FAIRS & EVENTS Design, backstage5/7/2015Interzum in Cologne rounds up all the big names from the furniture making and interior fittings industry, making the trade fair a treasure trove for all those in the fields of design, planning and building.
FAIRS & EVENTS Deft wefts and smart warps5/5/2015Technical textiles energize interior design and architecture alike. We present the most inspiring product innovations from Techtextil in Frankfurt.
ARCHITECTURE Pradapolis5/5/2015Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture have converted a former distillery in the south of Milan on behalf of Fondazione Prada – and created an anthology of diverse spaces and materials.
FAIRS & EVENTS A stitch in time4/23/2015From May 4 to 7, 2015 Frankfurt’s Techtextil trade fair will be showcasing smart textiles, luminescent fabrics, sensory garments, and much more besides. We have compiled the must-know details of the exhibition for you below.
FAIRS & EVENTS Fresh from the textiles lab4/23/2015Dynamic walls, luminescent concrete and polar-bear houses, a tour of the experimentation and research going into textile construction.
ARCHITECTURE A new architectural skin4/19/2015Somewhere between studio, lab, and manifesto: Contemporary architecture has rediscovered textiles’ countless properties and possibilities.
ARCHITECTURE The construction material of the future4/17/2015Textile research institutes and corporations have in recent years researched fiber-based alternative construction materials and developed products ready for market destined to replace classic materials like steel.
INTERVIEWS A quest for clarity and simplicity2/16/2015More than ten years ago Antonio Citterio designed his first range of fittings for Axor, a brand by Hansgrohe. Having done two very distinct series, he created a synthesis with his third: Axor Citterio E. The designer and architect talked to us about risks, confidence and the quality of life, all of which are occasionally associated with selected products.
FAIRS & EVENTS Mirror, mirror on the wall9/26/2014Split cobs with Sebastian Cox Holz, admire yourself in Barber Osgerby’s huge ceiling mirrors, and watch the future of mobility through stained glass. And in addition to these attractions, this year’s London Design Festival also served up many interesting team line-ups and countless cool results.
FAIRS & EVENTS Vive la Raffinesse!1/12/2014New digital printing technologies for home textiles are the key business driver at Frankfurt’s Heimtextil trade fair and are making sure the sector starts out the year with a bang. That said, there are few really astounding designs to be seen – but we found them.
ARCHITECTURE Monomade in Tokyo12/25/2013In Tokyo “urban manufacturing” is not just some post-economic crisis slogan, but lived practice day in day out. In Taitō, one of the oldest districts, furniture, bags, paper lanterns and silver tea-ceremony vessels are being made in tiny workshops – and often by craftsmen seated on the floor in the traditional Japanese style.
ARCHITECTURE Beautiful homes rising from the dust11/24/2013Neat glossy pictures of gorgeous buildings and smart interiors shape the face of architecture in today’s media age. But if you take the plunge and treat your house or apartment to a makeover, you will soon find yourself confronted with noise, dust, dirt – and those who cause it.
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 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.
MAGAZINE Take your dromedary to the beach7/26/2013To construct a fun car you need more than a great idea and a good mood. As can be seen from a comparison between the unique “Méhari” Citroën and Jean-Marie Massaud’s concept for a Toyota “Me.We”.
MAGAZINE A Magic Spell – in Spanish7/14/2013We are in Spain, yes. Yet no sooner than someone mentions Cosentino and “Silestone”, we cannot help but think of a little Gallic village and the power of a magic formula.
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 Lightweight Homes6/28/2013Light and supple, transparent or opaque, textiles are extremely versatile. Today they find wide application in temporary architectural projects. With “Textile Architektur” Textil- und Industriemuseum has devoted a special exhibition to them. Now on show in Augsburg.
MAGAZINE Teeth on a string and a Matterhörnli in a box4/29/2013A Swiss army knife with the head of a bearded man hidden somewhere among the blades and tools but that despite its multitude of capabilities can’t do what Peter Sauer does, namely, carve. It is joined by a Matterhörnli chocolate in a box, Jochen Rindt’s ruined Ferrari in a nutshell – and a Swiss passport as a catalog, which provides a coveted insight into Sauerer’s “Miniversium”.
