Heimtextil 2017 casts a glance into the textile crystal ball with great fanfare – but needs to work on communicating the visions.

Villeroy & Boch has fitted out the five-star hotel "The Peninsula Paris" with high-quality sanitary ware.

November 2016 saw the opening of the new Natural History Museum in St.Gallen. The new building looks like five gabled-roof buildings had been stacked alongside one another and encased in corrugated exposed concrete. Yet it proves to be an astonishingly delicate structure rich in associations and slotted precisely into an extremely heterogeneous environment.

Berlin students have designed an extension to the famous Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. So far, their ideas have remained on the drawing board.

Bohemian glass has for centuries enjoyed a great reputation. And Brokis proves that modern design and crystal-clear materials can be easily combined; it’s a company that produces hand-blown glass luminaires in Janštejn in the Czech Republic.

At BAU 2017 Gira will be exhibiting a new smart home server: Gira X1. We talked to its developer Martin Gremlica.

Products for the smart home have never been cheaper, safer, more efficient and reliable. 2017 might just turn out to be the year in which the technological upgrading of private homes prevails on the market and some new standards are set.

Not only new builds can be Smart Homes. This conversion shows that even a house built in 1951 can still be smart.

With the Gira X1 and the relevant App even when away you still remain the master of the house, well, at least technically speaking.

Head now – for Cologne. From January 16-22, it’s imm cologne time again – and there’s a lot to discover round and about the city, too. Not just for the man without qualities. Here’re the most important items.

The projects of the Young Designer Trendtable is slowly taking shape. And the young designers are questioning the customary manufacturing methods with their personal visions for the floors of tomorrow that they will present at the DOMOTEX. They’re still tweaking the details.

The designs by Bilge Nur Saltik blend old and new craft techniques, different cultures and modern design. One instance, for example, is her combination of marble and high-tech, which have already been brought together in an ingenious way.

Vola mixers with PVD surfaces set the tone in the new master bathroom in a historicist villa.

Thoughtful reflection expressly desired: In Berlin the Wilhelm Braun-Feldweg advancement award for essays in design criticism is being bestowed for the seventh time.

The “Featured Editions” curated by Stylepark for the imm cologne 2017 furniture trade fair center around the key theme, “textiles”. For the very first time, visitors to the fair can choose their favorites.

Again the calendar has jumped. Behind the 20 is now the 17. What is behind this number?

The basis for the aesthetic felt rugs are high-quality waste selvedges that are arise when producing wool materials.

Once upon a time, Hollywood stars and starlets had Peter Gowland photograph them nude in erotic poses. Now the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim reveals that as testimonies to cultural history, Gowland’s pinups are far more exciting.

We know the name of neither the city nor the country, and not even the surname of the man about whom I recorded the following story. An architectural fairytale by Arno Lederer, illustrated by James Turek.

The TOP 10 new products on show at the imm cologne 2017 – selected by Stylepark

Vibration-proof: “Kosi” by Moritz von Schmeling for Zeitraum

Keep your eye on your clothes: Raumplus’ “RPS Aluminum Frame Swing Door”

Dancing dots: “Piccadilly” by Nya Nordiska

A fresh interpretation of a classic: “Above” by Mads Odgård for Louis Poulsen

Sitting comfortably at the dining table: “Joline” by Mathias Seiler for Girsberger.

Great combination: “Tres” by Nanimarquina