Magazin

The fifth collection of the Japanese design company “plusminuszero” - As for its design maxim, the company has traded in the good old “Form follows function” principle which is always trundled out when a rationale for minimalism is needed, and has exchanged it for a new mantra of industrial design: “Things that seem to have existed already but didn’t”.

They are well thought out, long lasting, elegant, ultramodern and pretty cool down to the last detail. And they have written design history. We are referring to Jacob Jensen’s hi-fi systems for the top Danish brand Bang & Olufsen. Of course, he has designed more than that; indeed, his studio “Jacob Jensen Design” is already celebrating its 50th birthday.

The culinary result was more than delicious at 'The Design Annual - inside: showtime' – and so that you can recreate the show on a smaller scale in your own kitchen, here is chef Tim Raue’s recipe.

In Nuremberg, on July 25, 2008 a new show opens entitled “design deutschland. case study 08”. It offers a thematic cross-section of classic and contemporary ideas by German designers and companies.

When I think of Hannes Wettstein I always have his hand before my eyes, the way it started to draw with a pencil on any material available. You got gooseflesh just watching him, the way he gave ideas a shape at the spur of a moment.

How the northern Italian metropolis is making impressive use of its title of “World Design Capital 2008” - Those who are going to the northern Italian city of Turin in the coming months, which this year bears the title of World Design Capital, will experience a city which has fully committed itself to the themes of design and architecture.

“Summary” is the name given the annual end-of-summer-term event at Bauhaus University Weimar, presenting what its four faculties have come up with during the academic year. “Summary” is not only a major event in the city, as “Weimar is actually a university in which a city lies”, as Rector Gerd Zimmermann puts it. As it is also an attempt to invite Weimar’s inhabitants to study the students’ efforts and may be even be filled with enthusiasm.

Four days of “Showtime”, four days of flash-lit faces, flamenco and Disneyland, four days of going up and down in an elevator, stroking ponies and hearing parrots blabber, four days of marveling at bags, switches, shelves, kitchens, sofas, fireplaces, cars. Four days of cups and plates, slides and carpets, vases and sounds. Four days under counters, at toadstool tables and on the stage.

Sometimes all it needs is a small twist, a simple change of perspective, and you have a completely new world. Christoph Brech does not only make films. He shows us things which normally escape us. When the artist spent last year at Villa Massimo in Rome as a scholarship holder, he produced works including the film “Punto”, from which we will show you an excerpt.

It is with great sadness and shock that we learned of the death of architect and designer Hannes Wettstein.

“Mies van der Rohe’s famous pavilion in Barcelona is a copy. Where did the original stand?” At The Design Annual - inside: showtime Mats Theselius offered a brilliant stage show that with guests and guests of honor, with musical backup and dance sets. And a quiz show. All the questions relate to design, architecture, and associated topics.

Yesterday Paul Cocksedge has lectured on his view of light at The Design Annual - inside: showtime, presenting the intentions and methods that he brings to bear in his constant inquiry into light and luminaires.

It's showtime, for four whole days of nine hours each, nonstop entertainment!

There it is, finally hanging up there as though on a mountain face, this small labyrinth-like, bewitchingly colorful, madly flashing, tenderly romantic and miracle-working mountain village of the imagination, in which Tobias Rehberger and Claus Richter are staging an encounter between art and design, an interface between show and reality.

Modernist concrete cube or Baroque farmhouse – terraced house or readymade: When designers start working for birds, the outlook offered is surprising. And not just for the ornithologists.

“Something to put something on”. This is the name of the new book by Lawrence Weiner. It aims to be nothing but a “question structure.” For the artist, who fills walls as well as manhole covers with wonderful sentences, does something to start something off. “That is the lovely thing about a book,” says Weiner, “it does not force anything on you, it only presents something. If it is useful, people will pass it on to others.”

The young design studio Raw-Edges in London was officially founded in July 2007. Yet the paths of Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, who were both born in Tel Aviv in 1976, first crossed many years ago. They are currently exhibiting works at Fat Galerie in Paris with Peter Marigold.

