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Selling Spaces: new directions in retail design
In spite of the rise of e-commerce, the physical point of sale is still with us. That said, the traditional store is having to up its game in terms of the experience and brand relevance it offers consumers – not only to compete with online shopping but also to support it. Architonic goes all secret shopper to investigate.
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Clear Vision: Zumtobel sheds light on the OperAlp/SALEWA Group’s new headquarters
More often than not, office architecture can be, well, a little inward-looking. Shut out the outside world and focus staffers' attention on their building's interior spaces and you'll keep them focused on their work. Right? Wrong. The OperAlp/SALEWA Group's new headquarters in Bolzano, Italy, bring the outside in and, thanks to a collaboration with lighting manufacturer Zumtobel, never leave their workers in the dark.
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Still Waters: Laufen's newly extended Palomba range takes restraint to a higher level
When it came to launching their latest family of products, high-end Swiss bathroom manufacturer decided to buck the trend for the ultra-rational and focus on building on the softer, timeless design language of its earlier Palomba collection. The result: the striking Palomba Collection 2012.
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Zbyněk Hřivnáč - One of Them
From a global view of history of design, the Czech design scene still remains at the edge of historical periods and styles. Despite that fact, some great Czech designers have found themselves in an international context in the past.
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The Making of Architonic Concept Space IV
The Milan fair provides the ideal setting for the premiere of Architonic Concept Space IV. And this will be a global first because never before has the FluidSolids® material, developed over many years and patented by the prestigious Swiss designer Beat Karrer, been processed at into a product.
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Architonic and Designboom launch strategic alliance
"It is our aim to provide readers and the market with an efficient and high-quality environment for research, inspiration and communication. To this end, Architonic and Designboom are a perfect match because they complement each other both in terms of content and geography."
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Soul Man: Ask Emil Skovgaard
If the Slow Design movement were looking for a poster boy, Ask Emil Skovgaard would undoubtedly be on the shortlist. Treading a fine and virtuosic line between design, craft and art, the Copenhagen-based creative’s work is, among other things, an expression of pure material joy and a comment on the, often compromised, value of fast-paced production. Architonic talks to the Skovgaard about his patient approach.
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Architonic Concept Space IV presents FluidSolids® - the materials innovation
FluidSolids® is a composite material consisting of renewable natural raw materials. It is made up of fibre, filling materials and a binding agent. All of these materials are generated as industrial waste in the processing of renewable raw materials. As a result no agricultural land is used for the production of FluidSolids®. As a material FluidSolids® is also free from odours and emissions, and is biologically degradable.
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Living in an Open Floor Plan
At a former industrial site in the West of Zurich, young people show the potential of an open floor plan, how to build sustainably using recycled materials, how to be resource conscious, and demonstrate that food from Aldi – a discounter – can well be in line with an ecological and anti-consumption attitude.
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Urushi - Japanese Lacquer in modern Design
An important component of the Japanese art of lacquerwork is the special technique known as "urushi", which uses many layers of wafer-thin, semi-transparent lacquer to create a surface of almost mystical radiance and sensual depth...
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The In-Betweeners: the rise of a new office-furniture typology
In the grand, teleological narrative of design, things are developed to make our lives increasingly better. New forms, materials and technological innovations are introduced, self-justifying, attended by a clarity of function and value. But what happens when a new design typology comes into being for which there isn’t even a consensus on how to describe it? We give you the ‘In-Betweeners’ – a new series of office-furniture systems that are neither fish nor fowl.
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At Your Convenience: contemporary public-toilet architecture
We'd like to talk to you about a delicate matter. The toilet. The WC. The lavatory. However you choose to refer to it, we all require regular access to this most prosaic of environments. Which is why it's refreshing to see a number of recent public conveniences receive a greater degree of design consideration than has historically been the case. So, sit down, relax and don't forget to flush.
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Whiter Shade of Pale: Materials Council's 'Whiter than White' exhibition at Super Brands London
White. But not as you know it. Newly launched creative materials consultancy Materials Council's inaugural show at this year's Super Brands London neatly demonstrated that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to that most pure of colours...
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Olympic Landscapes
Among and around the buildings that will house hockey players and hurdlers, cyclists and swimmers throughout the duration of this summer’s Olympic Games in London are public spaces that strive to meet the exacting Olympic standards of excellence and performance, but which have a much more longterm goal. Architonic speaks to Vogt Landscape Limited, the architects behind a public realm project that has been a challenge of speed and endurance, but that they hope is fit for both Olympians and for generations of future inhabitants.
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Mind the Gap: architects fitting extraordinary buildings into small spaces
Every city evolves differently, according to fluctuations in population and wealth, changes in industry and other social and economic factors. As old buildings are replaced, or new ones constructed, spaces between these buildings appear or alter; spaces that are either promptly integrated into the fabric of their environment or are left dormant and unused. Architonic examines how contemporary architects are capitalising on the benefits of these forgotten alleys, gaps and passages and transforming them into practical and desirable urban property.
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Ventura - the avant-garde brand of Swiss watches
Ventura, the avant-garde brand of Swiss watches, is back. The first "manufacture électronique" for high quality digital watches has recently presented, in the shape of the SPARC MGS, a timepiece which once more sets a new benchmark in chronometer design...
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Going Underground: Zumtobel sheds light on the Städel Museum's new subterranean extension
Lighting always has to work harder when it's deployed in underground spaces. But when the space in question is a museum one, where the considered illumination of its exhibits is key – not to mention their protection against the potentially damaging effects of lighting – you've got a real challenge on your hands. Here's how leading lighting manufacturer Zumtobel responded to such a brief...
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Internal Culture: design history revisited at London design showrooms during LDF 2012
While the London Design Festival's big-top design destinations, such as Super Brands London, Tent, designjunction and 100% Design pulled large crowds, a number of design brands used their city showrooms as spaces for serving up fascinating slices of design-historical culture. Here's some of what was on the menu.
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Park life: the evolving approach to designing urban public space
It could be argued that the pinnacle of urban landscape architecture was reached in seventeenth century France and the French formal gardens or in Britain's philantrophic Victorian public parks in the ninenteenth century. Contemporary urban architects and designers are rarely afforded the same amount of space, money and time as their antecedents. Here, Architonic looks at some recent successes that add value to their surroundings by pushing the boundaries of park design.
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Exhibition: GRAFT Architects – Distinct Ambiguity
To graft is a way of rethinking the seemingly irreconcilable. On this basis, Gregor Hoheisel, Christoph Körner, Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit have developed complex fusion methods and reinvigorated the contemporary discourse of design and architecture under the label GRAFT architects for over 13 years.
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