Magazin

The growing number of sharing platforms make us more flexible: Instead of owning something, we use what we need. Which saves money, spares resources, and fits a lifestyle that has to be updated about as often as a smartphone. We have prepared a list of a few of the important sharing pages for a life with assistants at your side.

Drive cleverly, live smarter – at the IAA the symbiosis of electro-mobility and intelligent building automation is a key topic. Efforts have long been underway to develop the smart home. But the market is only slowly picking up pace.

Drivers like it mobile and thus there is an increasing number of Apps that make driving easier and more entertaining. Be it Glympse, Waze or Smiledrive – we present those that seem indispensable.

Mercedes’ new S class not only tried to find a contemporary look for official presentation. But to enhance comfort and safety it also boasts a number of assistants small and large, who actively monitor traffic, the surroundings and the driver – and intervene if need be.

The buzzwords of today are “smart technology” and “networking”. Wherever you look you’ll see assistance systems making our lives safer, more efficient and easier.

Berlin’s “Illustrative Festival” offers insights into the young world of illustrators.

Daniel von Bernstorff, Stylepark, met Cocksedge in London to talk about his recent projects, his solo exhibition in New York and his fascination for crowd-funding.

We’re surrounded by messages. In the media, in public space, in department stores. Everywhere someone is telling us what we should or should not do or buy.

Nobody need fear such immense naivety: Friedrich von Borries seeks with a novel and a design label to bring on board “shareholders for the revolution”. At his Club Med of revolution culture, you won’t find anything right in the completely wrong world.

For the sixth time Vitra is hosting an “Ampelphase” exhibition in its Frankfurt Showroom – this year the exhibition is designed by six architects from the RhineMain region, who have developed a temporary creative platform with many a look inwards and many a view outwards.

We’ve now reached no. 300 with our Newsletter. So we came up with a little fun to mark the occasion. If you have joined up the numbered dots correctly and come up with the image and worked out who designed it, then you can even win it. So, off you go!

Augustin Teboul is one of the highly promising Berlin fashion labels. Martina Metzner talked with Annelie Augustin and Odély Teboul in their Berlin studio about their eccentric somber robes, their relationship to Paris as the couture capital, and their dream house.

To date, the WC has been regarded as a largely no-tech zone. And now the shower WC, long since the norm in Japan and the Arab world, is ready to delight Europeans – as a “fun feature” and “pleasurable health booster”.

The sky is reflected in Europe’s highest building. London’s “The Shard” seems to constantly adapt to the weather and changing light conditions. This “visual adaptivity” is made possible by a coating custom-made for the high-rise. Julius Streifeneder talked with Bart Akkerhuis about it.

“Architektur für die russische Raumfahrt” is a lavishly illustrated volume that brings together an array of constructivist compositions, Stalinist monuments, brutalist buildings and monumental wall reliefs – all of them made to affirm the promise of salvation innate in Soviet astronautics.

The “Yiddishe Kop” with his wit and the stories of rabbis are not only full with wise insights into life, but also help solve problems. Rabbi Nilton Bonder explains how this works and why in isn’t enough to simply know a world.

There are many prejudices about China. One says that all designs are copied. Yet the “Chinesisch-Deutsche Kunstakademie” (CDK) in Hangzhou demonstrates that there are also other intercultural activities. Egon Chemaitis spoke to its president Yang Xiuqing on the cooperation between the CDK and UDK Berlin.

Everlasting Sprout is a young Japanese label that came to fame for its elaborate knitted creations and a joint project with Kazuyo Sejima at Sanaa. After Issey, Yohji and Rei they demonstrate why it’s worthwhile looking to Japanese fashion again.

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 Future is here” at London’s Design Museum is an ambitious exhibition that captures the current transition in manufacturing brought about by new digital technologies. An impressive achievement taking into consideration the fast change of the digital era.

In their work, artists and architects Jan and Tim Edler from “Realities United” focus on building systems and the potential for communication they afford. Adeline Seidel met Jan Edler in Berlin to talk about adaptive concepts.

Politics, climate change and the Niger shape their lives. Italian photographer Nicola Lo Calzo photographed people along the river.

In Berlin a communal prayer and teaching hall for Christian, Jews and Muslims is destined to promote inter-religious dialog. And a book has now been published documenting the architectural competition, visualizing the challenge innate in designing a religious building for which there are no historical precedents.

The new Mini was from the outset a lifestyle product. And the same can be said of the “Mini Vision” study. Martina Metzner spoke to Annette Baumeister, Head of Color & Trim at Mini Design, on the patterns, colors and materials that are typical of the Mini.

What systems and materials lay the basis for an architecture that can respond dynamically and independently to climatic influences? We present a few current R&D projects.

Entitled “Untragbar”, students at Bremen’s University of the Arts have launched a fashion project that needles what’s in vogue and stitches it all up in an original magazine design.

How to free oneself of the burden of celebrities at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

What will the cities of tomorrow look like? How will we move in them? And what role will digital media play in the process? A discussion with Jürgen Mayer H. and Eric Höweler at the “Schaustelle” in Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne tried to find some answers.

To 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”.

Even though current automobiles may resort to all kinds of make-up, in the first instance, what really counts as a trademark is the radiator grille. A little guide to the various different types.

The book on “Imagining the House” by Pritzker prizewinner Wang Shu includes hand drawings by the architect – in their original size. And if you take a closer look at them you soon see what a difference there is between designing a building by hand rather than at the computer.