Part of our motivation for visiting Neue Räume Zurich 2011 was to try to gauge and get a feel for the current state of the designer furniture industry in Switzerland. Hidden as it is behind its Alpine shroud, it's all to easy to assume everything is always rosy in Confoederatio Helvetica, and that it's furniture designers and producers have little to do all day but count their cash and try to avoid losing their fillings to chewy, pointy, chocolate. However as the Swiss Franc rose skyward like
read moreVery occasionally we see something that makes us stop in our tracks. At Neue Räume Zurich that something was the Milanese producer Plinio il Giovane. We know we moan a lot about Italy's over-rated position at the top of Mount Design. But just as they seem to have an unending reserve of corrupt politicians, so do they also seem able to produce quality designer furniture producers out of thin air. Handmade from oak the Plinio il Giovane collection not only looks fantastic; but many of the
read moreThe final stage of our 2011 autumn tour took us to Neue Räume Zurich, Switzerland's largest designer furniture trade fair. And quite possibly Switzerland's most bemuddled designer furniture trade fair. We do appreciate that the organisers are trying to make Neue Räume all things to all men, and offer a wide range of products, producers and design directions. And we really liked what the organisers were trying to do. But somehow squeezing so much into such a relatively small space just
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