The liberation of shape Charles and Ray Eames once experimented with glass fiber reinforced plastics, today Konstantin Grcic experiments with Hirek plastic while Patricia Urquiola favors transparent polymers in a bid to achieve totally new shapes, surface qualities or uses that make design not only the formal but also technological manifestation of our age capable of altering people's lives. A little story to the significance of plastics for design.

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What do designers find boring about art? Three questions to Tom Price.

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Colored Rods and Cy Twombly Museum Brandhorst in Munich's Maxvorstadt district opened to the public on May 21. The building's iridescent outer skin has been on view for some months, and now the interior with its exciting architecture is proudly displaying works from the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection.

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Stuttgart, Königstrasse – bricked up In design, interculturality is currently the big hit. Elements from different cultures are being combined in ever more sophisticated ways. However, the reality in cities like Rio de Janeiro provides a very different picture. Soon the favela could become a model of uncontrolled urban growth in Germany too.

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U.F.O. – Art and Design What do you find unsettling about design? Three questions to Richard Prince.

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The Fragrance of White He is a like a phantom. Almost everybody has heard of him, but hardly anyone has ever seen Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela. While he has managed to stay as good as invisible for over 20 years now, his oeuvre has been constantly present and truly celebrated.

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They called it a dog bed He is a Brazilian superstar. Idolized at the Salone in Milan, wherever he goes and wherever he stands, South American fans want to have their picture taken with him - Sergio Rodrigues. We caught up with him at ClassiCon in Munich, took a seat in his squashy leather armchair Mole and talked about his life.

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Impressions of Milan As always, the Milan Design Week 2009 was much more than the sum of the events at the fair itself and in the city. Our series of photos offers you an impression of the many small venues, situations and settings that makes Milan the undisputed climax of each and every design year.

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U.F.O. – Art and Design The "U.F.O. - Art and Design" exhibition at NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft in Düsseldorf concerns itself with the increasing indeterminacy and hybrid qualities of objects.

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U.F.O. of the day Hussein Chalayan
"Afterwords"

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Materials that appeal to the senses One of the highpoints of this year's Milan Design Week took place at the Triennial: the "Tokyo Fiber 09 - Senseware" exhibition. It presented new materials and was also a festival of the senses.

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Gateway to the East Belgrade's qualities may not be apparent at first sight. Yet they are plentiful. The "Belgrade Design Week", which will take place from May 25 until 31, 2009 for the third time, is a good example of the Serbian capital's increasing self-confidence.

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Light in the age of political correctness At the Euroluce in Milan the profession focused on what lamps would in future be used in luminaires. And it was primarily Ingo Maurer who highlighted the absurdity of the EU ban on certain lamp bulbs.

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You don’t demolish Venice! The Futurists did not just love cars, they also designed houses, clothes, bars, soda bottles and much more besides. And even if they wanted to get rid of pasta, they still created some interesting dishes. Now numerous exhibitions are celebrating Futurism, which arrived on the European scene 100 years ago with the publication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Manifesto.

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U.F.O. of the day Konstantin Grcic
"Missing Object"

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Positive Propaganda Artek is re-issuing an old, modular chair design created by Shigeru Ban in 1993, and is thus continuing its successful collaboration with the architect, making a statement fully in keeping with its corporate culture.

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Less is hard – great ingredients from minimalux The items in the minimalux collection, presented for the first time in Milan, are small, refined, expensive and perfect for an executive desk or the breakfast table in a discerning home.

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The Milan Quodlibet – part two The diverse world of furniture in Milan leaves us facing many questions. Can we shed our fear of the foreign in the current worlds of sofa cushions with all their different patterns? Can a fashion label does everything better? And what is the future of Mannerism and the Ethno mix?

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