Scholten & Baijings
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Do furniture design and fashion swing to the same rhythm? We had a look round in Cologne, London, Milan, New York, Paris and Stockholm: And started with color.

Yes, folks, it really does exist: the universal chair of 2015. It was designed by various hands, comes in numerous versions and yet still follows a typology going back to a famous forebear. Ultimately, it is the subtle differences that count.

“Ottoman” by Scholten & Baijings for Moroso

Fresh, but not too sporty, leisurely in shape and color, but not too elegant – a truly fine recliner-cum-seat.

Our 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.

Enjoying a TV dinner or simply eating with your laptop on your knees? Does either have much to do with cultured meals? And can you use plates, cups and the like made by three Modernist mega-hitters to this end, namely Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva? The exhibition on “Vom Stand der Dinge” in Bremen explores these questions, with the help of 11 contemporary designers.

The traditional Japanese furniture maker Karimoku has reinvented itself as a new label. Karimoku New Standard fields products made of wood with an unmistakable Japanese touch – and collaborates in the process with designers such as Scholten & Baijings.

In “Colour One for Mini” Scholten & Baijings have created an installation, that conceptually challenges common conventions in surrounding the car. The Dutch designer duo dissected a “Mini One”, revamping the individual parts with new colors and textures. The outcome created a space where our associations with the past and future of the automobile were free to run wild.

Dutch designer duo Scholten & Baijings add subtle patterns and colors to forms, make fabric rhubarb stalks objects of communication, envelop design classics with their "Colour Plaids" and reinterpret traditional Dutch items of furniture. At the Milan Furniture Fair, they premiered designs with Established & Sons. Markus Frenzl caught up with the designers in Rotterdam and Milan.

Admittedly, the borders of the Zona Tortona are a little frayed at the edges and in the new design district Ventura Lambrate designers are pushing into an area where artists once thronged, but there is a great deal to be discovered here. And, when all is said, when it comes to furniture design, things do tend to go around in productive circles.

Object Rotterdam, the "autonomous design" trade fair, which was held for the second time at the beginning of February, featured in some cases surprising quality: the post-Droog generation of designers would appear to be far more earnest.