Magazin

Heading for Milan - Museo del Novecento located on the cathedral square downtown has a new face. It is home to the municipal collection of Italian 20th century art, and above all houses any amount of "Futurismo".

Designers and architects are hardly ever consulted for the design of technical appliances and energy systems. Calls that this be changed, such as by Dieter Rams, have to date largely fallen on deaf ears. If one evaluates the products recently presented at the ISH from this point of view, then above all one thing becomes clear: there is a strong need for change.

While an exhibition in Frankfurt's Museum for Applied Art presents the "i-cosmos" of Apple and its competitors, activists bring the Bauhaus spirit into the digital world with their "physical computing".

There is a camel here, a small monkey there. And which soap adorns the latest washstands? Some presentations at this year's ISH were real eye-catchers, others simply a bit drab. But all were careful arrangements.

Today, faucets created by highly paid designers are ugly, or so claims Hans Magnus Enzensberger at least. The exhibitors at the ISH were no doubt more upbeat about their products, and put much effort into presenting their new fittings, basins and everything else that belongs in a bathroom.

The new Stylepark Magazin für Produktkultur takes a look around outside: showcasing outdoor furniture, garden cities, spring-like patterns and many other plein air specials.

When models on the world's major catwalks present prêt-à-porter and haute couture, given the almost sculptural qualities of the fashion it is hard not to wonder whether the items can be worn in everyday life. Wolfsburg's current exhibition "Art & Fashion. Between skin and clothing" explores just how fashion and art interact.

For eight years now, Spanish designer Jaime Hayon has concerned himself with bathrooms. His first collection for ArtQuitect made him renowned world-wide. Yet he was first able to truly formulate his idea of the elegant bathroom with the "Bisazza Bagno" line that he just presented at the ISH. Nina Reetzke talked with him about bathrooms, elegance and Art Deco.

Is there any room left for technical innovations in our homes? Going by what is being presented at ISH, the majority of innovations are going to happen in the bathroom - which in itself is becoming ever more homely.

What actually influences our relationship to water and using it? Possibly it is far less rational and far more shaped by the media than we would like to know. A short history of German socialization as regards H2O.

We know him as the man behind extravagant buildings, experimental furniture and bed clothes that store body heat. Now architect Jürgen Mayer H. has designed a sunglasses collection for the "ic! Berlin" label. A complete break with symmetry.

Water destroys, heals, seduces. In hardly any other country is this more apparent than Indonesia, country of countless islands. While in the West, water tends to be managed mechanically, and of late digitally, in Indonesia it is a design element in spatial planning, architecture and interior designs.

Every two years the fair Frankfurt invites everyone to attend ISH. From 15 to 19 March approximately 2,300 manufacturers will present the world's largest exhibition for bathroom design and building-services technology. An exhibitor schedule presents the most important manufacturers.

From March 15-19, the industry will gather in Frankfurt/Main for the ISH, the "world's leading trade fair The Bathroom Experience, Building, Energy, Air-conditioning Technology, Renewable Energies". So what is the state of play with our as of late "sustainable" bath culture? What has happened to enjoyment?

The sanitation industry is revving up for the ISH. Alongside questions of sustainability and innovations in the field of energy technology, this year everything seems to hinge on the notion of "the homely bathroom". Layouts and installation technology often constrain the wish for enjoyment and a particular lifestyle, however.

The adventure of the "future" continues. This year we are hosting the Audi Urban Future Initiative as the follow-up to the first "Audi Urban Future Award", curated by Stylepark, which culminated last year in an exhibition of the entries at the Venice Architecture Biennial and presentation of the Award to Jürgen Mayer H.

Among designers, the word "trend" is definitely a no-no to be avoided at all cost. Rightly so, as the term refers to something that purports to be new but is actually well known. Yet it is worth looking at the concept a little more closely to discern the mechanisms operating behind it.

What might an absolutely state-of-the-art furniture fair look like? The name "Qubique" already exists. And along with it a concept that centers on the special qualities of design. If everything works out, Qubique will open its doors for the first time in October 2011 in Berlin's Tempelhof Airport.

