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Je ne regrette rien (most of the time, that is): Ronan Bouroullec in conversation with Architonic
'Regrets, I've had a few,' sang Sinatra in his classic ballad 'My Way', while Piaf famously insisted that she regretted absolutely nothing. Somewhere between these two lies Ronan Bouroullec, one half of the distinguished French go-to design duo, the Bouroullec Brothers. 'We've done a lot of disasters. But we've had the chance to do best-sellers, too. It's a mix, really,' he tells Architonic at the recent Cologne Furniture Fair.
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The Bearable Lightness of Being: Architonic meets Tokujin Yoshioka at imm cologne
'Maybe I don't like objects.' It's not every day you hear such a statement from a designer, particularly one as celebrated as Tokujin Yoshioka, who was recognised as A&W Designer of the Year 2011 during this year's imm cologne, But, then again, there's a certain (pleasing) contradiction in the design language of the Japanese creative's work, which, through its ongoing engagement with the ideas of transparency and lightness, gives expression to objects that sit somewhere between presence and absence. Architonic met up with Yoshioka in Cologne to trip the light fantastic.
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Help the Aged: innovative adaptive reuse in architecture
'Waste not, want not' is an expression that has become increasingly pertinent in recent years as economic conditions have forced many of us to tighten our belts and make the most of what we have, rather than constantly replacing old with new. This attitude of thrift extends to architecture in the form of adaptive reuse – the conversion of an old building into something better suited to contemporary requirements. Here, we examine some recently completed, ongoing and future projects that show how imagination and intelligent design can deliver striking transformative effects.
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Real Terms: the authentic approach of architects Carmody Groarke
'Emerging', 'the ones to watch' and 'the stars of tomorrow' are just some of the labels that have been applied of late to young London-based architectural practice Carmody Groarke. Founded just four years ago, the studio has more than proved its creative credentials by delivering a series of high-profile, conceptually strong projects, which serve to question as much as they resolve. As nice as it is to have one's work recognised, Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke maintain that 'staying close to the projects in hand are the things which we concern ourselves with. Not what people are saying about us.' Here, Architonic invites them to speak for themselves.
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Design Week in Jerusalem: Israeli creative talent on show
Ancient city. Contemporary design practice. Jerusalem's inaugural week-long design festival foregrounds once more Israel's conceptually confident and steadily growing design scene.
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Trade fair retrospective: BAU Munich 2011 - Section 1
At Bau 2011 the principal focus was very much on sustainability. For a long time now a large number of manufacturers have been responding to this trend and to the new ecological benchmarks, and at the fair environmentally certified products were firmly in the limelight.
In this first part and the following Section 2 of its look back on the fair, Architonic wishes to present an individual selection of the huge and varied spectrum of products on display at BAU, and at the same time provide you with a wide-ranging thematic overview.
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New Éire: Ireland's modernist self-fashioning revisited
Ireland is in a reflective mood these days. With the island nation on the edge of Europe facing up to the reality of a severely damaged economy and a decimated construction industry, nostalgia is doing what it's wont to do...
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Furniture with growth potential: extendable tables
Accommodating one or two people only or a group, extendable tables can be adapted to a romantic tète-a-tète, a family with children or even a large festive gathering. Here we present the various types and systems which are available.
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Déjà Vu All Over Again: two design shows look back
Another year over. But don't get all misty-eyed. Apply that retrospection to some engaging design instead. Two exhibitions currently running, one at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the other at the offices of MariniPandolfi/Comet in Florence, look back at the rapid expansion in design production and consumption in post-war France and the lighting designs of Italian design hero Vico Magistretti respectively. And retrospectively.
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Quiet Musings: Andres Lepik
A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums might no longer be in the business of pageantry. In this first part of a short series examining post-spectacle museums, Museum of Modern Art contemporary architecture curator Andres Lepik discusses his new show 'Small Scale, Big Change', and how its earnest perspective aligns with his department’s vision.
