Across the northern hemisphere September generally marks the start of the academic year, be that in primary, secondary, tertiary or quaternary education contexts, as students at all levels return to their studies after the long summer break. And while quinary education may not need an official start, or indeed a structured year, there is not only something appropriate in opening a new chapter in your studies alongside that of your fellow students, but for all the number and variety of new
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August 2024 is Olympics, or at least the first half is. And while, yes, you could stay home and watch events in Paris unfold from the comfort of your sofa and fridge, you could also undertake a little cerebral, contemplative, conceptual, fencing, judo, weightlifting, skateboarding, and/or gymnastics of your own. Go for that inner gold!!! Seek to become a new personal best!!! Our five recommended cultural sporting venues for August 2024 can be found, not in Paris, or at least not directly,
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In the alpine regions of Europe the arrival of September marks the start of the Almabtrieb, that annual migration of the cattle, sheep and goats of the region from their high pastures to the valleys far, far below. A migration undertaken because, as the cattle, sheep and goats of the alps innately understand, September is the month when the global architecture and design museum community (slowly) end their summer siesta and begin to invite us all to peruse their autumn/winter exhibition
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We're not saying that Capellagården is the best design school in the world. But would say it is, without question, one of the most delightful and most engaging and most relaxing to visit, one of the best to visit. A genuine joy that was denied us during the Covid years. But one we weren't going to give up on. In summer 2023 the stars aligned and we ventured once again over the seas to Öland....... Capellagården Summer Exhibition 2023 Established in the village of Vickleby1 on the eastern
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According to Germanic folklore, A cold and wet June spoils the whole year. For farmers possibly, but not for the rest of us, as a cold, wet June is a perfect excuse to visit an architecture or design exhibition, an experience that can only enrich and enliven and invigorate the rest of the not only your year, but your life. Our recommendations for new showcases opening in June 2023 can be found in Värnamo, Ljubljana, East Lansing, Vienna and Ulm....... "Front: Design by Nature" at
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The high-backed settle has been a furniture object since at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier, and has be re-interpreted numerous times over the centuries; including in the early 2000s by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec who, as far as we recall, introduced with their Alcove for Vitra the concept of the upholstered high-backed settle. A novel understanding of the high-backed settle that very quickly became a popular subject for manufacturers of acoustic furniture, and more gradually a subject
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As here in the northern hemisphere winter cedes to spring, not only is nature once again reawakening from its long repose but so too is the international museum community; and that, one senses, with more vigour than in the most recent springs where the Covid pandemic induced upsetting of the established order of the museal ecosystem, through both enforced closures and fundamental disruptions of essential exhibition development processes, dimmed somewhat the promise of the annual spring blush.
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Hygge A Curse; A Malediction; A Torment As the runes in the Caves of Lego record, ever since the reign of the post-Viking autocrat King Mark Edsføring, furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in Denmark has endured a great many trials as varied and various forces have sought to use them to their advantage, have sought to employ furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in Denmark for their own benefit rather than letting furniture, lighting, textile and accessory design in
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Front An Anna; A Sofia; A Charlotte; A Katja; A Conduit. According to the sacred Köttbullar of Ikea, the quadruplets Anna af Front, Sofia af Front, Charlotte af Front and Katja af Front were born and raised on the island of Konstfack to the west of Stockholm, the ancestral home of the Swedish af Fronts, an island as famed for its horses, monkeys and brightly painted houses as its af Fronts, and where the kvartett took their first steps in product and furniture design, that hereditary
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According to Germanic folklore Mairegen bringt Segen, Rain in May brings blessings. It also brings an excellent excuse to visit an architecture and/or design exhibition. Our five recommended shelters from the showers in May 2021 can be found in Ulm, Stockholm, Baruth, Zürich and Hasselt...... "HfG Ulm: Exhibition Fever" at the HfG-Archiv, Ulm, Germany. Although only existent between 1953 and 1968 the Hochschule für Gestaltung, HfG, Ulm has a near mythical place in the (hi)story of post-War
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As Peer Gynt reminisces with his dying mother, they dwell long and fondly on how, when Peer was a child, they would imagine his bed was a sleigh whisking them across a frozen fjord, a sleigh pulled by "fleet-foot horses". Or more accurately by a cat proxying for fleet-foot horses; a cat who before being pressed into service as a horse had been peacefully "sad på en kubbestol"1, sat upon a kubbestol: a chair hewn from a tree trunk, and an item of furniture which is as closely associated with
