Archive

For Sauerbruch Hutton, appealing to the senses and passion are integral to architecture. Sandra Hofmeister spoke to Matthias Sauerbruch about sustainability in its various facets.

Scandinavian design is known for its clear forms, durability and careful craftsmanship. Do students from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland still design in accordance with these principles today? Juliane Grützner asked some of them.

There is a noticeably large number of women in design in Scandinavia. From Nanna Ditzel to Front Design, female designers have always played an important role in Nordic countries. Does this have something to do with design style? Or is it quite simply a question of equality?

Creativity, quality and economic viability can all be associated with the term design. The Scandinavian governments have taken advantage of this and are investing in promoting both the discipline and their own image.

Sometimes they use original plan, other times they rely on an aged furniture item – Erling and Egon Petersen, two brothers from Ormslev, Denmark go to endless lengths in their quest to breathe new life into an original design from the previous century.

Be it park benches, conference tables or outdoor chairs – there's always an additional use to Thomas Bernstrand's designs, even though they stand in the tradition of classic Scandinavian design.

Currently hardly a car-maker has prioritized special topics. Instead, cars are on show that can potentially do everything. Give you a sporting drive, be safe off-road, and look like a limousine.

Wismar: Summer academyMunich: Women in artK20: Window imagesZurich: Freitag – Out of the BagRotterdam: Architecture biennial

Not much longer to go, as in early June the Berlin Brandenburg airport opens. Heike Nehl and Sibylle Schlaich at Moniteurs designed the signage system. In fact, the first signs have already been put in place on the construction site.

In Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film epic "2001: A Space Odyssey" one of the main characters is the computer "HAL 9000". Today we encounter it at any door in the design of video-monitored intercom systems.

As is the case in many sectors, in architecture average just doesn't quite cut it. That said, there are plenty of everyday houses that can be considered "quite good". Now Oda Pälmke has taken a closer look at them.

Karlsruhe: Sound ArtBerlin: Chairs without legsDelft: The Essence of CoolBerlin: Art and PressBoston: The Allure of Japan

In the wake of the enthusiasm for cooking, or so many trend gurus have long been prophesying, it's now the garden's day. But it's not just the trend-conscious urbanites who are discovering allotment gardens anew, and not just guerilla gardening and self-supply that are blossoming again – the garden promises veritably paradisiacal states.

"I don't draw – I photograph!," says John Pawson. And we can readily believe him: in the course of the last decade the British architect has shot over 250,000 photos. And for the first time a selection is on show at Munich Technical University's Architecture Museum attached to Pinakothek der Moderne.

Art has a problem with design, proposes Michael Erlhoff, Professor of Design Theory and History at Cologne's International School of Design. He focuses on the social perception of design and hopes that the technocrats will get worn down.

The townhouse as a type is evidently very much in line with the times. And so it is hardly surprising that Hans Stimmann, once Municipal Building Director in Berlin, has brought out a book on it. The title intimates that the tome is intended to help planning, and it's a high-end volume of examples of specimen townhouses. Does the townhouse really have the muscle to counteract our inner cities emptying?

In China the babies don't wear diapers, but slit-pants. And everyday life in China otherwise has many particularities that are little known in Europe. The exhibition on "Chinese Suff" at Frankfurt's Museum für Angewandte Kunst presents all manner of wears and wares from China.

Diane Arbus: RetrospectiveVienna: HomedepotEast German design: forgotten?Urbanism: Hands-onDAM: Zhang Ke

Although 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.