Human society's fascination with leaving behind the limitations and fragilities and vagaries of the human being, and of the planet we all call home, is almost as old as human society, and is inextricably linked with developments in technology, science, engineering and human society's understandings of itself and its environments; amongst the earliest descriptions, for example, of flying to the moon being Francis Godwin’s 1638 book The Man in the Moone, an account of a journey, and of the beings
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Amongst the many developments that have influenced and informed the path of furniture and interior design in the past 120ish years one must, without question, count developments in context of colour. Whereas in previous centuries colours were limited in their availability, range and durability, recent decades have seen not only progress in that availability, range and durability, and as such ever more possibilities in our use of colour, but also seen increasing study of psychology and colour
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The popular (hi)story of furniture design is, no-one could argue, a very male (hi)story.1 Which doesn't mean that furniture design is a profession at which males excel more than females, a profession for which males have a natural affinity above and beyond that of females, that females' natural domains are textiles and colours; much more is because that popular (hi)story of furniture design contains flaws, biases, inaccuracies and under-illuminated corners. A great many of which can be traced
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"It's not possible to define a style in my work"1, opined once the Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti. With the exhibition Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe, the Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot don't contradict that opinion, but do provide for a framework for considerations on its validity...... Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe, Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot Born in Palazzolo dello Stella (Udine) on December 4th 1927 Gaetana "Gae" Aulenti studied architecture at the Politecnico
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The museums may be closed, travel restricted and leaving your home, when possible, unadvised..... but that's no reason to restrict your cultural uptake, far less neglect the development of your architecture and design understandings. Or put another way, if you can't get to the museum..... let the museum come to you. Five online architecture and design exhibitions and museum collections to explore from your sofa, bed, garden, balcony, wherever..... Vitra Design Museum - Collection Online In
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Birthday's are not only an occasion for celebration, but also for reflection on the year past, and on those milestone birthdays, for all the decadal birthdays, to reflect wider on the lives you've lived and the experiences you've enjoyed/endured, reflect on what you've gained, what you've lost, in those decades past. So, or similar, the Vitra Design Museum, who celebrate their 30th birthday in November 2019 and are marking the occasion with reflections, when not necessarily on their own three
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While it is important, and relevant, that the centenary of the opening of Bauhaus Weimar is used to delve a little deeper into the (hi)story of both the institution and inter-War Modernism, design and architecture is more than Bauhaus. Thus following on from our October Bauhaus/inter-War Modernism focussed new exhibition recommendations, five more general, if anything but humdrum, architecture and design exhibitions opening in October 2019 in Groningen, Frankfurt, New York, Stockholm and Weil
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In these dispatches we once doubted the prevalence of designer furniture in comics, noting and acknowledging the regular appearance of popular furniture designs in other visual media, we, off-handedly, opined, "... Designer furniture in a comic?" Elegantly proving us very, very wrong the Vitra Design Museum's exhibition Living in a Box. Design and Comics not only explores the use and depiction of designer furniture and lighting in comics, but also considers how comics have contributed to and
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"I first saw resilient tubular steel furniture designed by Professor Mies van der Rohe in September 1927 at the exhibition "Samt und Seide" in Berlin, objects which made a very deep impression on me, because I felt and saw that here, for the first time, was a meaningful way to utilise the forces inherent in tubular steel." Anton Lorenz, 27th March 19391 Because discussions on the steel tube furniture that, in many regards, characterises the inter-War period tend to focus on the designers and
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According to US gonzo journalist, Hunter S Thompson, "the human animal needs a Good Reason to get out of bed on a wretched morning in February." 1 May we humbly suggest....... "Die Neue Heimat (1950–1982). A Social Democratic Utopia and Its Buildings" at the Architekturmuseum der TU München, Munich, Germany An exhibition about German high-rise housing estates with the subtitle "A Social Democratic Utopia and Its Buildings" could lead one to the conclusion it was about East Germany. Wrong!
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If Jean-Claude Juncker gets his way October 2018 could see the clocks of Europe turned back an hour for the final time. And thereby bringing to an end the long tradition of local newspapers publishing bi-annual articles documenting the curious tales and legends of town clocks, stories from the Schwarzwald on the largest and smallest cuckoo clocks, and photographs of horologists surrounded by the 350+ clocks and watches they need to reset. For our part, we'll miss them. It will also mean you
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In his Ron Arad monograph Restless Furniture Deyan Sudjic notes that the Sticks & Stones furniture crusher Arad developed for the exhibition Nouvelles Tendances staged by the Centre de Creation Industriel Paris in 1987 was itself only saved from the crusher through the post-exhibition "intervention of a friendly Swiss furniture manufacturer."1 While all Swiss furniture manufacturers are friendly, one particularly friendly Swiss furniture manufacturer springs to mind whenever the discussion
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With the exhibition Hans J. Wegner: Designing Danish Modern the Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot explores the oeuvre of one of the Grand Doyens, and arguably one of the most widely misconstrued protagonists, of 20th century Danish design. Hans J. Wegner: Designing Danish Modern, Vitra Design Museum Schaudepot "If only you could design just one good chair in your life . . . But you simply cannot”1 opined Hans J. Wegner in 1952: and as if to prove his point designed over 500. And while not all
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With their 1997 exhibition The Work of Charles and Ray Eames the Vitra Design Museum staged one of the first major Charles and Ray Eames retrospectives Twenty years later they return to two of the 20th century's most important creatives with An Eames Celebration: less of Charles and Ray, and more of the diversity, depth and continuing relevance of their work. Charles & Ray Eames. The Power of Design, Vitra Design Museum That it is 20 years since the Vitra Design Museum last dedicated an
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For George Orwell nothing heralded spring quite like the re-appearance of toads, emerging from their subterranean hibernation and setting off, once again, on life's great cycle. Our toads are the flurry of new design and architecture exhibitions which open globally every March, as the international museum and gallery community awake from their winter slumber. Our highlights for March 2017, featuring new exhibitions in Bielefeld, Helsinki, Weil am Rhein, Utrecht and Paris "Partners in
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With the opening of the Vitra Schaudepot the Vitra Campus has not only grown by a further building, but the Vitra Design Museum has realised a long held dream, that of an exhibition space in which to present their collection in its full extent; or at least in a much fuller extent than has currently been possible. Vitra Schaudepot by Herzog & de Meuron The Vitra Design Museum collection traces its origins back to 1981 when the then Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum began buying historic examples of
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