MAGAZINE Vitreous spheres of knowledge9/7/2012Venice-born architect Carlo Scarpa worked for the Venini glass manufactory from 1932 until 1947. Coinciding with this year’s Architecture Biennale the new exhibition space “Le Stanze del Vetro” has launched – with an homage to Scarpa’s Murano glass creations.
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.
MAGAZINE What comes after the age of plastic?10/6/2011Things are happening in the materials field. No less than a green revolution is on the agenda. Hardly surprising that there is currently a large number of books about material. One that can be particularly recommended is Sascha Peter's reference book "Material Revolution" about multi-functional and sustainable materials.
MAGAZINE Thinking about life’s elasticity11/23/2010Whether a silk stocking, a small pig on a trampoline or the human brain, artists and scientists have made any number of contributions on elasticity to the anthology "Findings on Elasticity" . The outcome is a conglomeration that lets the reader share in a creative thought-finding process.
MAGAZINE The return of the curved8/1/2010Be it purses, chairs or roofs: Wickerwork, one of the world's oldest construction methods is experiencing a revival.
MAGAZINE Functional ornamentation5/17/2010Centuries ago, in a small town in Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara, craftsmen experimented with the decorative potential of brick. At the same time they created functional but contemporary architecture.-
MAGAZINE Juuri or the genie of the bottle4/28/2010One basic design, six variations, three colors, countless combinations: the vessel "Juuri" of young designer Sarah Böttger delights with its special design and material language.
MAGAZINE Architecture en miniature2/11/2010In Munich, at an exhibition entitled "Architekturchen" Ingo Maurer is presenting surprising works by Italian design star Michele de Lucchi. They show how working with wood can trigger new thought processes and inspire new ideas.
MAGAZINE Stone that goes with the flow12/19/2009Ströhmann Steinkult, a company based in Central Germany, devotes itself to experimenting with stone, especially with stone surfaces. What they achieve by combining the effects of materials, shapes and light is quite astonishing.
MAGAZINE New concretes for Architecture and Design10/20/2009Concrete is by no means simply gray and monotonous. Recent years have seen the development of numerous new concretes that reveal the various uses to which it can be put.
MAGAZINE Concrete – so much more than the gray friend in the background10/20/2009The new Material Edition will showcase many other types of concrete including, for example, glass-foam concrete, translucent concrete, colored and recycled concrete. Be inspired by the sheer wealth of possible uses!
MAGAZINE The hidden beauty of the sewer rat10/15/2009Concrete is the epitome of the Neues Bauen movement and linked inseparably to Modernism. Yet despite the multifarious opportunities for use it still has a hard time being perceived in terms of its aesthetic qualities as well.
MAGAZINE Matt gold, please!8/13/2009Hand-crafted porcelain: obscenely expensive, decorative items for the glass cabinet, figurines ... we know the kind of thing only too well. And then you find yourself taking part in a guided tour round the Nymphenburg porcelain manufactory and you rediscover a world long thought to be forgotten, full of craftsmen who are proud of their work and pieces which breathe life.
MAGAZINE Bambú brasileiro or the future of a material6/6/2009Brazil is the land of tropical forests. Very few actually know that bamboo also grows here in abundance. The more radical the changes in current policies of exploiting the rainforest, the better the chances that bamboo, a versatile material boasting a multitude of different applications, will soon be attributed a far more prominent role - in architecture as well as in design and automotive engineering.
MAGAZINE Rigid, impact resistant and highly transparent6/2/2009The Metocene Material Edition, which Stylepark has developed in conjunction with the chemical company LyondellBasell, illustrates, with a variety of examples and products, the diversity of visual possibilities that this plastic offers.
MAGAZINE The liberation of shape5/31/2009Charles and Ray Eames once experimented with glass fiber reinforced plastics, today Konstantin Grcic experiments with Hirek plastic while Patricia Urquiola favors transparent polymers in a bid to achieve totally new shapes, surface qualities or uses that make design not only the formal but also technological manifestation of our age capable of altering people's lives. A little story to the significance of plastics for design.