U.F.O. of the day Arik Levy
"Rock mirror"

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My stuff is fat-free, that’s how humans, how life should be. At the ISH Ross Lovegrove presented his new "Freedom" collection for Turkish baths maker VitrA. We talked to him about the change in bathrooms, biomorphic shapes, fat-free design, the responsibility of a star designer, and design in an age of crisis.

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U.F.O. of the day Martino Gamper
"A 100 Chairs in 100 Days"

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The West-Eastern Garden Egg Chair Between 1971 and 1973, when the Wall ran through Germany, divind opinions and pooulations, for a short time one company surmounted the barrier. The legendary "Senftenberg Seating Egg" was designed by Peter Ghyczy in the West, ut produced in the East. The history of a joint project.

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Crisis? What crisis? At this year's ISH, the "World's Leading Trade Fair for the Bathroom Experience, Building, Energy, Bathroom, Air-Conditioning Technology and Renewable Energies" in Frankfurt the economic crisis did not take centre stage. Visitor and exhibitor numbers almost matched those of the previous year and an upbeat outlook was palpable - almost defying the crisis, as it were.

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Nothing but water, light and stone In terms of its minimalist hard edges and intellectual rigor, the thermal baths that Peter Zumthor designed for Vals, Switzerland, and were completed in 1996, eschew all the wellness clichés and continue to set the standard. Today, there are various other examples of spa architecture that are equally joyful and modern, and avoid the twin pitfalls of the clinical institution and the high-gloss polished hotel spa look.

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From Wellville to Bad Nauheim:
Make damn sure you enjoy yourself While once we had spas, these days we have wellness temples. At these oases of wellbeing contemporary man sacrifices his vices on the altar of health. But as the author T.C. Boyle reveals he should not be too ill.

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Found object: Men alone at home In the last 50 years, the number of one-person households has more than tripled. The German Federal Statistics Office predicts that for the next fifteen years more than half the number of people who live in cities will live alone. Time for a few pieces of furniture for singles.

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Architects, sculptors, painters - we must all return to crafts!* The current Stylepark Magazine for Product Culture is devoted to the return of craftwork in design.

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Room Rain or Impressions from Wellness Zone 2 There are any number of trends, but only one can lead the way: The bathroom is expanding and merging with the bedroom to form one large area of relaxation and recovery. This, however, is no easy design task to be accomplished.

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Welcome to Mr. Ueda’s Hot Spring In Germany, you might raise an eyebrow if your host invited you to share a bath with him before dinner. By contrast, in Japan a shared bath in an "onsen" is the norm rather than the exception. A report on a weekend in Tokyo and a European's first encounter with the Japanese bath culture.

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The comeback of copper and limescale edging "A bathroom with patina" - only recently that was still a euphemism for mold in the cracks, limescale-encrusted fittings and worn enamel. However, designers have rediscovered the central role of water in the bathroom. And with rain showers and mist generators, materials have returned to the bathroom which people had long considered unpractical and easily watermarked: Copper, bronze, brass, unsealed stone and untreated woods tell stories about use and the past.

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The Flood or Impressions from Wellness Zone 1 ISH in Frankfurt calls itself the world's leading trade fair for the "The Bathroom Experience" as well as for "Building, Energy, Air Conditioning Technology and Renewable Energies". But as wonderful as this sanitary world of 21st-century wellness may seem - our old fears live on and new desires are rising to the surface.

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温泉 They can heal everything, other than a broken heart, or so a Japanese proverb would have it. They are the "onsen", the Japanese term for hot tubs.

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Everything always stays new It could well become a success story, a place that to date has been missing in Frankfurt: from April 2009 Nykke&Kokki together with Stylepark will be presenting a gastronomic concept on the city's Römerberg, the likes of which have never been seen before: In the café at Schirn Kunsthalle, that in future will go by the name of "Table", changing installations by international designers will be combined with superb cuisine.

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Observations on the way to the bathroom - part 2 What is the purpose of the bathroom or baths? Purification or complete regeneration? And what will the 21st-century bathroom look like? In the second part of our brief cultural history of bathing we move briskly toward the present.

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Let's wake up somewhere else -
We will darling, we will. For all those who love what true, good and beautiful: An exhibition devoted to the Belgian record label "Les Disques du Crépuscule" showing in Kunstverein in Cologne.

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In new contexts Concrete curtains, synthetic paper bags, knitted fabric seat covers - new materials inspire new products.

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