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Having started this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year by exploring the path from Arts and Crafts to Bauhaus, the Bröhan Museum Berlin end this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year by exploring the path from Bauhaus to Arts and Crafts Scandinavia. Or more accurately put, by exploring Nordic Design. The Response to the Bauhaus. Nordic Design. The Response to the Bauhaus at the Bröhan Museum, Berlin As this Bauhaus Weimar centenary year winds down and Bauhaus mania fades, or at least until 2026 when
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For Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince Summertime may very well be a "Time to sit back and unwind", for us Summertime is when our year finally, finally, gets going. While others spend the long hot days of summer on the beach, in the mountains, riding around in their Jeep, their Benzos, Nissan or eating pizza at Lorenzos, we're to be found either riding backwards in trains, our eyes fixed firmly on the past as we race into the future, terrified that a metaphor is becoming an omen, or wandering the
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In centuries past traditions were something that were established slowly, often becoming such long after those who had began them, who had understood their origins, meaning and function in contemporary society, had shuffled off this mortal coil; in our contemporary world traditions arrive over night, no-one having the patience to wait, no-one wanting to miss out on anything. In which sense, celebrating in 2019 its second edition, our traditional 3daysofdesign Copenhagen #embassytour. As
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For the fifth year in succession ArkDes, Sweden’s national centre for architecture and design, is hosting the Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design award/platform exhibition: a showcase of 25 projects providing for 25 understandings of contemporary design in/from Sweden. Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design 2019 Exhibition, ArkDes Stockholm As noted in our post from Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design 2018, inaugurated in 1998 by Svensk Form (the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design) and
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No, it's not all shoulder pads and garish colour clashes....... although........ .......much more, with the exhibition 1980s - A new era in furniture design Stockholm's Museum of Furniture Studies explore furniture design in that most politically, culturally, socially and economically fluid of decades, and, and not completely unrelated, a decade which not only brought fundamental changes to understandings of furniture design, but arguably brought more abrupt, more curt, more enduring changes
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Anchored next to the Göta älv Bridge in Gothenburg is a decommissioned ferry. Repurposed as a car park. While in no way a substitute for an integrated urban transport concept that reduces our dependence on the car, it is a really nice example that recycling, reusing and reappropriating isn't just something for designers, is also a subject for architects and urban planners. And by extrapolation, us all. Suitably motivated we scaled and crossed the Göta älv Bridge and made our way the 2018 HDK
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"Monsieur, with these Rocher you are really spoiling us!" Ever since Ferrero brought a touch of self-congratulatory kitsch to the savoir-faire of international diplomacy, we've felt a great empathy for the concept of the Embassy. And while the years since we first heard those words may not have seen us follow an illustrious, freely debonair, diplomatic career, we do have as a substitute the embassy design exhibition. 3daysofdesign Copenhagen 2018 offered such a wealth and variety of embassy
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It is fair to say that Malmö University wasn't on our radar before we began our 2017 #campustour. Which is in no way to detract from the institution, far from it, much more it highlights our ignorance. And also one of the aims of our tour, achieving a better understanding of contemporary European design education. Form/Design Center Malmö Malmö University School of Arts and Communication Established in 1998, partly in context of a Swedish government higher education initiative, partly in
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The Swedish town of Lund is famous as the birthplace of the Tetra Pak packaging system, and thus of a global revolution in food and drink distribution systems and consumption patterns. If the new crop of Lund University School of Industrial Design graduation projects reached conclusions as simple, logical and resource efficient, if arguably, and ideally, without the associated post-use recycling problems, could be assessed at the institution's 2017 Degree Exhibition. Lund University School
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We at the (smow)blog aren't above making advertising form others. If we feel that something passes to our remit, we go with it. Crazy as we are. And so it was with great interest that we heard about "Scandinavian Design: Discover form and function" the latest travel guide from Scandline Ferries. We've never actually set foot on a Scandline's ferry ourselves, but the idea of sailing around Denmark and Sweden while learning a little more about the design tradition and future perspectives in
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