One doesn't have to understand why designers or design institutions do the things they do. You don't always have to be able to follow the logic. Sometimes all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Such an occasion, at least for us, is the project Lost & Found by Vitra from the Bratislava based design platform Flowers for Slovakia. Essentially the project asked 15 young Slovakian designers to combine forlorn items of traditional Slovakian folk furniture with elements from the Vitra
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One of the first telephone calls Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner made upon assuming leadership of the Vitra Design Museum in 2011 was to Konstantin Grcic to discuss the possibility of an exhibition. Grcic was, in principle, open to the idea, but, "I didn't want a static exhibition, something that froze my work in time, rather I wanted something dynamic" That "something dynamic" is the exhibition Konstantin Grcic - Panorama which opened at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein on Friday March
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The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, And what will poor robin do then, poor thing? He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm And hide his head under his wing, poor thing. Or, and much more sensibly, take himself off and visit one of the new design exhibitions opening during March. And so not only keep himself warm but also informed, entertained and inspired. Our selection from the new, robin friendly, openings in March features an homage to East German concrete architecture in
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It is almost certainly more by chance than design, but in the week that Verner Panton would have celebrated his 88th birthday the Vitra Design Museum Gallery opened an exhibition devoted to his inimitable Visiona 2 exhibition from 1970. Presented as part of the warm up to the forthcoming "Panorama" exhibition from and by Konstantin Grcic, "Visiona 1970: Revisiting the Future" explores the background to and realisation of the Visiona 2 showcase, including an accessible, usable, sitonable
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"In the development and designing of furniture one prevailing problem is the means for securing parts of the furniture together particularly when the parts are made of thin materials such as plywood or metal. This problem is particularly difficult when a certain amount of twisting or give between the parts is desired so as to provide resiliency to one of the parts. In general efforts to solve this problem have failed."1 So begins a patent application filed by Charles Eames on 28th July 1958.
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"Wood will be driven out of living spaces; even metal and glass, although much newer in domestic situations, are losing their importance. Plastics are on the advance....."1 What had caused the German magazine Stern to pronounce in February 1970 so unequivocally on the future of home furnishings? Stern had seen Verner Panton's Visiona 2 exhibition at Cologne Furniture Fair. And knew it had seen the future. "It is certain that a new age is rolling through our homes. What is coming is not just
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When in our preview of IMM Cologne 2014 we referred to it as marking the opening of the European design circus, we had no idea that it was a circus with a fairground. Sadly the carousel incorporating Zeitraum's Pelle chair seat shells was not there to provide adrenaline rushes. Only visual thrills as part of the 2014 Featured Editions programme. Premièred as a concept at IMM Cologne 2013 and curated by the online portal Stylepark, Featured Editions is a collection of installations in which
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What would IMM Cologne week be without the official enthronement of the A&W Designer of the Year? One day shorter and one exhibition poorer say we. Following on from Patricia Urquiola in 2012 and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in 2013 the 2014 A&W Designer of the Year is Werner Aisslinger. And as tradition demands his work is currently being celebrated in an exhibition in the Kölner Kunstverein. In summer 2013 the Berlin gallery Haus am Waldsee presented a Werner Aisslinger solo exhibition under
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What with mince pies to be eaten, Glühwein to get drunk and travel plans to misco-ordinate, December is generally a very quiet month. However despite all other distractions, in December 2013 we still managed to visit the opening the exhibition "Mensch Raum Maschine Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the far to brief Rethinking The Product – Design “Made in Italy” showcase in Berlin. In addition December 2013 saw the launch of the Vitra Design Museum's book "The
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With autum's algid wind in our faces and the promise of mince pies and Glühwein in our tails we approached November and a design tour through Brandenburg, met Napoleon in Erfurt and discovered that the Eames plastic armchairs and plastic side chairs used to be steel......
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What with the sweet afterglow of Vienna Design Week behind us we entered October 2013 full of enthusiasm - not least because it meant the opening of the new (smow) Cologne store. The month nearly nose-dived on account of a hideous plagiarism in Leipzig, but was more than rescued by Alison and Peter Smithson at the AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne.......
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After the relative calm and civility of July and August, September sees a more than inconsequential upping of our professional pensum. In addition to our regular pilgrimage to Vienna Design Week, September 2013 also saw the opening of Lightopia at the Vitra Design Museum, Made in Slums - Mathare Nairobi at the Triennale Design Museum Milan, the International Marianne Brandt Contest in Chemnitz, and the acquisition of Finnish manufacturer Artek by Vitra......