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Support Structures: architecture's role in the healing process
Good architecture creates environments that are, among other things, enjoyable to spend time in and practical to use, and in no scenario is this more important than the provision of treatment or support for those dealing with illness or trauma. Architonic examines some of the ways in which intelligent architecture and design can help to ensure a positive prognosis for the future of healthcare by creating buildings that are good for body and mind.
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Helvetian Heroes: enduring Swiss design
It's fair to say that certain countries have, over the years, been more successful than others in terms of marketing a distinctive and compelling national design identity abroad. The very human kind of modernism expressed in the furniture of postwar Scandinavia, for example, is still very much associated in the international imagination with those Nordic countries, contemporary Scandi design profiting from this legacy as far as consumer interest is concerned...
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Bucharest: The 2010 Mix
In the world of design, China's rapid-manufacturing prowess and the oil-fuelled 'tabula rasa' urban developments of countries such as the UAE and Kazakhstan have given cause for thought in a typically Western-dominated field. But what of the countries bridging East and West? What of their design credentials? Turkey may grab the headlines for its EU tug-of-war and glossy design events, but it is the independent, cut-and-paste eclecticism of one of its Black Sea neighbours – Romania – that is capturing the imagination of those interested in grassroots design with a soul.
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Book review: The Story of Eames Furniture
In the new two-volume work 'The Story of Eames Furniture' by Marilyn Neuhart and John Neuhart the authors take a journey through time, going back both to the early beginnings of modern furniture design and to their own past...
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Same But Different: furniture that repeats on you
In his analysis of how pleasure works, Freud argued that repetition – the act of doing or experiencing something over and over again – can, in its compulsiveness, be highly enjoyable. The grandaddy of psychoanalysis might, in that case, have enjoyed a number of designs presented at last month's Interieur 2010 design biennale, which play with the idea of repetition, both formally and in terms of the notion of play itself.
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![When We Were Young: [D3] Design Contest at imm cologne](http://image.architonic.com/imgTre/01_11/_DSC5381-bearbeitet-teaser.jpg)
When We Were Young: [D3] Design Contest at imm cologne
Punching well above their weight this year at imm cologne were the young guns exhibiting in the sixth edition of the [D3] Design Contest, the platform for emerging international design talent. Here, we talk to one of the two joint-winners, Harry Thaler, plus select some of the most interesting designs from the convincing and highly polished body of creative work on show.
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Robin Day: 1915–2010
Robin Day, one of Britain's greatest designers, whose illustrious career spanned seven decades, dies at the age of 95
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Who? Me?: the multiple identities of Jephson Robb
His very first furniture design – for established American brand Bernhardt Design – is an exercise in form follows comfort. Once you're sitting on Jephson Robb's new 'Amri' chair, it's seriously hard to get up again. This invitation to stay put for a while is rather ironic, given the restless career of the Scottish artist-designer, which has seen him study at the Royal College of Art and work in London's finance sector, create a number of public artworks, design websites and develop a handy product for hairdressers. Confused? Then, read on.
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This Product Can Change Your Life: the d.light story
Imagine, as a manufacturer, that your potential market is two billion consumers worldwide. This almost inconceivable figure is the ultimate scale of d.light's ambition, a consumer-products company set up by a pair of social entrepreneurs in 2007 to design and product lighting solutions for the one in four people on this planet who live without electricity. With two million lives already positively affected by d.light's innovative solar-powered lamps and counting, the company's story is only just beginning. Architonic spoke to co-founder and CEO Sam Goldman about this life-changing project.
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Man of the Cloth: Cristian Zuzunaga talks textile and more
In the (unfortunate) hierarchy of design disciplines – just ask any architect and they'll confirm this – textile design has traditionally occupied a less-than-superior position. Spanish-born Londoner Cristian Zuzunaga has been troubling the creative order of things recently, however, with his conceptually and technically innovative work for such leading textile manfuacturers as Kvadrat and Nanimarquina. Architonic met up with Zuzunaga at the Design Post in Cologne during this year's Orgatec fair to pick at some threads.
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