Full House: Design by Stefan Diez @ The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne. Reprise

When we first viewed the exhibition Full House: Design by Stefan Diez at The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne, it was was still being assembled. Objects were missing, set-ups not in their final composition, lights not yet properly positioned. As such we didn’t get to form an opinion on the final, complete, intended exhibition. Did however mange to take some truly awful photos.

Fortunately we have now had a second chance to view the exhibition.

And it is every bit as good as we assumed it would be from what we had seen.

Prototypes of the 404 collection by Stefan Diez for Thonet, as seen at Full House: Design by Stefan Diez, The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne

Presenting a review of the past 15 years of Diez Office, Full House explores Stefan Diez’s work through a focus on the development of 26 selected projects, and in doing so illuminates not only how Stefan Diez works but also his relationship to materials and processes. For further information, and our conversation with Stefan, we refer you dear reader to our original post.

Having seen the complete exhibition, particularly pleasing is the number of objects visitors are encouraged to take in their hands, feel and view from various perspectives. An important part of the design process, but one design exhibitions rarely allow.

Equally satisfying is the generous provision of Stefan Diez’s chair designs, Yard for emu, 404 for Thonet, Eugene for e15, and a truly delightful New Order Bench for Hay, being scattered throughout the exhibition for the visitors pleasure: for lest we forget, chairs are meant to be sat on, not admired. And is it not patently obvious that in an exhibition about a designer, visitors get a chance to form an opinion as to the competence of that designer’s chair design work?

The exhibition catalogues by the chairs meanwhile encouraging the visitors to tarry a while, to learn a little more than the exhibition itself can teach. In many respects Full House is an interactive exhibition without all the digital whistles and bells, an analogue interactive design exhibition, and a highly entertaining and informative experience.

Consequently we now feel more confident in our earlier conclusion of the then part-finished exhibition : “A highly accessible, well conceived and neatly executed exhibition Full House works on different levels: for those wanting to understand more about what industrial design is, how industrial design processes work and what industrial designers actually do all day, Full House provides the answers. As it also does for those with an understanding of such, but who are interested in understanding how Stefan Diez approaches his work. How Stefan Diez understands his work. What Stefan Diez actually does all day.”

Full House: Design by Stefan Diez runs at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, An der Rechtschule, 50667 Cologne until Sunday June 11th

Full details can be found at www.makk.de