According to Germanic folklore: A wet February brings a fruitful year. And that, we'd argue, not only in terms of vegetation, but also in terms of your individual personal development: a wet February meaning more time spent in museums and thus an enhanced opportunity to engage in meaningful and relevant and motivating discourses and discussions. An ideal environment in which to allow your appreciations of and positions to the world around you to optimally develop, swell, ripen and nourish. So
read moreWithin any regular pentagon one can locate, in numerous, manifold, relationships, the Golden Ratio, that centuries old guarantor of harmony, balance, beauty.... And within an irregular Pentagon? With the exhibition Design Gruppe Pentagon the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne search for an answer in context of the 1980s Rheinland design quintet....... Design Gruppe Pentagon, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne Established, more or less, formally in Cologne in 1985 by Gerd Arens, Wolfgang
read moreOff late, and certainly in a European context, January has become a month of forgoing, eschewing and general abstention, with campaigns such as Dry January and Veganuary extolling us to utilise our guilt at our dangerous, decadent, gluttony of late December as an impetus to radically alter our behaviour, as a catalyst for reduction. And while less is unquestionably more, and thus worth striving for, fundamental change is invariably more sustainably and meaningfully achieved through better
read moreWith a new name, but a familiar format, the 2018 Kölner Design Preis once again celebrates the city's design students and creative colleges, including an exhibition of all nominated projects in the Cologne Museum für Angewandte Kunst. 1st Prize: Unfolding Space by Jakob Kilian (KISD), as seen at Kölner Design Preis/Toby E. Rodes Award 2018 Exhibition, MAKK Cologne Inaugurated in 2007 the Kölner Design Preis/Toby E. Rodes Award is a by-nomination award, every creative college in Cologne
read moreArguably because Passover/Easter is early this year, every, but every, museum is opening a major exhibition in the course of March 2018, in preparation for the unofficial start of the tourist season in April. A situation which leaves us with the daunting possibility of creating 5 such Top 5 lists. And still having some exhibitions left over. Faced with a similar situation back in November 2017 we referred to the abundance of options which lay before us as being akin to "gardens mottled with
read moreAlgorithms as dance, a tactile architecture guide and a future-proof flat sharing platform. On Thursday October 26th the winners of the 2017 Kölner Design Preis were unveiled at a ceremony in the city's Museum für Angewandte Kunst, MAKK; and where until Sunday November 19th the three winning, and all nominated, projects, can be viewed in a specially conceived Kölner Design Preis 2017 exhibition. Kölner Design Preis 2017 exhibition at Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, MAKK Celebrating its
read moreWhen we first viewed the exhibition Full House: Design by Stefan Diez at The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, it was was still being assembled. Objects were missing, set-ups not in their final composition, lights not yet properly positioned. As such we didn't get to form an opinion on the final, complete, intended exhibition. Did however mange to take some truly awful photos. Fortunately we have now had a second chance to view the exhibition. And it is every bit as good as we assumed it
read moreWith the exhibition Full House: Design by Stefan Diez the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, MAKK, present the first museal overview of the canon of the German designer Stefan Diez. And an exhibition which in many respects also helps explain industrial design. Or at least the contemporary industrial design process. Yard by Stefan Diez for emu, as seen at FULL HOUSE: Design by Stefan Diez, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne Full House: Design by Stefan Diez Born in 1971 into a
read moreOur pick of the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in January 2017, with showcases in Cologne, New York, Rotterdam, Atlanta and Helsinki. 5 New Design Exhibitions for January 2017 Offering as it does the perfect opportunity for reflection on what has been, and the chance to quietly place hope in what may yet come, January is in many respects the perfect month for visiting an architecture or design exhibition: the very best presenting as they do just such a mix, and thus
read moreRadio is without question the most universal and democratic of all media, in many ways we are all raised on radio. Who doesn't remember lying in bed with your covers pulled up over your head? Radio playin' so no one can see. And when things haven't gone so well have we not all sat alone and watched its light, our only friend through teenage nights. Over the years, and regardless of at which station on life's highway we've found ourselves, radio has always been there for us, made us laugh, made
read moreWe know. We know. It's January. Everyone just wants to sit at home feeling poor, fat and unloved....... Much more productive, and rewarding, would be a visit to an architecture and design exhibition, here five new exhibitions opening in January 2016 which particularly caught our attention. "The Inhuman Factor" at Falkenberg Museum, Falkenberg, Sweden If we're completely honest we have no idea where Falkenberg is. Or at least didn't. We've checked. It's a little bit south of Gothenburg. On
read moreThe history of civilisation is in many respects a history of man understanding natural systems, for example, the inner workings of the human body, the principles of evolution or the nature of the solar system. Each understanding bringing us further forward and opening new possibilities. Similarly the history of industry and economics is the history of man developing systems. Back in 1895 William Painter, head of the Crown Cork & Seal company gave King Camp Gillette the advice that if he
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