As older readers will be aware, one of our all time favourite projects is, was and probably always will be the majestic Spore Vase by Paulo Sellmayer. Not just because as an object it teaches us so much about contemporary society and the absurdity of the perceived control we have over the natural world; but because through discovering and dissecting Spore Vase we learned and understood an awful lot about our job and our responsibilities. Since we saw Spore Vase in Smalle Haven in Eindhoven we
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Cohesion is a concept with which we are very familiar. Largely because it is a state we never achieve. Much like the geometry's asymptote never touches its associated curve, so to do our lives approach cohesion, without ever achieving such a condition. It remaining something tantalisingly ahead of us. Infinitely so. And so it was with a particular personal interest we viewed the new 2014 Dutch Invertuals' exhibition: Cohesion. As is traditional with Dutch Invertuals the participating
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One of the highlights for us of Dutch Design Week 2014 is and was the showcase of works by Eindhoven based studio Ontwerpduo a.k.a. Tineke Beunders and Nathan Wierink. For although in the past we have seen various Ontwerpduo projects individually, there is no real alternative to seeing a studio's collection together in order to build a more complete picture of the designers and their work. In addition to reunions with those Ontwerpduo products with which we were already familiar, including the
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The presentation of Dirk Vander Kooij's current collection during Dutch Design Week 2014 took place at Kazerne - the new star in Eindhoven's already well illuminated design sky. Established by designers/curators Annemoon Geurts and Koen Rijnbeek who used run the temporary Eat Drink Design "exhibition restaurant" during Dutch Design Week, Kazerne is their new permanent "exhibition restaurant". They obviously having tired of "popping up" once a year. Featuring a combination restaurant cum
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For us the passion, indeed interest, for living in a shared flat ended approximately 18 months before we moved out of our last shared flat. It ceased to be our thing. We needed our peace. We needed our space. We became anti-social. Some people however remain sociable. Even professionally. Some such as the design studios Daphna Laurens, Studio Mieke Meijer, OS ∆ OOS, Studio Maatwerk and Bogaerts Label who since summer 2014 have shared a space in the so-called TAB Building, somewhat inevitably a
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Back in the day when the CD was new and exciting we remember watching a breakfast TV host spread honey on one to demonstrate how indestructible they were. Other CDs were attacked with keys, dowsed in hot coffee and stood on. These days we all know much better. CDs are destructible. We've seen the light. And at Dutch Design Week 2014 you can can see the light a recycled CD emits. Or at least the luminescence produced by a mass of recycled CDs in the thoughtfully and intelligently formed
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Proving that Eindhoven is full of old factories, but that they are not necessarily all former Philips factories, Sectie C is a former industrial estate on the eastern edge of Eindhoven that has become home to a, seemingly, thriving community of creatives. Featuring a nice mix of creative genres and small businesses Sectie C's real charm is the way the tenants have colonised the available space just as vegetation does in derelict industrial estates: offices constructed under the rafters like
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It is very rare that one comes across an object where a manufacturer has combined two independently developed products into one. And even rarer that we like such an object. Our natural resistance reaction is to say, No. No. Not on our watch. Begone. We were however instantly taken with the so-called Blumenampel Edition by Zascho Petkow and Birgit Severin for Berlin based Atelier Haussmann. Possibly because initially we didn't know its provenance. That only became clear in conversation with
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In 1951 the German designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld created a glass punch bowl for Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, WMF: the clou of which is a glass tube which passes through the lid and down to the bottom of the bowl. The ideas being to fill this tube with ice, when the ice, inevitably, melts the resulting water remains separate from the punch, can be thrown away and replaced with fresh ice. Thus ensuring your punch remains chilled, and unadulterated, until the last drop. A revolution in its
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Despite what popular myth may have you believe, the Design Academy Eindhoven is not alone responsible for Eindhoven's current status as one of the most important design city's in Europe. But love it or loath it there is no getting away from the Design Academy's influence on the development of contemporary European design. And so of course on Eindhoven's current status as one of the most important design city's in Europe. Consequently the annual Design Academy Graduate Show is one of the
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In the history of (smow)blog only two designers have contacted us to comment on our comments. The first was Brooklyn based Jason Miller and the second was SintLucas student Vivienne van den Dungen. Writing about a stool she was exhibiting at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven we commented that : "Our one complaint would be that the current version doesn’t really seem to know what it is: the higher component being to short to be a back rest and to narrow to be used for holding, for example, a
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Eindhoven is Philips. Eindhoven used to be much more Philips; but in course of the inevitable restructuring of the last 20 years Philips have greatly reduced the number of buildings they need. Buildings which Eindhoven city council hope to turn into a "Creative City" In addition to office blocks occupied by architects, photographers or graphic designers, just about every Eindhoven based product designer you meet works in an "old Philips factory" And the principle Dutch Design Week
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We first saw Spore Vase by Paulo Sellmayer at Made out Portugal on Dutch Design Week Sunday, and it didn't leave us in peace the whole day. And so we went back on the Monday morning and spoke to Paulo. Born in Oberhausen, Germany Paul studied Industrial Design at ESAD in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal and is currently on an internship with Julien Carretero in Eindhoven, Holland. So just the sort of cosmopolitan pedigree we like. Spore vase is - in short - a vase in which fungi grow. A hole
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We must begin this post with a small confession. Something we were too scared to tell the good folks at Dutch Invertuals personally. We first came across the Dutch Invertuals design collective @ Milan 2009. Where we walked out of their show after 36 seconds. It was our fault. We were tired, hungry and on our way to the opening of a Belgian product design showcase. We shouldn't have gone. It was the wrong moment on the wrong day for experimental Dutch design. We spent a little longer at
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The good news for Rui Alves is that he remains our favourite Portuguese furniture designer..... ..... but the competition is out there. Made Out Portugal is a show from 6 young Portuguese designers who all live, work and study in Holland. During our conversation with some of the participants it turned out that the Portuguese government offers it's design students extremely generous grants to go and study overseas. Which of course they all then do. As a consequence a network of Portuguese
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Manno! We've only just got here and now we've got to go! Despite the number of shows, products and designers we've seen, tested and talked to - we can't shake the feeling that we've only scraped the surface of what can be found in Eindhoven. Which if we're honest isn't a negative feeling - because it implies that the Dutch Design Week is a very healthy event. And makes us all the keener to return next year! But for now its a train journey to Cologne, Orgatec and contemporary office
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Under the title YP - Young Professionals SintLucas College of Applied Design is running four shows at the 2010 Dutch Design Week. Two of them in Pennings Inside, even if we say so ourselves a very agreeable designer furniture store on the edge of Eindhoven city centre. YP (Young Professionals) - Out of the box, is a collection of stools from fourth year students made using differing materials. So a standard student project exhibition. As such the exhibition is full of the sort of fanciful
read moreThere are some design blogs who simply retype press releases, resize press photos and abracadabra - a blog post. Our standards are a little higher. Which is why we visit design fairs, design weeks, design competitions and design exhibitions. Because only by talking to designers, talking to producers and by actually testing the products can you decide if the PR hype is justified. The minus is of course that design fairs being the new film festivals - our schedule is an absolute nightmare.
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