INTERVIEWS Only the watercolors burned to nothing6/29/2015How to live in orbit? Adeline Seidel talked with Galina Balashova, the interior designer of the Russian space capsules, about green floors, blue ceilings and creating a sense of homeliness in space.
ARCHITECTURE Spanish lace 5/11/2015And the winner of this year’s “Mies van der Rohe Award” is…: the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, Poland, designed by Barozzi Veiga. First prize in the “Emerging Architect” category goes to Arquitectura-G for its “Casa Luz” in Cilleros, Spain.
ARCHITECTURE Ressource Africa3/24/2015Vitra Design Museum is devoting not just one, but two exhibitions to Africa. While the one suggests the "re-maker culture" is a blueprint for design in the Global North, the other explores how to achieve architectural independence.
ARCHITECTURE Highfliers and service design: Bogotá12/22/2014Bogotá, a place for design? And the answer is clearly "yes". Above all as regards the many service providers in Colombia’s capital.
INTERVIEWS Leif in the park5/9/2014Takashi Ueno, Mamoru Naito, Keizaburo Honda and Mizuho Naito are the creative minds behind Leif.designpark. Uta Abendroth met the Japanese team to talk about nature as a source of inspiration, their strong links with Europe and about sweeping sofas in Japanese apartments.
INTERVIEWS A pod – tough and tender3/10/2014In the wake of "Ploum" Ligne Roset is now presenting another upholstered group based on a shell shape: "Cosse". Martina Metzner talked with designer Philippe Nigro about his new creation, his items for the Hermès fashion house and what he learned during his time with Michele De Lucchi's studio.
DESIGN Beef brisket with oh là là3/3/2014Maxie Eisen is the latest culinary addition to the renowned district round Frankfurt’s main station. The bistro-and-bar is not only the new place-to-be for fans of pastrami but will – thanks to the stylish interiors by the likes of Jean Prouvé and Ilmari Tapiovaara – equally appeal to lovers of good design. Only the mafia should have been kept outside.
FAIRS & EVENTS Camouflage with cuckoo clock2/24/2014Black-and-white camouflage unsettles the eye. Objects and furniture appear familiar and yet remain strange. And outside in the rotunda a Stars n’ Stripes has exploded. Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt presents Tobias Rehberger – a successful home game.
ARCHITECTURE Revitalization at the touch of a switch12/13/2013It was not so much aesthetic architectural approaches that were called for as temporary solutions with a socio-cultural touch: For the second time Berlin has challenged Europe’s architects to submit entries for the “Urban Intervention Award”. A prize somewhere between “cute” and “best practice”.
ART Over-the-counter masterpieces11/27/2013A year ago Amsterdam’s Rijksmusum launched its Rijksstudio, an online platform that allows users to download images of the museum's artworks for free and edit them at will. Sellout or seductive?
ARCHITECTURE Prêt-à-porter living11/8/2013Turning the crisis into an opportunity: Spain’s architects are discovering prefab homes as a cost-efficient and attractive alternative. With their transportable miniature dwellings Madrid firms “Abaton” and “Sistema Modulab” are spearheading this new trend.
ARCHITECTURE New found design11/6/2013On a rocky outcrop of Newfoundland, where there’s nothing between you and the Artic, the Fogo Island Inn has since May of this year proved that good design can foster tourism and thus create jobs.
ARCHITECTURE See you at the bus stop11/3/2013The small village of Krumbach in Austria’s Vorarlberg region provides the stage for seven of architecture’s biggest names, including Wang Shu und Sou Fujimoto, to put their ideas of what goes to make a perfect bus shelter into practice. The first “Wartehüsle”, as the Austrians call it, has already been put up.
ARCHITECTURE Onwards and upwards10/2/2013No “London Design Festival” without a highlight: And this year, an “Endless Stair” was erected outside the Tate Modern, a walk-on, walk-off stair sculpture à la M.C. Escher.
FAIRS & EVENTS 28.280 coloured glassbowls10/1/2013Our recce of the London Design Festival scouts six of the core venues to discover the current design tendencies. On this 16 mile whistle-stop tour from the west to the east of London, we start at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the self-proclaimed design hub of the LDF.
ARCHITECTURE Close, Closer - to what?9/27/2013An architecture triennale in a time of crisis shows how architecture itself is in a time of crisis. In the face of surging financial and social problems in Portugal, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale under the theme “Close, Closer” aptly proposes to rethink the role of architecture and architects.
DESIGN Sneaker tourists of the world unite!8/30/2013Nobody need fear such immense naivety: Friedrich von Borries seeks with a novel and a design label to bring on board “shareholders for the revolution”. At his Club Med of revolution culture, you won’t find anything right in the completely wrong world.
MAGAZINE Dramatic weave8/25/2013Augustin Teboul is one of the highly promising Berlin fashion labels. Martina Metzner talked with Annelie Augustin and Odély Teboul in their Berlin studio about their eccentric somber robes, their relationship to Paris as the couture capital, and their dream house.
