The path is the goal This year’s Ventura Lambrate was part of the FuoriSalone for the fourth time. The meeting point for next-generation design, experiments and ambitious individual exhibitors had a real feel of work in progress about it. Development and manufacturing processes played a major role.

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Curtain raised in Weil am Rhein The Vitra Campus gleams resplendent with a new building designed by masters of the trade: the production hall for Vitrashop by Japanese architectural duo SANAA. A classy contribution to contemporary industrial culture and not least a paramount example of formally perfected weightlessness.

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Head for the exit, eyes closed! It would seem obvious that a sensitive nose need not necessarily offer a good handle on things. And designers of all ages should be making sparing use of spaghetti, leather scraps, iron pipes, champagne buckets, wooden laminate and most certainly erotic objects. The seven deadly Salone sins show just who ignored this advice.




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To light or to illuminate – that is the question For quite some time, manufacturers of decorative luminaires were hard hit by the innovation of LEDs. What to do with their traditional designs that were built around lamps and spots? They have since overcome the future shock and the industry is now fielding new products in all shapes and sizes.



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Good designers, successful products – Milan Marathon part 3 No, there was no revolt. Even Ventura Lambrate had nothing on offer that even came close to a taste of the future. Instead it was above all Konstantin Grcic who once again showed just what contemporary design can do.

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What a relief – The Milan marathon part 1 Milan 2013, a mixture of prudence, consolidation and solid design work. A little less hype and fewer prototypes, too. This is certainly doing the industry good.



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An evening with Karl None other than Karl Lagerfeld graced this year’s Salone del Mobile with his presence. The master of elegance held court with Cassina, for whom he immortalized a selection of furniture classics on film. A marriage of icons the likes of which has never been seen before. And a one-off, almost one-to-one evening with Karl.

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It’s oh so quiet Beyond the hustle and bustle of the fair, BMW joined forces with the Bouroullec brothers and presented an installation that aims to articulate the automotive marque’s new orientation toward sustainability and electromobility. A chat with Head of Design Adrian van Hooydonk sheds light on an unconventional vision of mobility for the future.

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Streamlined nomads – The Milan marathon part 2 And on we go. To make headway, we up the pace a little and cast a glance at fluorescent yellow shoes, peek into showrooms, inner courtyards, gardens and historical buildings.



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Like a snowdrift on the slope Be it in summer or winter, the highest café in Austria offers a breathtaking view of the Eastern Alps. The architects at “Baumschlager Hutter Partners” have certainly succeeded in creating something quite extraordinary in the form of the new upper station of the “Wildspitzbahn” cable car route.



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Escape to the country? Architects, urban planners, hipsters and geeks, all speak of the city and indeed megacities as a place that will prove decisive for the fate of humanity. But a countermovement has been emerging for some time now. Publications such as the German magazine “Landlust” show us “the beautiful side of country life” and depict a fictive rural paradise.

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The brand in the basement An international trade fair for heating, sanitation and climate, not only did the ISH present a plethora of well designed bathrooms, but new combinations of heating and hot water technology too.

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Yoshioka’s mirage: Mirror, mirror, on the wall… Can a mirror be anything more than a mirror? Tokujin Yoshioka responds to this question in the affirmative, and with a great deal of finesse at that.

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Selected manufacturers at Milan Design Week 2013

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Membrane and Cradle: Benjamin Hubert modulates materials Does a comfortable armchair necessarily have to be big and heavy with thick padding nowadays? Benjamin Hubert asks questions, using them as a starting point to design not one, but two armchairs.

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Aava: Making wood flow Nature offers a really great inspiration source. Finnish designer Antti Kotilainen has adopted the metamorphoses that shape nature for a chair collection in collaboration with Arper.

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Nichetto = Nendo: Working with kami no ku and shimo no ku The formula N = N sounds intriguing, as does the collaboration. But how did the whole thing work and what came out of it?

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Craftsmanship & Design: Salone Satellite, ever young How you get into the Salone Satellite as a young designer and all the things that can come of it.

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