunk?" "How do you get concrete and mortar on to the upper floors of buildings? While you don't need to know the answer to the first question to answer the second: if the elephant didn't, the answer to the second would be a lot less convenient than the modern reality. The idea of using a trunk-esque system to transport concrete and mortar to higher floors was developed by the Stuttgart engineer Karl Schlecht in his 1957 diploma project at Stuttgart University.
read more
In our interview with the Stuttgart based designers Markus Jehs and Jürgen Laub one of the more interesting quotes is the pair's assertion that "...in Stuttgart people don’t talk so much about their success: an awful lot of creativity originates in Stuttgart but you don’t necessarily know that because no one talks about it." A quote which to be honest hasn't left us in peace since.... One organisation who do talk about creativity in Stuttgart, 20 times a year to be precise, is the Verein zur
read more
