In a world in which architecture is often corporate, egotistic and (one could be mistaken for thinking, more) about the vision of a particular architect (than actual needs), one can forget that not only the origins of architecture as an art and as the practical framing of space beyond the trade of construction, are, arguably, to be found in religious houses, but also that some of the most important and influential European architects of more recent (hi)story, architects who often worked on
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Recycling and upcycling are in themselves never enough, are in themselves never an argument, much as blacksmithing, carpentry or 3D printing aren't arguments, aren't enough, in themselves; rather are components of a processes of creating, are means to an end. And it's always about how you employ that means, and the objects that result. Nor are recycling and upcycling inherently positive: over the years we've seem some truly distressing recycling and upcycling, objects the world don't need and
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As oft opined in these dispatches, one of our favourite aspects of any design week is the presentations held in national embassies, officially curated impressions of a nation's creativity that for all we appreciate and understand the degree of hoop jumping and conforming that are often necessary to being showcased, appreciations sharpened recently via many conversations in a European capital we'll refrain from naming at this juncture... despite the centralised control that regularly exists in
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With their own gallery currently closed for renovations the Design Department of the Universität der Künste, UdK, Berlin relocated across the city for Berlin Design Week 2025 to the Feldfünf project space where under the title AAAAH! die UdK! they presented UnDogmatiK, a showcase of works realised in context of semester projects at the institution, a showcase which included a very pleasing wiedersehen with the chairs from the Find Your Footprint project we first met in context of Passagen
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As discussed in context of Berlin Design Week 2024, not only is the (hi)story of design weeks in the German capital looooong, complex and entertaining, if at times very painful so, but so is our relationship with design weeks in the German capital. We refer you therefore to our post from Berlin Design Week 2024 for more detail, or at least the degree of detail we're prepared to publicly expose at this stage in our lives, and dive here straight into Berlin Design Week 2025. An event that is now
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How can we more constructively co-exist, exist, as a society? How can we manage and employ the, invariably finite, resources at our disposal, be they, for example, space, buildings, energy, water, food, whatever, in manners that are not only sustainable and responsible but that promote and advance individuals, communities and societies rather than leading to conflict and division? Such, and similar questions, are not only very inherent in the Munich Creative Business Week, MCBW, 2025 motto
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Presented during Munich Creative Business Week 2025, but not part of the official Munich Creative Business Week, MCBW, 2025 programme, which is cheeky; not that guerilla cheeky Nils Holger Moormann, man and company, are known, rightly celebrated, for, rather just plain cheeky, approaching rudeness cheeky. A cheekiness that we felt duty bound to mention, not least because it's not something one should do without having very, very good reason; but a cheekiness, for all we disapprove, that didn't
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Initiated at the HTWG Konstanz in 2024 as a Master's thesis in Communication Design by Corinna Gratzl and Julia Klass, and a project very much in keeping with the motto of Munich Creative Business Week, MCBW, 2025, How to design a vibrant community, if in a very specific context, Dialog Beyond Disciplines asked questions such as, What defines and shapes the practice of designers working across disciplines? or What impulses do open-disciplinary approaches offer for a broader understanding of
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Not only the food and drink one serves is part of a prevailing table culture and by extrapolation part of a prevailing culture, the table being as it is the physical and metaphoric centre of any community and society, but also the objects and tools one employs for serving and consuming that food and drink are part of that, those, culture(s). Whereby, we speak less of the, invariably, invented romanticised folkloric definitions of culture, those cultures imagined as they may have been in the
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A feature of the international design calendar since 2012, we (briefly) discussed the (hi)story of Munich Creative Business Week from the 2024 edition, and so refer you, dear reader, to our post from 2024 by way of an introduction, and will stop here only to note that the motto of the 2025 edition is: How to design a vibrant community. A motto motivated by a sensing of a widespread desire for a little more togetherness in a world increasingly defined by division and isolation, and a motto to be
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The 1985 Alchimia Manifesto proclaims, "Per Alchimia le discipline non interessano quando sono considerate al l’interno delle loro regole", 'For Alchimia, disciplines are of no interest when considered within their rules', rather, and much as the alchemists of yore advanced, "è importante indagare nei grandi spazi liberi esistenti fra di essere"1, 'it is important to explore the vast free spaces existing between them'. With Alchimia. The Revolution of Italian Design the Bröhan Museum, Berlin,
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For all that the (hi)story of the human species is one of movement, of the physical relocation of individuals and communities, be that temporarily or permanently, it is also one of the development of forms of movement and of the development of our relationships with the act of moving. With the exhibition On the Move! Frankfurt and Mobility the Historisches Museum Frankfurt explore those developments....... On the Move! Frankfurt and Mobility, Historisches Museum, Frankfurt As an exhibition
