Event

Cheap apartment buildings, hostels for refugees and spaces for integration – the German Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale is slowly taking shape.

So what does it look like, the automobile inner world of the outer world of the world of interiors? Everyone’s talking about digitalization, yet the interior fit-outs remain surprisingly conventional.

What do car keys look like in the age of digitalization? Have they finally ceased to be status symbols? We checked out a few of the latest examples at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.

Backdrop, sculpture or theme world? Temporary architectures in the social media age reveal more than one might at first think: an architecture analysis using Instagram.

The World Expo in Milan actually has a lot to offer, and proves to be very entertaining into the bargain. As so often, it’s all a matter of perspective.

“An impure tongue does not taste; dulled senses only notice the sharpest stimuli, or they chew more than they feel.” – Johann Gottfried von Herder

In Hamburg, after years of preparation, in 2014 a new platform for presentations and debates relating to design opened in the form of designxport. Currently on show: an exhibition on the gender influence in design and possible alternatives.

Brandherm + Krumrey interior architecture is one of the three finalists in the “Axor Inspiration Project” competition. Sara Bertsche talked with Susanne Brandherm and Hannah Stüber about their entry.

In Portikus on the mini island in the River Main in downtown Frankfurt Philippe Grohe presented the prizes to the winning “Axor Inspiration Projects”.

At this year’s BAU in Munich manufacturers didn’t really seem to have that much thirst for the future. The industry is stuck between pragmatism and risk minimization, which impacts on architecture for sure.

In order to provoke an in-depth exploration of the element of water, Axor has launched its own competition. For the “Axor Inspiration Project” architects and interior designers were invited to develop new concepts on the topic of “water in space”.

Once doesn’t count, twice could be coincidence, three times sets a tradition: in occasion of imm cologne designers, manufacturers, artists and art collectors were invited by AD, Meiré und Meiré and Stylepark to meet at Marc Meiré’s home.

It’s that time of year again: From January 19 – 25, the furniture industry will be meeting up in Cologne at the imm cologne and the Passagen. And the Makk will be busy trying to identify the one or other system in a world without systems.

At Munich’s BAU trade fair, manufacturers will be presenting their building innovations. During the fair, Stylepark together with Detail and Arch+ will be casting a glance at current research and construction projects.

Flying parquet floorboards, a Colombian high-speed knitter and wooden buffaloes peacefully grazing: At the 15th Designers’ Saturday in Langenthal, Switzerland, the designers and manufacturers once again opted for unusual means to stage their products.

Split cobs with Sebastian Cox Holz, admire yourself in Barber Osgerby’s huge ceiling mirrors, and watch the future of mobility through stained glass. And in addition to these attractions, this year’s London Design Festival also served up many interesting team line-ups and countless cool results.

“Give Love Back. Ata Macias and Partners” in Museum Angewandte Kunst is an attempt to devote a show to a man who shaped Frankfurt’s nightlife with his club, Robert Johnson, and who also transformed the restaurant scene, too.

Once a year the “Burning Man Festival” transforms Nevada’s Black Rock Desert into a temporary city teeming with audacious buildings, fantastic sculptures, and out-of-this-world conveyances.

Traditional tools and techniques governed the aesthetic flavor at Clerkenwell Design Week. Young UK companies like Dare Studio, Deadgood, Case and James UK celebrated their British roots and personalities – presenting a breed of truly British future antiques.

Building automation with a difference: An industrial robot on Frankfurt’s Hauptwache plaza practices East Asian martial arts and prompts all manner of responses during the Luminale festival.

As part of the Luminale, artist collective RaumZeitPiraten created an experimental sound-&-light lab in a church, evoking somber counterworlds in the process.

Mexican architecture journal Arquine is hosting a conference for the 15th time. This year it centers on the Mexico City metropolis and is accompanied by a highly diverse festival program.

The “German Design Council” has turned 60 and is feting itself with a “Second German Design Debate” at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche.

What future is in store for design in this country? What has altered? At the “Second German Design Debate” designer Stefan Diez held a highly-acclaimed talk on the current state of design.

The mood was good, the atmosphere great: The DMY Design Festival at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport complex showed what 500 new design talents can come up with if they try. Innovations were in short supply, however, for all the party feeling and Poland as guest country.

From parasitic furniture design to depressing lighting, to poetic wall projections. The young generation of designers at SaloneSatellite turned out to be both fresh and experimental in their approach. And in the competition to be crowned the best young designer at SaloneSatallite it was Portuguese designer Tania da Cruz who came out on top with her range of sustainable cork products.

This year’s Ventura Lambrate was part of the FuoriSalone for the fourth time. The meeting point for next-generation design, experiments and ambitious individual exhibitors had a real feel of work in progress about it. Development and manufacturing processes played a major role.

It would seem obvious that a sensitive nose need not necessarily offer a good handle on things. And designers of all ages should be making sparing use of spaghetti, leather scraps, iron pipes, champagne buckets, wooden laminate and most certainly erotic objects. The seven deadly Salone sins show just who ignored this advice.

No, there was no revolt. Even Ventura Lambrate had nothing on offer that even came close to a taste of the future. Instead it was above all Konstantin Grcic who once again showed just what contemporary design can do.

And on we go. To make headway, we up the pace a little and cast a glance at fluorescent yellow shoes, peek into showrooms, inner courtyards, gardens and historical buildings.

Beyond the hustle and bustle of the fair, BMW joined forces with the Bouroullec brothers and presented an installation that aims to articulate the automotive marque’s new orientation toward sustainability and electromobility. A chat with Head of Design Adrian van Hooydonk sheds light on an unconventional vision of mobility for the future.

None other than Karl Lagerfeld graced this year’s Salone del Mobile with his presence. The master of elegance held court with Cassina, for whom he immortalized a selection of furniture classics on film. A marriage of icons the likes of which has never been seen before. And a one-off, almost one-to-one evening with Karl.

Milan 2013, a mixture of prudence, consolidation and solid design work. A little less hype and fewer prototypes, too. This is certainly doing the industry good.

Daniel Buren has been playing around with the boundaries of art since the 1960s, the same boundaries he himself moves in. Now he has switched up the playing field, taking Louis Vuitton models and staging them like pieces in his own game of chess.

For a total of ten days, Vienna firmly came under the sign of design. At this year’s Vienna Design Week there were exciting projects showing how tradition and young inventiveness can grow together.