ARCHITECTURE Hot spots: A pool in the desert7/30/2014Life is pretty hot in the desert, at least during the day. So what could be more handy than a pool to cool off in. Or to lie in pondering life, the universe. Just be sure to remember the key.
ARCHITECTURE The new Henninger Turm remains a landmark7/28/2014For the architects Meixner Schlüter Wendt planning a high-rise is normally a fascinating task. In designing the new Henninger Turm in Frankfurt/Main they show how living in a high-rise can be both personalized and attractive.
DESIGN Respelling Bauhaus7/25/2014The Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin has announced a new corporate design along with a new font. “bayer next” by L2M3 borrows from the Universal font designed by Herbert Bayer in 1926 at the Bauhaus – carefully transposing it into the present.
INTERVIEWS A building must help define its surroundings7/23/2014Not that long ago the label “residential high-rise” brought to mind images of cheap tenements and social flashpoints. Thomas Wagner talked to Claudia Meixner and Florian Schlüter of Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten about new, attractive and high-quality projects.
DESIGN A new Nordic perspective7/21/2014And we continue our explorations at "3DaysofDesign" in Copenhagen to find out if it's really true the Danes produce their wares sustainably and in their own country.
ARCHITECTURE Hot Spots: swimming in the city or in the river7/18/2014Is there anything nicer than having a cool dip on a scorchingly hot day? Best of all downtown.
DESIGN In the good-life lab7/16/2014As regards design, Denmark certainly has its finger on the pulse of things. Is this anything more than a re-edition of Danish Modernism? Are objects being made sustainably inside Denmark? A trip to “3DaysofDesign” in Copenhagen provides the answers.
ARCHITECTURE Hot Spots: The One-Man Sauna7/14/2014Forget about the mixed sauna! In Bochum, people not only analyze urban interstices, they also get in a sweat all by themselves.
ARCHITECTURE The thing inside the sawmill7/11/2014Madrid’s architect duo of Langarita Navarro is among the emerging young representatives of the “Movida Madrileña”: Their latest work, the Medialab building for Prado, stands for an unpretentious and ironic take on history.
DESIGN Great fake tortoiseshell7/9/2014Acetate was invented about 150 years ago as the first bio-plastic. Today it is primarily used for spectacle frames. Young designers such as the likes of Jean Baptiste Fastrez, Joséphine Choquet and Virgile Thévoz also create frames, tables and luminaires from it.
DESIGN A prize for the wrong decisions7/8/2014The Berlin company “Dark Horse” consists of 30 partners who all have equal status – and has done so for five years. Can a hierarchy-free enterprise really succeed?
DESIGN The right Kit(t)7/6/2014Take a backrest, a seat and four legs, add a touch of Scandinavia, pack it all in a box, and you’ve got “Kitt”, the breezy chair Stefan Diez designed for Hay.
ARCHITECTURE Cosmopoverty7/2/2014Urban hurrah or unhappy rural exodus? People who live in the city are considered cosmopolitan. And yet: The flipside of this humungous influx to the cities reveals quite a different kind of international living: poor cosmopolitans, deprived of urban benefits.
FEATURED New Basel Working World7/1/2014For insurance company Basler Versicherungen Total Office Management developed a flexible office concept. The pilot project features office furniture from the Flow Work System range by Lista Office LO.
ARCHITECTURE Lively, spontaneous, Brazilian6/30/2014The “Lina Bo Bardi: Together” exhibition at Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ) in Berlin focuses on an architect who came to fame as a passionate champion of subsidized building in Brazil. Yet she remained an outsider at the “Escola Paulista”.
ARCHITECTURE Fast tube to enjoyment6/29/2014Astonishing things are happening on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. Anyone climbing Carsten Höller’s “Slide Tower” will find not just an amazing view beckoning, but a slide with a great ride down. Added to which, grand master Álvaro Siza has created a new promenade that offers a novel route round the campus.
ARCHITECTURE Cocoon by fashion patterns6/27/2014Compared to last year’s Serpentine Pavilions, the new one by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić’s is certainly the most astounding and unpredictable yet.
ART Voulez vous Prouvé?6/27/2014At Design Miami, which took place in parallel to Art Basel, the French galleries presented an awful lot of Jean Prouvé originals. The icing on the cake: Konstantin Grcic transformed an Audi TT into a mobile living machine.
