In 1930 the Danish designer and educator Kaare Klint opined that in terms of furniture and furnishings, “Problemerne er ikke saa nye, de er i mange Tilfælde løst før“, “the problems are not so new, they have in many cases been solved before”.1

With the exhibition Home Sweet Home. The Archaeology of Domestic Life, SMAC – Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz, test that theory to extreme levels, and also expand it beyond furniture and furnishings to all aspects of domestic arrangements and domesticity over the past 30,000 years…….

Home Sweet Home. The Archaeology of Domestic Life, SMAC - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

In 1981 Irish stadium rockers U2 noted of October:

“And the trees are stripped bare,
Of all they wear”

That of course was 1981, before the, then approaching but much less tangible, irreversible consequences of climate change meant that the trees in Ireland, and across Europe, still proudly wear their leaves throughout October. A new reality that, we’d argue, may soon see U2 forced to rename the song ‘November’.

A reality, and a coming renaming, that sets the final line of the opening verse:

“What do I care?”

in a new, a troubling, and an important light.

One we all need to think about.

And little stimulates thoughts on contemporary and future society, contemporary and future relationships with the world around us, both the natural and humanmade, and forces a questioning of what we want, why we want it, and if we care, quite like an architecture and/or design exhibition.

Our five recommended new exhibition openings in October 2023 can be found in Chemnitz, Hornu, London, Brussels and Milan…….

Globally some 2 billion of us live in a city of more than 500,000 inhabitants.1

A number that is progressively growing.

But what does “city” mean?

Not lexicographically, but physically, culturally, socially, politically, economically, morally, etc, etc, etc?

With the exhibition Die Stadt. Between Skyline and Latrine the smac – Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz attempt to approach possible answers……

A model of Archigram’s 1964 Walking City as part of a discussion on literary and architectural ideal cities, as seen as, Die Stadt Between Skyline and Latrine, smac - Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

As the 19th century English poet Robert Browning so very, very, nearly phrased it:

Oh, to be in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again),
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in Berlin, Vienna, Chemnitz, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, or Berlin (again),
Sees, some morning a most interesting, entertaining and instructive sounding architecture and/or design exhibition,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough……

5 New Architecture & Design Exhibitions for April 2021

The old adage that the only certainties in life are death and taxes has become (more than) a little passé of late.

However even the accountants and investment bankers cannot, yet, avoid death.

With the exhibition Tod & Ritual – Kulturen von Abschied und Erinnerung the Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz, smac, explore the historical and cultural traditions and rituals of that last remaining timeless, universal, and utterly inescapable phenomenon.

Tod & Ritual - Kulturen von Abschied und Erinnerung, Staatliches Museum für Archäologie Chemnitz

Karl Marx. Not ❤ing money since 1844

Money, famously, makes the world go round. The world go round. Money makes the world go round How that came