Archive

"Slàinte mhath!" the Scots wish each other before drinking a whisky. The idea is not getting drunk but enjoying the taste and aroma. Which is why the Scots say: Less is more, sniffing and sipping beat smelling and gulping down.

Originally sleds were used as a means of transport for people and freight. In recent years, sleds have undergone a transformation from leisure to sports equipment. Let's take a trip to the snow-covered mountain tops.

Heat-emitting hand-warmers are a source of joy for all the shivering - be they on the road, enjoying outdoor sports, or at an open-air festival. While historical heat balls were often masterpieces of handcrafting skill, modern pocket hand-warmers leave a lot to be desired when it comes to design. On behalf of all those who feel the cold, let's hope that these creatively neglected heat sources will develop into decorative accessories for snowy winter days.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For his "Hotel Dresden: A gesamtkunstwerk" project, Berlin-based designer Hermann August Weizenegger has donned the role of a 19th-century artist-cum-architect. A daring experiment.

Astrid Korntheuer tells very special stories. Anyone viewing her subtly staged photographs will feel that fixed boundaries in space seem to dissolve and inner and outer views meld.

Armed with a camera and a laptop, fashion nerds collect inspiring impressions for their Blogs on the street, report on fashion events or simply place themselves in the limelight. Simone Werle's book "Style Diaries" portrays 40 fashion bloggers from all over the world.

The monograph "Yes is More" by Bjarke Ingels presents the history of architecture in comic form. Quite rightly the elaborately designed paperback won this year's prize for the best architects' monograph awarded by Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt/Main.

The first German issue of the Architect@work fair shows how relevant a focused trade fair can be. Alongside fairs such as Bau, ISH or Light+Building the more specialized fair provides a platform for innovations in the field of architecture.

Design - what is it? Industrially refashioned craftsmanship? Something that is second to none in dominating the present day and as such has become "total"? And just why does brand mean a dark spot on a deer's stomach? Sweet and nutritious delights from the pre-Christmas chest of books.

In his two-volume "Die Stadt im 20. Jahrhundert" (The City in the 20th Century), Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani summarizes topographical, historiographic and organizational aspects of urban planning with an impressive wealth of material, a monographic approach to key figures, and great earnestness.

A contemporary panorama made up only of portraits of artists is what Angelika Platen has created over the past decades. A book with a selection of her black-and-white images shows just how subtly the photographer is able to balance proximity and distance.

Weighing in at eight hundred pages in length, "The Story of Eames Furniture" indeed makes a promising impression. A variety of historical images showing Charles and Ray Eames, the Eames Office itself as well as legendary products such as the Lounge Chair, are a feast for the reader's eyes. Unfortunately, however, in places the book's content appears to be strongly influenced by the authors' subjective perspective on design history.

With his book "Total design" Mateo Kries, Chief Curator and future director at Vitra Design Museum in Weil/Rhine, has critically assessed the new and supposedly exaggerated role of design.

Everything is beautiful. Art, design, people, cars. In early December, Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami transform Florida's capital into an island of bliss.

The catalog "Drawing Fashion" presents drawings of haute couture from 1910 to the present day. Drawings, watercolors and gouaches by illustrators including Georges Lepape, André Edourd Marty and René Bouché enchant readers with their outstanding beauty.

In the form of "Qubique - the next generation tradeshow", which will take place for the first time at the end of October 2011 against the spectacular backdrop of the former Tempelhof Airport, the German capital is finally going to host an event in the area of furniture and Interior design that can be taken seriously and promises to be successful.

In 1958, a model housing development was built in Budapest, the designs of which derived from a government-organized architecture and design competition. Even though the house designs were subsequently not built in other places, the interior designs laid the foundations for the modern Hungarian furniture industry.

Oliver Grabes heads the design department of the long-standing company Braun and in conversation with Jens Müller explains his way of looking at things. What is the design process at Braun like today, how does the company deal with Dieter Rams' legacy, and why are Apple products so successful compared with Braun?

Something is happening in Russia. Concern about the architectural quality of the buildings in Moscow and the approach taken to public space has led to the founding of the Strelka Institutes. The educational institute's provisional new building was created by Rem Koolhaas, who is supporting the initiators.