At Orgatec Cologne 2016 Vitra staged, in effect, their own trade fair, renting an entire hall and inviting family and friends along to share the space and their ideas on the future of work. And obviously had a lot of fun and/or success with the concept. For at Orgatec Cologne 2018 they once again staged the Vitra Fair....... Work Vitra - Work, Orgatec Cologne 2018 Back in our post from the Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot's exhibition Ron Arad: Yes to the Uncommon! we hinted that if Vitra
read more
Whether 'tis nobler in the muscles to suffer The slings and arrows of short telomeres, Or to rise up against a sea of troubles, And by standing, extend them? In addition to articles on the wonders of handmade Swedish butter, the problems of supermarket etiquette and ill thought through editorials on the Scottish referendum, the English newspaper "The Guardian" occasionally publishes readable articles, one such being Dr Luisa Dillner's recent "Is sitting down bad for my health?" Citing
read moreIMM Cologne kept us busy into February, but the month also saw the opening of an Eileen Gray retrospective in Paris, a visit to the Louis Kahn exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum and the sad passing of James Irvine....
read moreIn our Orgatec interview with Vitra CDO Eckart Maise we talked about the office system as the central component of the Vitra office furniture philosophy. One designer who has done more than most to establish Vitra's reputation in the office furniture sector is without question Antonio Citterio. Since his first collaborations with the company in the late 1980s Antonio Citterio has worked with Vitra on numerous key projects including the Ad Hoc system, the AC and ID office chair systems and most
read more
Tilbage i februar fejrede VitraHaus i Weil am Rhein sin første fødselsdag. Vi talte med Vitras chefdesigner Eckart Maise om VitraHaus og om planerne for fremtiden. (smow)blog: VitraHaus er nu ét år gammelt, er du tilfreds med det første år? Eckart Maise: Ja, VitraHaus har været en stor succes og 'resonansen' har været meget positiv, både med hensyn til antallet af besøgende samt den feedback vi har fået. Eksempelvis er besøgstallene for 'Vitra Campus' nu tredoblet i forhold til tiden før
read more
Back in February the VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein celebrated its first birthday. But was it all worth it? To find out more we spoke to Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise about one year VitraHaus and the plans for the future. (smow)blog: The VitraHaus is now one year old, are you satisfied with the first year? Eckart Maise: Yes, the VitraHaus has been a huge success and the resonance has been very positive both in respect of the number of visitors as well as the feedback. The Vitra Campus
read more
At the 2011 Milan Furniture Fair Vitra are presenting a range of new products from designers including Konstantin Grcic, Antonio Citterio and Barber & Osgerby. Ahead of the official launch we caught up with Vitra Chief Design Officer Eckart Maise to discuss the new products and the Vitra Home Collection in general. (smow): Herr Maise, before we discuss the new products, and maybe as a little helpful background. How does a company like Vitra develop a collection? Do you go to a designer and
read more
Although the public face of Vitra is unquestionably their "Home Collection", for decades the backbone of the company has been their office furniture division. Consequently a central feature of Vitra's daily work involves developing new approaches to office design and attempting to predict what will be important for office workers in the coming years. In 1991 Vitra commissioned the designers Michele de Lucchi, Ettore Sottsass and Andrea Branzi to develop some plans for future office design.
read more
One of the real joys of spring is that two of our favourite worlds nearly, but very nearly, collide - books (Leipzig Buchmesse) and designer furniture (Saloni Milano) On April 10th in Milan they will collide with the opening of the exhibition to the new Moleskine edition "Hand of the Designer". Containing 462 hand drawn sketches from 150 designers - including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius, Antonio Citterio or Alberto Meda - Hand of the Designer is intended as an intimate look
read more
To celebrate their 50th birthday the German furnishings magazine "Schöner Wohnen" have produced a small book entitled "Das Buch der Klassiker“ ("The book of classics") in which the magazine present their 400 furniture and accessory classics. And an exhibition of the selected items forms the basis of the Schöner Wohnen stand here in Cologne. Aside from familiar faces such as Vegetal by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec from Vitra or the Castore lamp by Huub Ubbens und Michele De Lucchi for
read more
Now that it is finally online we did want to write at great lengths about the AC4 by Antonio Citterio for Vitra. But you know what. We're not going to. On the one hand; we already have: Red Dot Winner 2009 54% Recyclede, 91% Recyclable Heirloom Design Net'n'Nest And on the other Vitra have produced such a delightful promo video: We're impressed - especially by the three zone lumbar support and the constant eyeline tipping system - and we genuinely don't say that about all office
read more
About a 100 years ago we mentioned Platform 21and their Repair Manifesto. Inspired by yesterdays rant against designers who find using PET bottles a suitable demonstration of how design can help save the planet, we revisited our previous post on Platform 21 and subsequently their Repair Manifesto And still love what they are doing. Especially the Repair Hub where you can exchange addresses of skilled craftsmen and women. If you should be in or near Amsterdam you can drop by and repair
read more
We've previously stated our quiet dissatisfaction with awards ceremonies and for all there omnipresence. But love 'em or loath 'em when they are good they are one of the best ways to help consumers separate the chaff from the rye - or at least from amongst those producers who pay the entrance fees.... One of the most renowned awards in Europe is the red dot Awards organised annually by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. And while the red dot Awards fulfill almost all the criteria that we
read more
Probably not - or at least not yet. However, during the NATO summit on 4 and 5th of April 2009 Barack Obama and the other heads of states and military present were treated to some of the high points of the smow designer furniture collection. During their working dinner in the Baden-Baden Kurhaus Obama and colleagues were supported in their discussions by Antonio Citterio's new chair for Vitra - Skape. With it's high backrest in high-grade leather and generous upholstery Skape is a
read more
The snow is back in Leipzig and so whereas the weekend was spent enjoying the warm spring air - the evenings are now being spent enjoying the warm living room and a good book. And so it's just as well we were recently at Leipzig book fair. Among the seemingly endless piles of new historical novels, travel guides - each, naturally, with the best insider tips - and Harry Potter wannabes there was also a few title that appealed to us. "Project Vitra" from Rolf Fehlbaum und Cornel Windlin for
read more
The dollop of cream atop the perfect office is a practical, aesthetic and user friendly trolley. In general an office trolley fulfills several roles: As a convenient depository for heavy folders or a pile of uncompleted jobs or occasionally as a bar trolley. smow currently offers five different trolleys, that in addition to providing work-based mobility can also be used as side tables and/or mobile bars: Gastone from Kartell (Design: Antonio Citterio & Oliver Löw) Gastone is an elegant
read more
