On the train down to Kortrijk and the 2016 Biennale Interieur we started drafting this introduction. The talk was of the 25th anniversary edition, the relevance of the event in context of the European furniture and design market - then and now - and the strength(s) of contemporary Belgian furniture design Then we saw that organisers were charging 50 cents to use the toilet. In a fair. Ctrl A. Ctrl X. It may "only" be 50 cents, but.... having charged visitors €22,00 to enter a fair. You
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Normally October is all about design festivals, October 2015 wasn't. On the one hand we weren't at that many this year, and on the other those we were at didn't impress us that much. What did impress us was the new collection by Ateliers J&J. Oh yes! In addition October 2015 saw us consider questions of housing provision at Wohnungsfrage at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, the oeuvre of Charles and Ray Eames at the Barbican Art Gallery in London and Art Nouveau at the Kunst und Gewerbe
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"I want to make the most simple furniture possible", so described Jean Angelats a.k.a Ateliers J&J his intentions in our recent interview. Intentions he more than underscores with the new objects in Ateliers J&J's 01 Evolution & 02 collections. Now we know there are cynics out there who will be of the opinion that given the acres of column space we've given Ateliers J&J of late it was always certain that we would like the new collection regardless of what it contained. OK. We understand
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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,
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These past few months we have made no effort to disguise the fact that one of our favourite discoveries of 2015 has been Brussels based Ateliers J&J. Ever since we saw the studio's work as part of the exhibition MAD ABOUT LIVING – 24 Designers from Brussels during Cologne Design Week we've been obsessing about the tubular steel and solid wood objects which formed their inaugural collection. And now Ateliers J&J are ready to launch their second collection: their challenging second album, as
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In the late 19th/early 20th century Vienna based J & J Kohn helped establish the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an important centre for contemporary furniture design, advanced the careers of leading Wiener Secession era designers such as Josef Hoffmann, Otto Prutscher or Adolf Loos, as well as helping lay the foundations for the commercial furniture industry as we know it today. And while we're not going to forecast such a grand future for Brussels based Ateliers J&J, or at least not yet, from
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If we're correctly informed, and let's be honest we're not always, 2014 saw the Belgian General Consulate in Cologne host their first Passagen Design Week exhibition with an excellent showcase of new and less new works by Atelier Bonk and Cas Moor. Buoyed by the success of that experience for Passagen 2015 the Consulate is hosting the exhibition MAD ABOUT LIVING - 24 Designers from Brussels. Organised by the Brussels regional creative promotion agency, MAD Brussels, and staged in the fire
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