Perfectly in tune with my recent move from Rotterdam to Berlin* I can recommend the Bauhaus exhibition in the Martin Gropius Bau (where else?) in Berlin. The exhibition – the largest on Bauhaus in history – will be open until 4th of October 2009, and focuses on the period 1919 to 1933. It is refreshing and and overwhelming to see this wealth of utopian ideas, especially now.
Marcel Breuer’s Lady’s dressing-table from the Bauhaus experimental house “Am Horn”, Weimar, 1923
Have a look at OMA’s most recent project for Prada, the ‘Prada Transformer‘. The project has it’s own proper website, featuring Rem presenting, plans and renderings as well as a construction time lapse in progress.
Last week my friends Bob and Christian gave a new silhouette to cologne, by means of illuminating the television tower with a spectacular lighten moved dress.
Up to the 1980s the construction of a television tower was a matter of course for many German cities to underline their urban character. Cologne is no exception: The local Colonius was designed by Erwin Heinle and was finished in 1981. With a height of 266 meters it is not only the highest television tower in Nordrhine-Westfalia, but also a striking landmark that is visible from far. As such, it is an inherent part of Cologne’s skyline by day and night. Unfortunately its significance as a tourist destination has been lost since the closure of the observation platform several years ago.
The architects Christian Dieckmann and Robert Wetzels want to re-raise the awareness for the significance of the distinctive building for the cityscape of Cologne: Continue reading ‘The sky is no limit’
Now in its 4th issue, PIN-UP: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment has proven to be a great magazine that has lasted past its first few issues to be a hopefully lasting review on architectural and design culture. Having first seen issue #2 back in the summer of 2007 at the Pro qm bookstore installation at Documenta in Kassel, the magazine has been notoriously hard-to-find throughout Europe and North America. Released by Bruil in the Netherlands, the magazine apparently shares similar roots as our other preferred review, Fantastic Man. Continue reading ‘PIN-UP: Enjoy Architectural Entertainment’
This friday at 16:30 an interesting exhibition opens @ the Casla in Almere. It will feature the winning projects of the Eenvoud Competition, the third edition for an experimetal neighbourhood in Almere. Its predecessors, “De Fantasie” and “De Realiteit”, ‘Fantasy’ and ‘Reality’ were held back in the eighties and their results are still worth an excursion. More information on that below.
“De Éénvoud” or ‘Simplicity ‘is the result of a competition held in 2006. The brief was to design a freestanding and simple low-cost house, expressing their own wishes and ideas for dwelling. The winners got the possibility to build their design on a beautiful open spot in the woodland of Noorderplassen-West. Continue reading ‘De Eenvoud – Simplicity’
June 11th the first Museum entirely dedicated to Graphic Design will be opened by our Queen Beatrix in Breda.
For the opening my friend Teun Castelein will make his graphic statement out of concieved content from 250 participants. Everybody is welcome to design its own flag and mail it to flag@graphicdesignmuseum.com. All designs will be printed on unique flags and put against the building. The result will be an explosion of information. A colourful art piece at the old baroque building of the supermodern Graphic Design Museum.
Really a piece of art that makes people think about modern visual communication, about the position of musea in the contemporary image-culture and the fact that everybody is a designer/ image-maker nowadays. Continue reading ‘Get A Flag!’
There are countless conversations among architects about pay, and how architecture is (apparently) poorly paid. Now there’s some good proof. An awesome online survey and searchable database was shown to me today, assembled by Coroflot. You can view the datasets here, sort by country as well as occupation and job title. The few graphics are great too. It isn’t surprising that among the design professions (graphic, fashion, interactive media, and so forth), architecture has one of the lower ceilings.
Archinect has had a salary poll running for quite some time, and it has always been a fascinating read. But it has always been incomplete, has no sortable databases, and didn’t offer a comparative analysis. In comparison, the Coroflot survey boasts 4250 respondents from 73 countries. What is clear is that in most design fields the incomes are rising nicely. On top of this, you’re best paid as a consultant. Nonetheless there are some hard-to-explain anomolies that stick out. It turns out that designers in India are some of the worlds best-paid, up there with Americans and Australians. Hmm.
For livestyle junkies imm-cologne is a must – from local designers to big international brands it shows the whole range of spic-and-span-new interiour design. Have fun and and hurry up – last day of the design week is 20. January 2008.
More infos by the organisator:
Top-class designer furniture, classic living worlds, trendy accessories: imm cologne provides a comprehensive selection of furniture and furnishings. From “imm pure” to “imm basic,” the product range is clearly structured in segments. This international furnishing show is the global marketplace and meeting place for the international furniture sector — the 2008 fair features more than 1,300 exhibitors from about 60 countries. As the sector’s business event, trend barometer, international communication forum and centre for creative ideas, imm cologne and its full programme of events generate strong momentum for the interior design of tomorrow.
Typography by Emil Ruder (from Mark Simonsons lecture)
Mark Simonson was invited to talk about typography legend Adrian Frutiger last summer at TypeCon in Boston. He made his inspiring slides available as a PDF. Something you should miss in no circumstance, if you are ever so slightly interested in design! Read more on Simonson’s blog.
Atelier van Lieshout – AVL – Workskull, 2oo5 (photo+copyright Atelier Van Lieshout commissioned for Lensvelt)
The Tent gallery has another promising exhibition opening next week, Dutch Design Port, that showcases Rotterdam design talent -we are such navel-gazers here. The exhibition was originally curated for the Milk Gallery in New York, including 10 Dutch Designers, and has now come back home from over the ocean.
Dutch Design Port will display the work of Jurgen Bey, Demakersvan, Simon Heijdens, Richard Hutten, Hella Jongerius, Chris Kabel, Joris Laarman, Atelier van Lieshout, Bertjan Pot and Wieki Somers. The Show runs from 7th September until the 28th October, 2007, and the opening night is also the 7th, at 18.00.
Photos from the Milk Gallery show, after party, and more can be found here.
Given that my favourite place to shop for Men’s clothes in Rotterdam is at Margreeth Olshoorn on Witte de Withstraat, it was great news to hear that they will launch a new men’s store down the street. It is to be much more than clothes, leaning towards lifestyle, and the launch party for all us Fantastic Men will be from 18.00 to 20.00 on September 6th, 2007, at #39 Witte de Withstraat. Please dress appropriately.
paris based designers atypyk have a nice list of design ideas they want to share and a lot of fun-stuff to sell in their shop. (check the PLEASE section)
I’ve been experimenting with file-linking between word and indesign. This is what a XML file created by word looks like in the indesign story editor. Or is it a traffic control screen? A facade study?