FAIRS & EVENTS Charles Brooking’s world of windows6/25/2014So have we simply accepted the fact that nowadays one window looks just like any other?This wonderful collection from England demonstrates just how much variety in window shapes and materials there once was.
FEATURED Scandinavian Dolce Vita6/24/2014Bronda, a restaurant on Eteläesplanadi, a promenade in the center of Helsinki, is both urban and spacious in feel. A high, elongated room with lots of space and a large window front sets a suitable stage for a city-dwelling public in the Finnish capital since this spring. Helsinki architects Futudesign styled the restaurant with timelessly elegant and generous fittings with furniture by Pedrali.
FAIRS & EVENTS Well made and pleasant6/23/2014For “Berlin Design Week”, philosopher Hannes Böhringer, photographer Hans Hansen and designer Axel Kufus invited representatives of a variety of disciplines to a conference to discuss the notion of ‘elegance’. The result: unusual and exciting stimuli for design.
INTERVIEWS Digital Bauhaus6/22/2014Can the idea of the Bauhaus be transposed onto the digital age? This will bethe issue tackled at the “Digital Bauhaus Summit” at the end of June inWeimar. Adeline Seidel interviewed the conference curators Philipp Albers,Holm Friebe, Mads Pankow and Kathrin Passig via the cloud.
FAIRS & EVENTS The dream of an open society6/20/2014The Dutch pavilion celebrates Jaap Bakema and with him the achievements of a form of post-War Modernism whose architecture is shaped by the institutions of the welfare state.
FAIRS & EVENTS Import – Export6/18/2014Modernist architecture as a symbol of emancipation or occupation? Freedom or disenfranchisement? The country contributions from and about African countries provide many an idea in this regard.
FAIRS & EVENTS Modernism and its uncle6/17/2014A fun-loving uncle resides in the French pavilion. He’s called Hulot, was invented by Jacques Tati, and shows in an amusing way all the things that can go wrong in the world of Modernism.
FAIRS & EVENTS A Clockwork Modernism6/17/2014What course did Modernism take in Britain? “Clockwork Jerusalem” takes a glance at William Blake to paint a surprising picture.
FAIRS & EVENTS Please touch6/16/2014A new pragmatism has changed Japanese architecture as if it has bid farewell to dreams – as can be discovered in the Japanese pavilion: “The Real World” is an unusually cluttered exhibition.
FAIRS & EVENTS Germany’s Ex-Top Models6/15/2014In the form of “Bungalow Germania” Alex Lehnerer and Savvas Ciriacidis have created one of the best exhibits in the Biennale and realized an unsettlingly instructive piece on the political instrumentalization of architecture.
FAIRS & EVENTS Architecture Know-How in Museum and Archive6/13/2014A great deal of hard work went into the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. The curators of the national pavilions kindly searched the archives and Rem Koolhaas had all manner of architectural elements brought to the Giardini. A tour of a surprisingly didactic exhibition.
FAIRS & EVENTS Italian affairs6/11/2014For the exhibition “Monditalia” 41 teams were asked to design a piece about the country of Italy. The result: a show that is diverse, chaotic and at times pure kitsch.
FAIRS & EVENTS If you want to understand Modernity you need to have fun with it6/10/2014“Fair Enough” reads the lettering heading the pavilion of the Russian Federation. In other words: Very well! Or could it indeed imply that someone is fed-up with economization? In any case, this pavilion is great fun – while smart and critical at the same time.
FAIRS & EVENTS Rem Koolhaas’ foundations6/10/2014Rem Koolhaas has assembled a marvelous architecture biennial that mines Modernism to uncover its foundations in a bid to address the urgent issues of building in the 21st century.
DESIGN Sun, moon and marble6/9/2014When it comes to designing fragile luminaires that have a minimalist, elegant look-and-feel, Michael Anastassiades, a Cypriot-born designer now living in London, is considered a master in his field. He even succeeds in teasing extraordinary shapes from a solid block of marble.
FAIRS & EVENTS Directly ahead of the Windsors6/8/2014Traditional tools and techniques governed the aesthetic flavor at Clerkenwell Design Week. Young UK companies like Dare Studio, Deadgood, Case and James UK celebrated their British roots and personalities – presenting a breed of truly British future antiques.
