Biannual Design Festival in Langenthal Every two years, with great expectations all of those of us who are interested in design make the pilgrimage to Langenthal, Switzerland, to "Designers' Saturday". That time is here again at the beginning of November: A broad array of manufacturers and a number of design colleges will showcase products and exciting installations in factory halls and character spaces.


› To the article

Chronochaos or The Tigers from Venice Concluding our series on the Architecture Biennial we ask: What vision of architecture do the exhibitions and contributions communicate? What attitudes do the architects take towards the past, present and future, and what role do power, experience and atmosphere play?

› To the article

Mille-feuille: A tasty multi-layered magazine In this new issue Stylepark Magazine is a gourmet's delight, a veritable multi-layered delicacy. Alongside the "urban experience" we offer various other exciting themes that address our focal topic of "layers".

› To the article

Radical change and radical standstill Under the heading of "Chronochaos" Rem Koolhaas presents his proposals for the preservation of monuments and historical buildings. In one of the rooms at the back of Palazzo delle Esposizioni, visitors come face to face with photos, furniture and documents, some of which are stored as if in an archive. The architect has dedicated himself to a topic that comes as a surprise not only for the Biennial, but also for himself and his OMA studio.

› To the article

Designing a different society In Israel, back in the days while it was still young, the kibbutzim played a crucial role as places where a different, collective way of life beyond capitalist production practices was tested. An excellent exhibition at the Israeli Pavilion reminds us of the peculiarities of kibbutz architecture and aims to build a bridge to the future.


› To the article

Niemeyer’s shadow Oscar Niemeyer still works as an architect - at the grand old age of 102. As the exhibition in the Brazilian pavilion proves conclusively. The title "Brasilia - 50 Years On" whets the viewer's appetite; after all, the rigorously modern city was the promise of the day. Alongside Niemeyer, who designed the ideal city's most important buildings, the works of a new generation of young architects are also on display. Nonetheless, the Biennial's perhaps most interesting contribution to Brazilian architecture is actually to be found elsewhere.

› To the article

The bridge across the valley Here, construction comes into its own. Connections are not talked about but simply shown - modestly but accurately in black and white. "Landschaft und Kunstbauten" (Landscape and Engineering Structures) is the title of the exhibition realized at the Swiss Pavilion by the renowned engineer Jürg Conzett from Chur. It mostly features bridges in Switzerland.

› To the article

The past is the new future When the world changes, architecture changes, too. That sounds easier than it is. So what do the visions of the many different "futures" gathered at the Architecture Biennial look like? And what role does the past play in them?

› To the article

Not a fairytale from the Arabian Nights The Kingdom of Bahrain has taken the Biennial's motto very seriously: People meet, take a seat, watch, listen, dream. What better place to sit and think about the loss of identity, the increase in urban space and the magic of the sea than in fisherman's huts from the beach in Bahrain that were taken down with their owners' permission. And there is already one tangible result: the Golden Lion for the best country contribution.

› To the article

Tokyo in doll’s house chaos Japan's pavilion finds and unusual and surprising way to celebrate the "Metabolist" movement, which kicked off about half a century ago. Instead of space capsules and concrete shelving full of living units you can peruse doll's-house-sized models and an insightful presentation of Tokyo as the city of permanent change.

› To the article

When sugar cubes float above the coffee cups Like its sister event, the Architecture Biennial has long since expanded beyond its traditional grounds in the Giardini. There are a great number of intriguing country pavilions not only in the halls of the Venice's Arsenale, but also scattered around the city. So we resolved to take a walk past the contributions by Portugal, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Cyprus, Iran, Singapore, Hong Kong and several other exhibitions.

› To the article

Disillusion, Illusion, Solution In Russian Pavilion a serious attempt is being made at the dialectical triple jump from the past into the future. It presented three emotional states en route to ideas to reanimate the Russian industrial city of Vyshny Volochok.

› To the article

The digitally cleansed city In the framework of the Audi Urban Future Award 2010 curated by Stylepark, six internationally active architecture offices participated in a process in the course of which they developed their own particular visions of how mobility, architecture and the city will in future interact. Five of them are currently presenting their ideas in an exhibition at Venice. The competition was won by Berlin-based Jürgen Mayer H.

› To the article

Stylepark celebrates its tenth birthday! Stylepark held a lavish celebration in Venice to mark the occasion of its 10th anniversary. Several hundred well-wishers traveled to the lagoon city to celebrate. Pictures of a most wonderful party...

› To the article

Pfister enters new territory In mid-August, the Swiss Pfister furniture store launched the Atelier Pfister Collection. Thirteen design studios, curated by Alfredo Häberli, designed more than 120 pieces of furniture and accessories for the Collection. The goal has been clearly defined: High quality based on sound craftsmanship and timeless design.

› To the article

Producing atmospheres or Close Links to Art Never before was an architecture biennial so similar to an art biennial. Indeed, the latest rivalry among star architects to devise ever more eccentric shapes spawned objects that were commissioned if only for their "sculptural" qualities. At the first architecture biennial since the Big Crash the focus is closer to art again - against the background of the skepticism towards the once booming "signature architecture".

› To the article

Protest in the City Museum Folkwang's "Hacking the City" exhibition features interventions in urban and communicative spaces. Artists, Web designers, street artists and musicians address types of public action and practiced forms of resistance. A courageous approach by the museum in Essen that definitely bears continuing - let's hope the exhibition and events series takes things to an even more intensive point.

› To the article

Well done! The British Pavilion has opened its doors to a School of Seeing. Given the wealth of models, photographs, maps, drawings, notes, film and exhibits from various ages that comment on one another here, indeed seem to generate one another, all the media manifestations, differences in genres and lines dividing the epochs seem to have little validity. At "Villa Frankenstein", where architecture, art and historiography bid you good night, order gets upended.

› To the article

On How to Handle Free Spaces or Vacancies The solution need not always be a new building. And in the French Pavilion Dominique Perrault therefore asks how empty spaces in a city are handled and how we can rejuvenate our metropolitan peripheries. The Dutch Pavilion also focuses on how the existing can best be used. Here, Rietveld Landscape addresses the use of government-owned vacant buildings.

› To the article

High architecture in the country The recently opened extension building for the Nya Nordiska textiles editeur designed by Staab Architekten in Dannenberg in Lower Saxony, is a minor sensation and a prime example for the successful integration of commercial architecture into an urban context.

› To the article

High Noon in the Red Salon The word "Sehnsucht" (desire) is written above the gold-colored drapes decorat-ing the entrance to the German Pavilion at the Venice Giardini. Inside, a burgundy red salon awaits the visitor, featuring more than 180 representatives of the trade - who each inform us about the depths and shallows of their souls on a single sheet of paper.

› To the article

On amazement and a cat in the arsenals Kazuyo Sejima, the Director of the 12th Venice Architecture Biennial, has pulled something special out of the bag with the central exhibition "People meet in Architecture". She has managed to create an atmosphere of light-heartedness in which the opportunities afforded by contemporary architecture as well as the latter's limits are on show without glossing over the weighty issues.


› To the article