Bonjour Stockholm! God dag Paris! The spring fairs in Paris and Stockholm make important marks.

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Go East - Two design awards for e15 The way design in the West references the Middle and Far East is often influenced more by economic and less by creative transfer.
The furniture company e15 has shown that there is another way, having won the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany 2008 for its sofa system SF03 Shiraz, which represents a successful synthesis of the Oriental culture of seating and communication, and the minimalist formal language of the Occident.

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Water works To date, when buying a new kettle you could choose between various stainless steel or plastic models. Indeed, while current models display greater differences in terms of the quality of production and material, as regards form, they do not differ considerably from one another. They are all based on a water boiler or a cylindrical pot, have a handle, a spout on the opposite side and a water gauge.

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Molteni & C - Family business and elective affinities In Italy, the institution of the family traditionally has a high standing, and keeping it together requires a constant, active entrepreneurial spirit. As such it is no wonder that precisely in Italy there is an above average number of family-run companies - and extremely successful ones at that.
In the case of Molteni & C, with a payroll of 250 the family business has long since reached corporate size, and is one of the most important manufacturers in the furniture industry. Its history is typical of such firms.

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That lovely click - The Bauhaus rotary switch Be it touchscreens or kitchen units with no handles or doors that open automatically, with the digitalization of our everyday surroundings the surface has increasingly gained importance. Yet they are still about, analog operating devices. Berker, a company which manufactures switches and electronic systems, offers them both as new products and re-editions.

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Fundstücke: Speed Wood – Sitting in skis No sponsor, and instead unconventional and successful ideas. Swedish design quartet Defyra sets itself high standards in terms of commitment. In its studio in Stockholm, it recycles discarded skis to form chairs.

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Impressions of Cologne Cologne has had to take a lot of criticism this year. Ben van Berkel's already almost legendary carpet flop in Hall 11, which was heralded as an urban master plan, visibly lacked an overarching concept, and the international audience increasingly shied away from Cologne, hitting it very hard.

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Our Sacco turns 40! How do you celebrate the big birthday of a seat, which has even been honored by a museum? In this particular instance it is quite simple: you take a run and jump into it – and by way of thanks are lovingly embraced by this universal favorite.
Only a few items of furniture can withstand such a celebratory feat but for the Sacco beanbag it is a walkover. The flexible bag for sitting and lying on has always been an exception and precisely its ability to mold and conform exactly to the human body make Sacco the most nonconformist piece of furniture ever.

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Trade fair à la mode - The Maison & Objet in Paris "Fashion" is as good as a synonym for the City of Paris. For a long time now, haute couture has not only referred to clothing, but the exquisite and tailor-made design of one's own home is often mentioned in the same breath. The Maison & Objet in Paris is an example par excellence of this. Originally a classic specialist fair for interior decorating, tables and gift items, today it is a major event for dealers and creative professionals from all interior design and fashion branches.

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imm cologne 2008 Weary rituals Every year, when the Christmas turkey has been digested, New Year endured and maybe even a couple of days skiing successfully overcome, design aficionados, tired of all the exuberance of the festivities and about to enter a state of long-term lethargy, head to Cologne for the Furniture Fair and the Passagen program.

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Addio to Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass died in his home in Milan aged 90 on the very last day of 2007. Not only in Italy, and not only in the world of design and architecture are people mourning the loss of a designer of genius, as the world has lost a great humanist. For Sottsass, who construed design as the incessant search for a possible metaphor of existence, the search has come to a dramatic end.

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Fundstücke: In the land of plastics with Konstantin When an international chemical conglomerate, an Italian furniture manufacturer and a German designer collaborate on the development of new materials and their application then legends are born. For example the new plastic cantilever chair "Myto".

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Kalashnikov with gold edging - The Fragiles exhibition at Design Miami Be it a collector's cup, a porcelain figure, crystal glass or your favorite plate, it is often the fragile things with which we surround ourselves that could be souvenirs, commodities or cult objects. As transient as they are, they still have a fetish character. And it was this which was right at the forefront of the Fragiles exhibition. Curated by publishers "Die Gestalten Verlag", more than 50 designers and artists presented their mainly figurative glass, porcelain and ceramic visions at this exhibition as part of the Design Miami show.

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Smelting ideas - The glassLAB at Design Miami In Miami, where Art Basel and Design Miami take place simultaneously, art and design take a look at each other's playing hand and each tries to outdo the other with a perfect performance. In this glossy atmosphere, the idea of showing products live as they are being created and showing designers at work looks refreshingly unpretentious.

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The Design Annual - inside: showtime Messe Frankfurt and Stylepark are pleased to invite you to the third issue of The Design Annual, which will take place in the Festhalle Frankfurt am Main between July 4th and 7th, 2008. With over 10,000 visitors, the event was a great success in June 2007 and we expect nothing less next year.

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New celestial bodies by Flos Look up and you see the heavens. And the sheer variety of what you can see there is something Italian luminaire maker FLOS has reinterpreted time and time again and with great poetry. With luminiares by legendary designers - including Achille Castiglioni, Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Philippe Starck and Patricia Urquiola - the company established in 1962 has brought profane living space closer to the celestial lights.

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Gira - Getting to the Point From HVACR and door communication to music and light control - Gira designs switch units for overall building management. The Profil 55 function strip, for example, is a wall-mounted expansion module that boasts than can be equipped with over two hundred functions - from sockets, timers, and dimmers to sensors - without the wall having to be prised open every time.

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A colourful show - Jaime Hayon designs shoes for Camper When, in the early nineties, all the major brands started using the same design format for all their stores and showrooms in the main metropolitan shopping areas, Spanish cult shoe label Camper did things differently, investing in identity through diversity.

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