Magazin

We take it for granted that roads and cycle paths are built to get us from A to B as quickly as possible. But does this necessarily have to be the case? And what happens if we no longer make saving time the uppermost priority in transport planning? New approaches are what journalist Thalia Verkade is pursuing in her book Movement, which she wrote together with the “bicycle professor” Marco te Brömmelstroet.

Irmel Kamp is perhaps not one of the most prominent names in architectural photography. Now, the first book on the work of the 85-year-old German photographer shows that it is indeed worth knowing her work.

Mona Makebrandt and Thomaz da Silva Lopes Vieira are the founders of ClipHut – a company offering a flexible wooden construction system that can be easily assembled and dismantled. With just a few elements it can be used to make houses, furniture, room dividers or trade fair stands. Thomaz da Silva Lopes Vieira explains the concept in this interview.

The style, the architecture, the attitude: At the Hotel Château Royal, Germany's capital city shows its best side. This "Berlin living room" is a place to experience contemporary art, to dine or to spend the night.

In our series “Spotlight on Women Architects”, we regularly present the work of female architects – such as that of Johanne Nalbach, who has demonstrated a particular expertise in the design and construction of hotels, and who recently carried out the extensive refurbishment of the Kant-Garagen in Berlin.

In September 2022 Bettina Bär took over as head of the Heimtextilien segment of Heimtextil. In this interview she tell us what appeals to her about her new task and what we can expect from the upcoming international trade fair for home and contract textiles in Frankfurt/Main.

How can craftsmanship draw inspiration from industry? Ceramic designer Charlotte Cigan and industrial designer Martin Duchêne of Studio Biskt address this question with works that are equally functional and individual.

Stylepark is raffling off one "Bouquet" table lamp by Magis.

By combining an interior design studio with its own workshops Holzrausch can offer holistically planned projects. Unique furniture and luminaire designs are regularly produced for these projects in cooperation with architects and designers – a selection is now available as editions in the Munich showroom. In this interview Tobias Petri and Sven Petzold give the publishers of Stylepark an insight into their work.

In our series “Spotlight on Women Architects”, we regularly present the work of female architects – such as that of Anna Heringer, who is a true believer in clay building. She was recently awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her commitment.

Hectic hustle and bustle, noisy announcements, a babble of voices – airports are places of transit. A place of silence in the midst of all the commotion has been provided by gmp Architekten and Petersen Tegl at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

He works somewhere between design, sculpture and puppetry, says Simon Schmitz about his work as a luminaire designer. One thing is certain: The Berliner-by-choice is a tinkerer who stages light like a material.

"Material Cultures: Material Reform" highlights possibilities for sustainable and future-proof building: Paloma Gormley, Summer Islam and George Massoud outline what is needed for a holistic approach to the built environment, appealing for a new way of looking at construction and the systems in which it is embedded.

In the south of Munich jacob & spreng architekten have realized a spacious residential building that is ingeniously enhanced through the interior design of Stephanie Thatenhorst; she relies on natural materials like the floorboards by pur natur to create an almost meditative interior atmosphere.

The "D1" chair family by Stefan Diez for Wagner Living relieves the spinal discs with the Dondola joint, promotes back health and helps to improve concentration.

Fittingly for the upcoming holidays, the MAK Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna is showing the exhibition "The Fest: Between Representation and Revolt", a journey through time from aristocratic balls to Berlin's Berghain.

Rossoacoustic’s new “Disc’n Dots” acoustic system is not just cost effective, it combines diversity in design with easy installation and can be retrofitted into rooms.

Kim Colin and Sam Hecht from Studio Industrial Facility have reinterpreted the classic bentwood chair with the S 220 collection for Thonet. The result is a material-efficient moulded wood chair with a base made of tubular steel. Sam Hecht explains the idea to us in an interview.

Architect Cristiana Guerra, based in Ticino, Switzerland, has realized a contemplative refuge for members of a Catholic religious order in a location above Lake Maggiore. For her interior design, Guerra opted for flooring by Bauwerk Parkett.

They go by the name From Industrial Design: Cesare Bizzotto and Tobias Nitsche focus on the industrial design process involved in furniture and luminaires. Under the label From Lighting the latter are proving hugely successful at finding their way onto the wider market at present.

In Hamburg alone, almost 19,000 people live without a home. What structures do big cities offer to help them? And what role does architecture play in this context? Until 12 March 2023, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg is showing the exhibition "Who's Next? Homelessness, Architecture and the City". Curator Daniel Talesnik explains the concept to us in an interview.

For the new table and reading lamp series “Gioia”, Occhio writes a new chapter of its story of clear design language and delight in movement: The result: sculptures of light that offer impressive mobility and smart functions.

Sometimes it seems to be in the air: in 2022, a book was published for the first time that is dedicated to the amazing oeuvre of the two Berlin architects Inken and Hinrich Baller, and at the same time their architecture also plays an important role in a Netflix series. So if you don't know the Ballers yet, you can catch up with them now in multimedia form.

New life for old furniture, a climate-neutral salon and new composites with a reduced carbon footprint: the third German Sustainability Award for Design honoured strong contributions to sustainable transformation.

Thanks to the consistently high quality of its solid floorboards and the transparent documentation on their origin, pur natur conveys a heightened awareness for the benefits this natural product offers.

The city of Düsseldorf is building a new city hall. Even if it still has to be commissioned through a subsequent negotiation procedure, it is worth taking a look at the project with which the consortium of the offices AllesWirdGut and Hertl.Architekten emerged victorious from the competition.

With the One Forty West residential and hotel tower, MA Architekten have added a real eye-catcher to the Frankfurt skyline. Nevertheless, architect Andreas Moser sees the future of metropolises not in extreme flights of fancy, but in a more down-to-earth orientation. The Frankfurt-based building planner talks about value chains, borderline experiences and the overdue reorientation of our urban planning.

The Berlin restaurant To the Bone celebrates meat culture in the Italian tradition. In the redesign by Yasmine Aimée Bergens, the soul of the dining location was preserved and yet great, new things were created. Camira's "Regent" matt velvet fabric is part of the concept, offering strong colour accents as well as cosy comfort.

A luminaire as unique as its signature – the motto of Ambright is more than an ambition, it is a promise. Instead of spending many hours clicking through a seemingly endless range in search of an individual lighting solution, the luminaire manufacturer from Munich offers the free-form design tool LightSketch.

Stylepark is raffling off one "Elica" table lamp by Martinelli Luce.

When the opportunity arose to purchase a plot of land in the middle of the Austrian village of Mellau with friendly neighbours in order to build a modern apartment building, Evi and Jürgen Haller did not hesitate for long.

Do you know what it takes for textiles to be produced sustainably? And what is needed so that holistic recycling can also be implemented? Answers to these and many more questions on the subject of sustainable home and contract textiles will be provided by the Trend Space at Heimtextil from 10 to 13 January 2023 in Frankfurt/Main.

Young Vienna-based designer Anna Zimmermann takes a holistic approach to design – for everything from objects to space to the pictorial idiom she uses.

With the Stylepark Selected Award 2022, Stylepark honours the best new products of the year. These are the award winners.