Among the more interesting and entertaining texts we didn't publish from IMM Cologne 2015 was our post on the showcase "The Journey of Things" featuring works by 6 Berlin and 2 London based designers. It would have been a great text. Had it been published. That it wasn't is one of those mysteries which only those with an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the smow blog can understand. Fortunately for us, and indeed all in or near Berlin in the coming weeks, until October 31st works
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In our recent review of contemporary Berlin creativity we noted that one of the problems increasingly being faced by Berlin is that of holding on to the ever increasing number of graduates from the city's many design institutions. Thus it seemed apposite to talk to a recent Berlin design graduate about the reality of life as a recent Berlin design graduate. A recent Berlin design graduate such as Gunnar Søren Petersen. Born and raised in Bonn Gunnar Søren Petersen studied Industrial Design
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As old Mother Goose, allegedly, once claimed: Thirty days hath September, and the following five enticing new design and architecture exhibitions which are probably well worth checking out if you get the chance....... "Piet Mondrian. The Line" at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Just as those architects who were to lead the move to modernism in the first decades of the 20th century generally began working in more classic styles before being seduced by the reduced charm of modernism,
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As we noted in our recent review of contemporary creativity in Berlin, the creative landscape in the German capital is not just an eclectic composition of genres and philosophies but for all of nationalities: in addition to a, relatively, low number of native Berliner the Berlin creative community is characterised by a goodly mix of German and international creatives. International creatives such as the Danish architect Sigurd Larsen. Following completion of his studies at the Royal Academy of
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The so-called "Teepott" on the promenade at Warnemünde on Germany's Baltic See coast is a rare and precious construction. Not only because of the way it starkly contrasts with the 19th century lighthouse next to it, nor on account of the delightful way it sweeps and flows in harmony with the dunes and water behind it, nor because it reminds of work by Eero Saarinen, Pier Luigi Nervi or Félix Candela, yet is geographically far removed from such. But much more because it is a work by the German
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It is probably fair to say that over the years and decades the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK Berlin, has produced the majority of the more interesting and important Berlin designers. Whereas historically that was largely on account of the lack of alternatives; today the school has responded to the increasing competition by employing good sensible teaching staff who set the students good sensible semester projects and also give them the freedom to develop their own individual projects as
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"Fancy a cup of tea?" "Oh, yes please! Thank you!" "OK, I'll put the kettle on" "Troglodyte" Boiling water for tea is a process as old as, well...... the drinking of hot tea. And a process that has remained largely unchanged since. When change has come it has invariably been influenced by technology: kettles over open fires, kettles on stoves, electric kettles. But always involving a kettle. (Accepting that is that the samovar is a "kettle".......and even if you don't, the samovar has
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There is little in this world that brings us more pleasure than a good modular shelving system. We know that sentence speaks volumes about the state of our alleged "lives", but we're not embarrassed to admit it. We like shelves. Consequently, given that it appears that everybody but everybody is developing a modular shelving system and that as a result you currently can't visit a furniture fair or design event without stumbling every few metres across another new system, these would appear
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Customs are a form of social regulation. Love them or loath them customs allow us to form connections, to find a sense of stability and order, to differentiate ourselves from others, align ourselves with others, and not least enjoy regular festivities and parties as customs are celebrated and/or enacted. Customs are therefore inherently good. Unless it is the sort of Customs which sit at the border between two counties and stop a young Swiss ceramicist displaying their work at an
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The first thing any carpentry apprentice does is build their own wooden toolbox. It makes sense. You're learning to work with wood, you will need somewhere to keep all your chisels and saws. So you build a toolbox. The first thing anyone wanting to chop logs does is make their own wooden axe head ? Or perhaps better put ?????????????????? But why couldn't it be the case, for as HFBK Hamburg student Bastian Austermann demonstrates with his Splitting Wood project, such is eminently
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Much as we adore our pets they can be troublesome. Be it the cat the refuses to move from your bed, the dog that chews your shoes, pillows, newspapers et al, or the sweary parrot embarrassing us at every (inopportune) moment. If only we could distract them. Maybe we should treat them better? Or at least treat them to better possessions, to objects that meet a standard of functionality and design quality that we demand from our objects. We’re not averse to claiming our pets are family members,
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As we have often noted in these pages, a combination of increasing automation, advancing technology, the changing nature of industry and commerce and the associated evolution of the term "office work" will increasingly enforce changes in office furniture design. And we're not being particularly clever or perceptive when we say such, its simply how the process works, how office furniture design has always progressed: be it the evolution of the office chair in the 19th century as ever more