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The environment in which we exist isn't just physical, tactile, nor only to be experienced and navigated visually, rather it continually involves, and continually makes demands upon, all of our senses. Yet despite the complexity of the environment in which we exist, and the varied and various organs our body provides us with to enable us to employ all our senses in approaching that environment, the vast majority of us consider our other senses, refer to our other senses, use our other organs,
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"Det är omöjligt att göra ett stort hus osynligt"1, opined once Swedish architect Léonie Geisendorf, 'It is impossible to make a large building invisible'. Yet while a building can't be invisible, its architect can. Especially when they are female. In an eponymous showcase ArkDes, Stockholm, seek to remove the cloak of invisibility that currently shrouds both Léonie Geisendorf and her contribution to the (hi)story of architecture and interior design in Sweden....... Léonie Geisendorf,
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"How does it feel?", asked once Bob Dylan, "To be without a home, Like a complete unknown, Like a rolling stone"1 A valid question, but one that needs must requires first defining "home". A tricky task Dylan doesn't concern himself with; but which Swiss artist Sandra Knecht seeks to approach in the exhibition, essay, Home Is a Foreign Place at Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, Basel....... Sandra Knecht - Home Is a Foreign Place, Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, Basel .......or perhaps more
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The Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, houses four museums: the Modern Art Collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, the Architekturmuseum der TU München and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. A quartet whose collections for all that they are separate, autonomous, aren't independent of one another, rather they intersect, support and contradict one another and thereby exist in context of one another. With 4 Museums – 1 Modernism that 1
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Reflecting back on the summer of 1923 Xanti Schawinsky recalled, "one day, during a break, a tennis coach named Niels Peterson asked me if I knew a school in Weimar called 'Bauhaus'". Xanti Schawinsky didn't. Niels Peterson explained. "My curiosity was fully ignited, and the very next day, I took a leave of absence and, with financial help from my father, traveled to Weimar"1 With Play, Life, Illusion. Xanti Schawinsky the Kunsthalle Bielefeld explore what happened next....... Play, Life,
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One of the first design rules everybody learns is Louis H. Sullivan's 1896 proclamation that that "form ever follows function, and this is the law." Only later do you begin to appreciate that "function" isn't a given but has to be defined if "form" is to be able to meaningfully follow it. Only much later do you appreciate the complexities in defining "function". With Nike: Form Follows Motion the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, explore the (hi)story of Nike, design at Nike and also
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In the early 1980s, Scottish Indie jingle-janglers Orange Juice advised us all to "Rip it up and start again".1 Which has also been the prevailing credo of European architecture and urban planning for much of the past two centuries: less a case of what goes up must come down, as what goes up will come down as soon as a new use is demanded or a new spatial concept developed or a new political ideology comes to the fore. But should it? Must it? And if didn't? Questions that in recent decades
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Inaugurated in 1997, Tallinn Applied Art Triennial is a curated platform for contemporary creatives of all hues staged around, in dialogue with, a unifying theme/topic, and which presents itself as both a central exhibition and a series of satellite events throughout the Estonian capital. A platform that after being open to creatives based globally for its first 8 editions, was restricted for its 9th edition to global creatives based in the Baltic and Nordic nations. Why the change? We no
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The cover of Walter Gropius's 1919 Bauhaus Manifesto, that rallying call for what would become the three Bauhauses, is famously graced by Lyonel Feininger's woodcutting Kathedrale, an ideogram for the "Wundertat der gotischen Kathedrale"1, the 'miracle of the Gothic cathedral', that archetype Gropius borrowed from John Ruskin to explain what good architecture is, why it is, how it arises, and thereby to visualise the path to the 'building of the future' via a 'new guild of craftsmen'2 Gropius
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The month of March takes its name from the Roman month of Martius which in turn takes its name from the Roman God of War, Mārs. As does the planet Mars which a small group of individuals appear phenomenally keen to get to as quickly as possible. Ideally quicker. If that is because they suspect the presence of rare earths, are looking for new regions to fight over by way of honouring Mārs, or simply read far too many comics as children and believe it is the unavoidable fate of humans to visit
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Museums are popularly associated with Pasts. In their current exhibition the Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig, concern themselves with Futures, specifically with the Material and Design of Tomorrow....... Futures. Material and Design of Tomorrow, Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig There can be little argument, OK given the contemporary state of what passes for global discourse there can be an awful lot of very virulent argument, backed up with aggressive online trolling
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Once upon a time in a land far, far away there was cafe called Pasaka, Fairy Tale, a cafe designed for children. With the exhibition Fairy Tale. Childhood in Lithuania during the late Soviet era Kaunas Picture Gallery take that cafe Pasaka as the starting point for a multi-disciplinary exploration of the degree to which childhood in the Lithuania of the 1960s, 70s and 80s outwith cafe Pasaka was of the joyful fairy tale type, a land of magic, plenty, positivity, and dreams coming true and/or
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