Magazin

The items in the minimalux collection, presented for the first time in Milan, are small, refined, expensive and perfect for an executive desk or the breakfast table in a discerning home.

The diverse world of furniture in Milan leaves us facing many questions. Can we shed our fear of the foreign in the current worlds of sofa cushions with all their different patterns? Can a fashion label does everything better? And what is the future of Mannerism and the Ethno mix?

The newly established furniture brand "Moustache" from France introduces itself on Via Tortona in Milan.

The really important facts from 4 days of Salone and Fuorisalone, which no-one else will tell you about.

Just as a quodlibet combines different melodies that essentially having nothing to do with one another, but now resound simultaneously, Milan's Salone del Mobile brings together all manner of things. One set of objects seem to be art, another a matter of banalities - and here or there you may sense the sounds of the future.

The automobile industry is continually developing new safety systems to prevent crashes from happening at all. Art, however, as shown in Ricarda Roggan's photographs, uses the crash to make commodities things again.

Mona Hatoum "Paravent"

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown first opened their archive of photographs that formed the basis of their thesis for the Museum im Bellpark in Kriens, Switzerland. A characteristic selection is now on display at Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt/Main.

Inspired by colourful leaves the architects Tham & Videgård Hansson create a bold composition of colours and patterns, which flow between the rooms of a large 10-room apartment in central Stockholm.

Stefan Diez is also presenting a new chair in Milan, which he has named after the famous American escapologist and conjurer "Houdini".

Every two years it accompanies the Milan furniture fair: Euroluce. Once again this year numerous new designs and technical innovations will be on display at the light fair. And no doubt visitors will come across this or that answer to the future of the light bulb.

Artek launcht das 10-Unit System von Shigeru Ban.

Dedon's "outdoor living room" is to feature another outfit. The Special Edition D.D.C. (Dedon Dress Code), which is being presented for the first time this week, includes tartan and cheekily enlarged houndstooth patterns. Naturally woven.

"Moustache" is the name of the new furniture label that Stéphane Arriubergé and Massimiliano Iorio will be launching at the Salone in Milan.

To stop you from completely losing your way in the usual hustle bustle of the fair and in order to give you a first look at the many activities and locations that the town has to offer, Stylepark has put together a list of the various hotspots connected with Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.

The Saloni are almost upon us: from 22nd to 27th April, the Milan Fairgrounds will play host to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Euroluce (the International Lighting Exhibition), the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and SaloneSatellite, every last centimetre of exhibition space totally sold out.

The time has come around again for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan to open its doors and for the design world to flock to the northern Italian city. And, as always, the question that's being asked is: who has the most beautiful new things to offer? Here is a small foretaste.

Furniture design is increasingly based on the art of combination. Any number of hybrids are generated from a remix of styles, techniques and cultural patterns, like so many petit fours in a confectioner's window.

What can be created from paper? "Luminaire", the American design platform, invited a team of internationally renowned architects, designers and artists to consider paper as a material and to use it to create a work of art. The proceeds from the auction at Christie's are going to cancer research

Richard Prince"Nurse Hat Chair"

In the past, people everywhere disrespectfully dismissed the furniture as "Swedish brand". Today it is exhibited in a museum, and because IKEA products are inexpensive, they are considered to be democratic design. The exhibition at the Neue Sammlung in Munich traces the history and methods of the successful company from Älmhult.

While it was quite by chance that Haruki Murakami came upon the 100% perfect girl one morning, finding the perfect café in Frankfurt will soon be a reality. This is because very shortly, the café at the Schirn Kunsthalle will shine out in new splendour - and boast a completely new hospitality concept.

David Adjaye"Monoforms, Type IV"

In 1952, Le Corbusier put his concept of a minimal living module on the Côte d'Azur into practice. He built the "cabanon" in the immediate vicinity of Eileen Gray's Villa E1027; it was a tiny structure that barely measures 15 square meters.

Ron Arad"Box in Four Movements"

Neil Armstrong was the first to touch the Moon's, and the Pope kisses it every time he visits a foreign country. By contrast, we seek to simply keep our own two feet on the ground: In the exclusive "Flooring" edition, Stylepark has compiled the most important types of flooring for designing floor space in buildings.

"We want to take up old traditions again, because they have been put to great use," says the young designer Marek Gut from Linz. He and his team have taken up the challenge of applying the parameters of veritable, bourgeois existence to their designs. His commode is a case in point, and what a case!

Arik Levy"Rock mirror"

At the ISH Ross Lovegrove presented his new "Freedom" collection for Turkish baths maker VitrA. We talked to him about the change in bathrooms, biomorphic shapes, fat-free design, the responsibility of a star designer, and design in an age of crisis.

Martino Gamper"A 100 Chairs in 100 Days"

Between 1971 and 1973, when the Wall ran through Germany, divind opinions and pooulations, for a short time one company surmounted the barrier. The legendary "Senftenberg Seating Egg" was designed by Peter Ghyczy in the West, ut produced in the East. The history of a joint project.

At this year's ISH, the "World's Leading Trade Fair for the Bathroom Experience, Building, Energy, Bathroom, Air-Conditioning Technology and Renewable Energies" in Frankfurt the economic crisis did not take centre stage. Visitor and exhibitor numbers almost matched those of the previous year and an upbeat outlook was palpable - almost defying the crisis, as it were.

In terms of its minimalist hard edges and intellectual rigor, the thermal baths that Peter Zumthor designed for Vals, Switzerland, and were completed in 1996, eschew all the wellness clichés and continue to set the standard. Today, there are various other examples of spa architecture that are equally joyful and modern, and avoid the twin pitfalls of the clinical institution and the high-gloss polished hotel spa look.

While once we had spas, these days we have wellness temples. At these oases of wellbeing contemporary man sacrifices his vices on the altar of health. But as the author T.C. Boyle reveals he should not be too ill.

In the last 50 years, the number of one-person households has more than tripled. The German Federal Statistics Office predicts that for the next fifteen years more than half the number of people who live in cities will live alone. Time for a few pieces of furniture for singles.