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When making biscuits, after having cut out the required shapes you invariably have a lot of dough left over, dough you clump together, roll out again and use to make more biscuits. A process which can be repeated ad nauseam until all your dough is used. With leather you can't. Having cut the required shapes from your chosen piece of leather you are left with a lot of holes surrounded by a lot of waste leather. It is therefore little surprise that the furniture, fashion, automotive, luxury
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In context of DMY 2015 the Berlin/Beijing based cultural exchange association Migrant Birds are presenting the exhibition Modern Fossils, a solo exhibition of works by the Beijing based artist and designer Song Tao. Migrant Birds present Modern Fossils by Song Tao Born in Shanghai in 1969 Song Tao initially graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1986 before moving to France to complete a Masters degree in Plastic Arts at the Université Paris 1. Although Song Tao’s
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As we believe we've said before, and assume we will repeat in the future, contemporary Dutch design is largely, though not exclusively, about the research, and the subsequent processes invariably developed. If it leads to a product, that's good. But it needn't. That it however often does can be experienced in the exhibition Contemporary Creation Processes in Design on show at DAD Galerie Berlin. Curated by Berlin based, Eindhoven graduate Ruben der Kinderen Contemporary Creation Processes in
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On Thursday June 11th the 2015 DMY International Design Festival opens its doors to the public, and Berlin will once again be the focus of the global design community. But is Berlin the creative city many assume it to be? Beats the creative heart genuinely with a different rhythm, and with more fervour, on the banks of the Spree than elsewhere? Or is "Berlin Design" just a nice bit of location marketing behind which stands little more than non-stop parties and endless cheap lifestyle
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As previously reported, the company DMY Berlin GmbH & Co. KG, who for the past decade or so has run the annual DMY Berlin design festival, filed for insolvency in October 2014: the festival itself however continues under the auspices of a new organiser, about:design. “DMY is dead. Long live DMY”, as it were. The 2015 edition of DMY opens for professional, specialist, visitors at 10am on Thursday June 11th, at 6pm that evening to the general public, and runs until Sunday June 14th. Ahead of
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Given that Bauhaus is often perceived as having been an incubator for the creative talents of the 1920s, it is perhaps fitting that windows salvaged from Bauhaus Dessau should have been upcycled into a greenhouse for the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin. Or at least into a greenhouse-esque structure for the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin. Conceived, planned and realised by Berlin architectural practice zukunftsgeraeusche GbR together with the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin, Technischen Universität Berlin and Wagner
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How can the urban environment be improved with new housing? Which spatial constellations foster interaction? Which strategies reduce costs but still produce a high quality? How can we initiate a new era of house building? Such and similar questions are posed, and possible answers presented, in the exhibition URBAN LIVING - Strategies for the Future currently on show at the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ in Berlin. URBAN LIVING - Strategies for the Future at the Deutsches Architektur
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Shium is the many ways the Korean antipode to our modern world: Shium is decelerate, rest, relax, pause, reflect, slow down. Refresh body and soul Shium is also the foundation on which the exhibition Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design is built, and following its première during Munich Creative Business Week 2015, Tools for A Break – Korean Crafts and Design is currently on show in Berlin. Tools for A Break - Korean Crafts and Design at Orangelab Berlin Fascinated by the diversity
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Floris Wubben is a rare and precious being. Floris Wubben is a contemporary Dutch designer who didn't study at Design Academy Eindhoven. When we ask him how such a situation can arise, why he didn't attend Eindhoven, he smiles and replies that we're not the first to ask him that, everybody it seems wants to know. An indication of just how rare and precious a being he is. Floris Wubben does of course have his atelier in Eindhoven. Anything else would be far too absurd, if not illegal, and
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When Italian designer/design theologian Enzo Mari released his Autoprogettazione family of self build furniture in 1974 he did so with the aim of challenging popular conventions on industrial furniture production, and for all the concept that price is related to quality; the real value of an object, according to Mari, being something more intrinsic, something that exists inherent within a piece of furniture and which comes from a purity of form. Commercial furniture production distorts this
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Following the necessary disruption of their permanent exhibition to accommodate the recently ended exhibition Sensing the Future: László Moholy-Nagy, die Medien und die Künste, the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin have taken the opportunity afforded to redesign their exhibition concept. And in doing so have allowed a very welcome fresh wind to blow through their museum. Bauhaus Archiv Berlin: Sammlung Bauhaus Presented under the title Sammlung Bauhaus - The Bauhaus Collection - the new permanent
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With ever more of our fellow train passengers displaying acute symptoms of over exposure to cheap Glühwein it can only mean that December is upon us. And the end of one the genuinely more enjoyable smow blog years. Indeed its fair to say 2014 was one of those years that makes you consider if its not time to hang up the old travelling socks and seek a more sedate, sedentary, existence. A fitting moment perhaps, but the correct decision? We've a couple of days to decide. And to accompany us
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