Category: smow offline

Monobloc by Hauke Wendler

With furniture, as with so much in life, it is rarely the showy, high profile, works, or individuals, that teach us most, but those works, and those individuals, who in their anonymity and modesty accompany us in invisible silence.

Or rather the anonymous and quiet could teach us most, if we spent less time being distracted by, letting ourselves willingly be distracted by, the noise of the showy.

With the project Monobloc author and director Hauke Wendler, and a team of co-collaborators, offer us all an opportunity to focus on, and learn from, an object we’ve all seen and used, but only rarely, if ever, openly engaged with…….

karl clauss dietel. die offene form by Walter Scheiffele and Steffen Schuhmann

It is perhaps indicative of the differing receptions to and estimations of design in the former West Germany and the former East Germany that while Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles of good design are revered as if cast in stone, Karl Clauss Dietel’s Five Big Ls of good design have barely seen the light of day since November 1989.

A popular focus on the former West which tends to popular understandings of design from West Germany as being valid and authentic and laudable, while design from East Germany is reduced, denigrated, to cartoon Ostalgie.

With karl clauss dietel. die offene form Walter Scheiffele and Steffen Schuhmann allow one to approach more probable understandings both of the (hi)story of design in the former East Germany and of Karl Clauss Dietel’s position in the (hi)story of design, and in doing so stimulate a re-evaluation of the receptions to and estimations of design in and from East Germany…….

Furnishing Brexit? Or, Reflections on the Utility Furniture Scheme…

As all familiar with the peculiar and idiosyncratic method by which these dispatches are produced will appreciate, come March 30th 2019 there will be a few fundamental changes, as the smow blog team are forced to abandon our familiar home on the internet and create a new one for ourselves in the analogue wastelands of the (dis)United Kingdoms.

And as Brexit’s unregulated shadow casts itself ever deeper, indelibly, suffocatingly, over the smow blog office, our thoughts turn, somewhat inevitably, to the furniture we may find ourselves engaging with in an all too palpable future.

Will we even have furniture? Or will be forced to refer to the neolithic tribes of Skara Brae and their intuitive and innovative use of stone?

Possibly.

However it may not come that far, for, and despite whatever other deficits and callowness it has, Whitehall does have experience in securing the supply of furniture in times of national emergency: the Utility Furniture Scheme of the 1940s…….

5 New Design Exhibitions for November 2013

As we are sure you will appreciate we tend to shy away from recommending anything we haven’t seen and/or tested

(smow) intern: welcome (smow) cologne

Expansion. It’s not always good. Waistlines. Overdrafts. Weeks since you last phoned your mother. For example wouldn’t be good. Business

AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne: Alison and Peter Smithson – The Art of Inhabitation

We’re almost too late, almost, but until November 8th the AIT ArchitekturSalon Cologne is presenting the exhibition, Alison and Peter

Triennale Design Museum Milan: Made in Slums – Mathare Nairobi

Industrial design as any fool know is a prime example of the North’s cultural superiority. Nurtured by science and encouraged

Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft Cologne: Ex Libris – Ex Loco with Volkwin Marg and Hartmut Frank.

On September 3rd the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft Cologne present the latest edition of their Ex Libris series. This time Ex

Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft Cologne: Ex Libris with Rem Koolhaas and Stephan Trüby

On Friday March 22nd the Ungers Archiv für Architekturwissenschaft Cologne present a new edition of their Ex Libris series. We

Designed in Hackney Day 2012

We’re obviously not going to claim that dezeen track what we’re up to, however…. Hot the heels of our brief,

Design Education à la ECAL/University of Art & Design Lausanne

Back in September droog “released” a diamond studded car tyre as part of their Fantastical Investments project. We fear the

(smow) in Milan: Röthlisberger Kollektion, Switzerland

For most people naming Swiss designer furniture producers is as much of a challenge as naming famous Belgians or happily

(smow) offline: “gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010” Georg Brückmann

A recurrent theme, not only here in the (smow)blog but also in general throughout the (smow) global network is the

(smow)offline: Design? Art?

Anyone who has ever visited an art gallery with an elderly relative will be familiar with the phrase “I could

(smow)offline: Charlotte Perriand in Switzerland

Perhaps best known for her numerous co-operations with Le Corbusier, the Parisian architect and designer Charlotte Perriand played an instrumental

(smow) offline: Win a Vitra Organic Chair

It may not be the most universally recognised example of either Charles Eames‘ nor Eero Saarinen‘s canon however their 1940

(smow)offline: Panton by Vitra at Wasserschloss Klaffenbach

Although in the course of his career Verner Panton worked with numerous designer furniture producers, his name is undoubtedly most

(smow)offline: Herbert Hirche, Strahlend Grau

Because our article on the new London bus has been delayed by a broken water main at Tooting Bec, we’ve

(smow)offline: Dieter Rams – Less and More

When asked by the (smow)boss yesterday why we appeared to be doing so little work, quoting Dieter Rams we replied

(smow)offline: “gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010”

On Thursday April 29th the exhibition “gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie 2009/2010” opens at the Haus der Photographie, Hamburg.

(smow)offline: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec – Lianes, Galerie Kreo, Paris

No, we don’t handle the PR for Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. We would like to. But we don’t. It’s just

(smow)offline: VitraHaus in Spring

On account of the horrendous hotel prices demanded during design week the (smow)blog team camp in Milan. And that despite

(smow)offline: Wilhelm Wagenfeld “Weiterwirken in die Zeit hinein”

While we are in Milan enriching the good and fair minded hoteliers of the north-Italian Metropolis; life here in Germany

(smow)offline: Leipzig Buchmesse – a designer furniture perspective

For people who spend most of their working lives sat at desks, publishers and authors have a frightening disregard for

(smow)offline: The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction

On Saturday 20.03.2010 the latest Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” officially