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Following the pains and tribulations of Milan, June is a time to relax. To enjoy design once again. This year we did that at DMY Berlin, Design Miami Basel at with the new Vitra(mini)Haus in Weil am Rhein....
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As a general rule May doesn't exist for us... it is just a fluid continuation of April. And of Milan. May 2013 was no different, did however end with a delightful Oskar Zieta show in Berlin......
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The biggest April fool is.... us, for always going to Milan! That said, as ever, we did find a few gems amongst the senseless corporate trash..... And after Milan we had the joy of viewing the latest addition to the Vitra Campus, the Factory Building by SANAA......
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IMM Cologne kept us busy into February, but the month also saw the opening of an Eileen Gray retrospective in Paris, a visit to the Louis Kahn exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum and the sad passing of James Irvine....
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There is an old adage about turning problems into chances, of every cloud having a silver lining, of every thorn having its rose. One of the best examples of such is the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. In the wake of a 1981 fire at the Weil am Rhein production site, Vitra found themselves needing to quickly rebuild. And needing a fire station. The first problem was solved by Nicholas Grimshaw with his Production Hall. The second by Zaha Hadid with her Fire Station. In the intervening 30+
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One of the biggest challenges facing product designers in coming years will undoubtedly be the question of planned obsolescence. For while we genuinely believe that the majority of designers understand their responsibilities in terms of sustainability and resources, we also know that most designers understand their responsibilities to help their clients generate profit. Finding the correct balance wont be easy. But it must be found. Perhaps the most distressing example of planned
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When we met Italian designer Alberto Meda at Orgatec 2010 he told us that he was working on his next project for Vitra. And that it would be a chair. And that was all he told us. At Orgatec 2012 the secret was revealed when Vitra released the office swivel chair Physix. Presented as a continuation of an idea began by Mies van der Rohe with his MR20 cantilever chair and continued by Charles and Ray Eames with their Aluminium Chair collection, Physix adds a new dimension to a familiar form
read moreWhile researching our post "Eames Alchemy. Or how Charles and Ray Eames turned steel into plastic….." the most remarkable discovery came in the New York Museum of Modern Arts' press release announcing the opening of the Low-Cost Furniture Design Exhibition:1 "Perhaps the greatest advantage of this chair is the extraordinary lustre and soft, smooth surface of the plastic which, strengthened by the silky threads of glass imbedded within it, quickly absorb room temperatures. Never before used in
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Expansion. It's not always good. Waistlines. Overdrafts. Weeks since you last phoned your mother. For example wouldn't be good. Business expansion is however good. And the best news is that (smow) continues to expand. Following on from the "original" (smow)rooms in Leipzig and Chemnitz, the (smow) online designer furniture store opened its virtual doors in 2008 before in 2012 (smow) Stuttgart joined the family. 2013 has already seen the launch of (smow) Erfurt, and since early October
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Back in October one of the joys of Orgatec 2012 in Cologne was watching visitors reactions to Hella Jongerius' Sphere Table for Vitra. Most were highly amused and assumed it was a new kids product. An opinion that quickly changes when you learn the background to the object. Developed for Hella Jongerius' recently completed redevelopment of the North Delegate's Lounge at the United Nations in New York, the Sphere Table is a response to a brief that said the lounge could contain no internal
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"My, my, my, Delilah! Why, why, why, Delilah!" The morning of Friday September 27th 2013 was one of those misty autumn occasions that cause SANAA's immense new Vitra Factory Building in Weil am Rhein to merge, almost unseen, with the grey background. Even Herzog & de Meuron's new Basel Messe complex was reduced to nothing more grand than a continuation of the uncaring monotonous sky. The glitzing, shimmering palace of high summer just the weak shadow of a memory. And so it was perhaps fitting
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At Design Miami Basel 2013 one of the more impressive presentations was without question the collection of Alvar Aalto furniture shown by Stockholm/Berlin based gallery Jackson Design. A presentation that included rare examples of Alvar Aalto's furniture for and by the Finnish manufacturer Artek. And all available for purchase. Basel based furniture manufacturer Vitra have gone one step further, and have purchased Artek. Following completion of his architecture studies in 1921 Alvar Aalto
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