Spaces that seem to be the stuff of dreams await visitors to the exhibition "Surreal Objects" at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. Wheelbarrows become sofas, women's legs, stools and birds, tables.

When we read, books or newspapers for example, the eye scans along the printed letters, taking in the content in the process. But what happens if the texts themselves take on a dynamic of their own? The exhibition "Type in Motion" currently on show at the Museum of Design Zurich presents letters, words and sentences as they appear on the media stage.

In the second section, Jochen Stöckmann talks to Paola Antonelli, design curator at New York's MoMA, on the current significance of design, the specificities of a museum, the @ sign in the collection, on green design, and on weapons in a design exhibition.

Paola Antonelli is in charge of design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and thus for the department which, in the view of the founding director Alfred Barr was destined to show everyone the opportunities for including art in their own lives. Jochen Stöckmann speaks to Paola Antonelli about design exhibitions in an art museum, about how important it is despite computers to create things by hand, about mobile phones and the criteria for selecting items for inclusion in the collection.

Flying to Paris, Rome and back to London - was a luxury only open to the rich and beautiful in the 1960s and 1970s. The jet-set life became symbolic for a new era shaped by the media, music, art and protest culture. The exhibition "Zeitgeist and Glamour" in Düsseldorf's NRW-Forum shows photos from this epoch.

You only need to step out of the plane to be enjoying good, plain contemporary design. What the Stockholm Furniture Fair has to present in its halls does not exist in isolation. It comes to life in the city.

The Ambiente in Frankfurt/Main has always been considered at the trade fair of "things to put on things". Any number of accessories for the kitchen, bathroom, living room, kids' room and garden. The selection of fitting innovations for "your store" is a challenge that every purchasing manager has to survive.

If nothing else, open rooms and changing furnishings alter the building requirements made of open fireplaces and stoves. These should not be built firmly into hearths, but positioned freely in homes and gardens in line with the owners' wishes.

Islands are special places. Places of the imagination and of longing. Paradise is an island, but so too is Hell maintains Judith Schalansky, who has created a wonderful "Atlas of Remote Islands", which presents fifty islands, "I never set foot on and never will".

The creative Villa Villekulla in Brooklyn, New York serves as the headquarters of the architecture cooperative Terreform ONE. This is where ideas are generated for the city of the day after tomorrow. And where mobile houses and soft cars are designed.

Even the architecture gods of classical Modernism are only people, each in his own way. This can be seen -- and smelled - from the houses they lived in. A visit to the Eames House near Los Angeles and to Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan.

"Il Girasole" - the sunflower, is a revolving house built in the 1930s not far from Verona. Now a sensitive short film has been devoted to this extraordinary piece of architecture and its special atmosphere.

Isamu Noguchi was the first artist and designer in America to open his own museum. This was a good thing - because the premises in 33rd Road perfectly reflect his design philosophy.

The imm cologne furniture fair is currently making a comeback, not just thanks to efforts being made to once again provide dedicated labels and manufacturers with a sophisticated platform, but also because of its grand new kitchen show, "Living Kitchen". While experienced trade fair visitors may have wondered what the name referred to ("the kitchen is alive" or perhaps "living the kitchen"?) one thing is clear: Kitchens are the new hot topic that electrifies professional visitors and the general public alike.

Does it look like a ripe strawberry? Or a piece of bloated crispbread? However you answer this question, the "Ploum" sofa by the Bouroullec brothers is one of the most talked-about products at this year's imm Cologne. Nina Reetzke spoke to Ronan Bouroullec about the sofa's low seat, marketing, and making films.

The "BAU 2011" trade fair takes some beating and a main focus this year was sustainable building as one of the key challenges of the day. Many exhibitors already offer sustainable products. In the near future a major aim will be to combine them successfully.

A trade fair consists of individual booths. However, this is not necessarily the best possible solution, as the new "Pure Textile" section demonstrates. There you will still find any number of light, fine, spring-fresh and elegant fabrics, but they are still all isolated. Moreover, one other thing is clear: tables and sofas are clawing their way back onto the carpet.