MAGAZINE Studying in Germany, without leaving China8/16/2013There are many prejudices about China. One says that all designs are copied. Yet the “Chinesisch-Deutsche Kunstakademie” (CDK) in Hangzhou demonstrates that there are also other intercultural activities. Egon Chemaitis spoke to its president Yang Xiuqing on the cooperation between the CDK and UDK Berlin.
MAGAZINE Three religions under a single roof8/4/2013In Berlin a communal prayer and teaching hall for Christian, Jews and Muslims is destined to promote inter-religious dialog. And a book has now been published documenting the architectural competition, visualizing the challenge innate in designing a religious building for which there are no historical precedents.
MAGAZINE Bamboo not concrete6/30/2013The exhibition “Think global, build social” at the DAM in Frankfurt shows how architects support social building projects in developing countries, in a sustainable and communal fashion – using local materials. Yet many questions go unanswered.
MAGAZINE The state of design in Germany and Europe6/19/2013What future is in store for design in this country? What has altered? At the “Second German Design Debate” designer Stefan Diez held a highly-acclaimed talk on the current state of design.
MAGAZINE Treasures in the archive9/17/2012Why develop a new product when you can simply reissue a design from the past? Contrary to one’s expectations, so-called “classics” are indeed required to prove their worth time and time again.
MAGAZINE Why they use two hands to hold a glass …4/2/2012Being European in China: A guide. When invited to eat at a restaurant in China, you should always carefully wedge your serviette underneath your plate. That was it doesn't fall on the floor each time you get up because you or one of the guests have a toast to make. The Chinese dinner table is not to be outdone when it comes to symbolism.
MAGAZINE Buildings suited to bamboo3/12/2012Although people in Europe do know that bamboo can be used in many different ways, hardly anybody really knows very much about its characteristics. The situation is very different in Anji, China, where there is hardly any aspect of living where life is not hard to imagine without Bamboo.
DESIGN Everyday America3/4/2012Of course, Coca-Cola, Campbell’s Tomato Soup and Zippo lighters are familiar even to Europeans. But have you heard of Lasko’s “Box Fan”, the “Snuggie” fleece blanket or “Little Red Wagon” for kids? If not, then it’s high time for an excursion into the wonderful world of American consumer goods.
MAGAZINE Reflections on architecture3/3/2012The "Testify! The Consequences of Architecture" exhibition at Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin explores individual experiences with architectural projects worldwide.
MAGAZINE Tea silk, Mao Zedong and a Chinese actress’ memories of childhood10/11/2011The name Dashilar stands for an exciting district of Beijing. Several of the Beijing Design Week events tempted visitors into seeing both once magnificent buildings and former Maoist factories. Alongside exhibitions such as Arik Chen's "Silent Heroes", there's also a longer-term modernization project underway here. The plans by Liang Jingyu and his colleagues could turn out to be trailblazing in the battle against gentrification.
MAGAZINE Woolen blanket like a mythical sealskin10/1/2011Anyone visiting Frankfurt over the next couple of weeks will simply encounter Iceland everywhere. The remote fabulous country is Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst has just opened an exhibition on Icelandic design. Above all fashion labels such as Spaksmannsspjarir, Mundi, Ásta Créative Clothes, Barbara I Gongini and Shoplifter are now the talk of the town here.
MAGAZINE Down with the window! And out with your elbow!9/12/2011Cruising down the street with your elbow out the car window is a leisurely matter. A gesture that could be read as rebellion, or as communication. Will this youthful stance finally have to take a back seat in an era of fully air-conditioned cars?
MAGAZINE Not only higher9/7/2011About half of all the high-rises that stand in the cities of this world have been built in the last decade. Curator Andres Janser sets out in his show "High-Rises - Dream and Reality" at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich to explore what is behind this boom.
MAGAZINE Learning from the land of water3/16/2011Water destroys, heals, seduces. In hardly any other country is this more apparent than Indonesia, country of countless islands. While in the West, water tends to be managed mechanically, and of late digitally, in Indonesia it is a design element in spatial planning, architecture and interior designs.
MAGAZINE Suddenly Spain is Japanese and Japan a little Spanish11/1/2010Spanish design collective CuldeSac has come up with a special idea for an exhibition for Tokyo Designers Week: "Made in JAPAIN - The true story of Spanish Design" uses a comic to convey a fantastic tale of interculturality.
MAGAZINE Design in the heart of Serbia7/15/2010The ambitious project "Belgrade Design Week" is a passionate attempt to establish the Serbian capital as a new design hub. However, the festival succeeds in creating something far more valuable, and that is bringing together like-minded people in an invigorating city.
MAGAZINE Let our fantasies become reality6/26/2010Pupils from Westminster Academy in London were set the task of creating fantasy public spaces. The Serpentine Gallery is now presenting the results of the Fantasy Architecture competition.