One of the advantages of having been running our "5 New Design Exhibitions" series for over a year is that we now possess what we can optimistically refer to as an "archive" And looking in that "archive" we discover that for December 2013 we recommended four exhibitions in Germanophone countries and one in Holland. And for December 2014 we're doing the same. It's not deliberate; it is just the case that only museums and galleries in Germany appear to open design and architecture exhibitions
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As long as we've been going to Vienna Design Week the festival has always included a focus on social responsibility. Design is not all about large companies presenting their latest projects or young designers developing expensive gallery pieces, design is also about helping to improve our world, be that the direct vicinity or at the global level. Vienna Design Week understand this. And always try to ensure we all do. One of the more interesting projects in this respect at Vienna Design Week
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At an otherwise disappointing presentation of projects by students from the TU Graz Institute of Spatial Design during Vienna Design Week, a genuine stand out project was the valet Servant by Katharina Wernig. Brazenly contradicting the position we took with Fidelio by Christian Spiess that a chair is the most natural form for a valet, Katharina Wernig has opted instead for a side table-cum-valet. Or at least side table-cum-semi-valet. For while in our book a valet must include an option for
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Ask most people what they identify as the central feature in the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and they'll probably mention the abstract Gothic revival forms of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or the flowing, organic mosaics of Park Güell. Certainly something visual, potentially something decorative. Ask art historian, critic and internationally recognised Antoni Gaudí expert Daniel Giralt-Miracle, and he won't. "The skeleton is the central feature of Gaudí's work, everything else
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For some 200 years Wiener Silber Manufactur have produced the finest silverware. Exquisite cutlery, table services, coffee pots and sugar bowls designed by both the firm's own craftsman and also developed in co-operation with external designers: works by leading protagonists of the Wiener Werkstätte such as Josef Hoffmann or Kolo Moser being joined over the decades by designs from and by the likes of Oswald Haerdtl, Otto Prutscher, Gregor Eichinger or Claesson Koivisto Rune. Yet regardless of
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In context of a 2014 summer semester project students from Vienna Technical University's Department for 3D Design and Model Construction were asked to develop a project which explored artificial light's potential to define a given space, and which in particular should encourage people to gather there. The results are being presented during Vienna Design Week in what is, without question, one of the best designed exhibitions at this years festival: a blacked out lower ground floor space in
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We're spending an awful lot of time at Vienna Design Week 2014 photographing mirrors. If we were at all competent at what we do we would now wax lyrical about how mirrors are the "top tr**d" at Vienna Design Week 2014, an indication of contemporary designers desires to reflect the ills of modern society, to make us face up to our own social responsibility and question the increasing narcissistic nature of the human existence as exemplified by the ubiquitous selfie, and for all the daily flood
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In context of Cape Town's tenure as World Design Capital 2014 Franco-Austrian design and architecture studio Celia-Hannes spent six weeks on the Cape of Good Hope working with local residents and craftsman on questions surrounding contemporary living conditions and furniture. The first results of the cooperation are being presented during Vienna Design Week 2014 at design gallery harald bichler_rauminhalt. And no, it wasn't some neo-colonial "white man come help" project, or at least wasn't
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The last time we visited the premises of Vienna shoemaker Rudolf Scheer & Söhne it was for the presentation of Antoinette Bader's LacesLamp project during Vienna Design Week 2010. Since then little has changed in the way Rudolf Scheer & Söhne make their shoes, but a lot has in terms of the space. Situated next to the company's main premises the so-called SHEER-Raum has been transformed from the dust and brick building site of then into a sensitively decorated and organised sales space. And a
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As we alluded to in our post from Vienna based design studio chmara.rosinke's Passionswege 2013 project with Wäscheflott, we've not always been the biggest fans of the work of chmara.rosinke. Or better put Ania Rosinke and Maciej Chmara a.k.a. chmara.rosinke have regularly produced projects which have, in one way or another, caused us to roll our eyes helplessly skywards. On the other hand chmara.rosinke have also regularly impressed us. The aforementioned project with Wäscheflott being one
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"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" exclaims Anne Shirley in Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables, "it would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?" Yes Anne, it would. Yet while Ms Shirley turned her youthful attention to decorating her bedroom with the brightly coloured maple branches so prevalent on Prince Edward Island at this time of year, our joy is found in the new architecture and design exhibitions opening in the
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In our post from the launch of the Tools for Life collection by Rem Koolhaas and OMA for Knoll during Milan Design Week 2013 we noted that the highlight for us was the so-called "11 Floor Seating" legless chair. For all we commented that with ever more time, professional and personal, being spent working with tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices, the requirements of chairs was slowly evolving and that there would be an increasing need for high-quality furniture which allows one to,
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Time was when the candlestick maker was an important profession. No candlestick. No light. Or at least no secure light. These days with our fancy electric lighting candlesticks tend to be reduced to one of those quaint historical artefacts. Something every designer and craftsman tries at least once in their career, but a relatively safe place where they can experiment and try things out without necessarily having to produce anything good. No one is going to judge you by a candlestick. A
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At the risk of starting a tradition we can't maintain, and so ultimately leading us to disappoint a lot of readers, again, it is becoming tradition that our first post from Vienna Design Week concerns a Passionswege project. Largely because Passionswege is one of the principle reasons we come to Vienna, and so it seems fitting to begin our time in Vienna with the Passionswege programme. But also considering Passionswege is the seed from which Vienna Design Week grew, it just seems respectful.
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