Materialworks Zoom: Aesthetics and function in museum architecture - Kapipane by Okalux

More than a company history: “Projekt Vitra 1957-2007” - "Projekt Vitra" is the self-representation of a successful company. And yet the book, with its intelligent essays, with its products arranged like families for a wedding photo, with historical and contemporary pictures and documents, is more than a corporate history.

For the family of luminaires called “S” does not require electricity cables. The modular lamps for the home and the office have joints made of magnets, which are bearings, axle casing and current conductor in one.

With the “Gina Light”, BMW has created more than just a new show car. The study, whose bodywork is made of a fabric skin, has the potential to trigger a revolution in car design.

In Kortrijk (Belgium) on an area of over 1,500 square meters the exhibition "Backstage" tells the story of twenty of Patrizia’s favorites featuring drawings, sketches, 3D models, prototypes and previously unseen one-off objects.

Flying pies, weeping trees, confused giraffes, speaking clocks, precious lighthouses, owls that play the flute - in only 14 days time the waiting will be over, and the wonderland designed by Tobias Rehberger and Claus Richter will open its doors. It's showtime! To put it mildly!

“The market for design objects is small and exclusive. Only a copy makes the original suitable for mass production. In the process, despite the apparent close similarity, essential elements are often lost. Copies such as this offend the original, even if at heart they are a compliment to the original idea.” This is how the two young Swiss designers Sarah Kueng and Lovis Caputo introduce their work “Copy by Kueng-Caputo”.

The first World Industrial Design Day (WIDD) will be celebrated on June 29, 2008. Alongside the national ‘Tag der Architektur’ (Day of Architecture), for the most part on the last weekend in June, this year on June 28 and 29, industrial design is now to be given its its own global moment of recognition as well.

Storms are events involving strong winds, with speeds of at least 21 meters per second. When we sneeze, the air travels twice as fast as in a hurricane. Despite this, the following project involves neither speed nor the destructive power of storms. On the contrary, wind energy is used to create something new.

The Design Miami show during Art Basel poses more questions than it answers - Yes, it really was Brad Pitt strolling through Basel's wonderful Market Hall. Most people wouldn't have recognised him or, at best, thought that it was designer Ron Arad wearing a white cap. I didn't notice him until a gallery owner asked a security guard who the casual-looking guy with the cap was.

Andreas Dornbracht, CEO of the manufacturer of high-grade fittings of the same name, has every right to be proud. He initiated the first of 'Dornbracht Conversation' and everyone came to Iserlohn to put the word 'classic' under the microscope in two high-grade panel discussions. Dornbracht himself owns a design icon, the 'Tara' the minimalist bathroom fittings, which was also the starting point of the debate.

It’s showtime. For The Design Annual 2008 we have consciously chosen a very exciting theme which will generate controversial discussion. The two artists Tobias Rehberger and Claus Richter are responsible for the spatial concept. Here are new impressions of Claus Richter’s studio.

The decision on the qualifying teams for the 2008 European Football Championship was taken some time ago and now football strategists are feverishly working on team line-ups and match tactics. So it’s no bad thing to get the right line-up in your living room for once. Loewe has three flatscreen TVs available for when the whistle blows for Euro 2008.

As in the past few years The Design Annual will once again be accompanied by an extremely varied interdisciplinary program of events. The motto for 2008 is “showtime” – a highly expressive and contradictory theme, which we shall be discussing in all its facets. This year as well current trends and the tasks design will face in the future will the subject of talks, lectures and presentations.

In partnership with Autodesk, Italian company Appiani is optimising software solutions for architects. Appiani is one of Italy’s leading, high-end, tile manufacturers, combining traditional craftsmanship with modern functionalism to create flexible solutions from one centimetre square mosaics to large tiles.

Patricia Urquiola’s Retrouvé collection was presented in several colors at the Milan furniture fair. For her design for the garden furniture the Milan-based designer was inspired by the squiggles and flourishes of the 1950s.

Materialworks Zoom: Shaped using the zip principle

It’s showtime. For The Design Annual 2008 we have consciously chosen a very exciting theme which will generate controversial discussion. The two artists Tobias Rehberger and Claus Richter are responsible for the spatial concept. Together they will develop a diverse and multi-functional environment in the Festhalle. Here are the first impressions of Claus Richter’s studio.